Rent Outlaw (2007)

Violent British drama - Outlaw review by CP Customer

Sean Bean is a soldier returning from Iraq, only to find his life is not as he left it. He comes across a group of men who have all been bullied, intimidated or humiliated in different circumstances and encourages them to stand up for themselves. They form a gang called the 'Outlaws' who are trying to set the world to rights. Their methods are generally violent and they soon become the subject of a media frenzy. A good story and pacy film with a particularly good role for Sean Bean.

Good Film - Outlaw review by CP Customer

Danny Dyer plays a different role in this film. Best british film i seen for a while worth the watch. Sean Bean good in this film aswell.

A horrifically violent, relentlessly nasty & illogical film - Outlaw review by TB

By a country mile the worst of Nick Love & Danny Dyer's collaborations together and that's really a low bar to beat.

Sean Bean stars as Bryant, a soldier returning from Iraq back to the UK, into a country he barely recognises. But whilst there is massive potential with this idea, especially at a time when the fallout from Iraq was still so raw, instead we descend into a sick and depraved story of grisly and graphic violence, with at times unbelievable comparisons.

For example, when Bryant gathers his group of vigilantes together, the most charitable thing to say is that they have had very different life experiences. One of the characters, a barrister, has had his pregnant wife murdered by a drug baron in one of the most nasty pieces of screen violence imaginable. Another character, played by Mr Dyer, has felt compelled to join the group because he was involved in a road rage incident. And in the film's eyes, these two characters have comparable trauma which causes them to take the law into their own hands...

The rest of the film just descends into farce. Characters are introduced, given an annoying or brief backstory then bumped off. Sean Harris, so remarkable in films like '71 and Harry Brown, is pretty much given the brief "Be the most disgusting, unlikeable, irredeemable person imaginable" and we are expected to take on face value that Bryant would not only put him in the group but also want him within 100 miles of him.

And of course we get the shootout at the end, full of clichés and ending exactly as you'd expect.

BUT, there is one saving grace of this film in the most unlikely place: the commentary with Dyer and Love is like something out of the Derek and Clive school of comedy, with both of them trying to "Out-geezer" each other.

However, as funny as that is, it doesn't detract from just how horrible this film is. And we aren't even in so bad it's good territory. It's just a nasty, nasty violent mess.