DONT MESS WITH CRAIG FAIRBRASS FOR HE IS “THE OUTSIDER”

Don’t be confused by the lack of an S at the end, this isn’t a reboot of the S.E  Hinton story that Coppola directed. There will be no PonyBoy here, no coming of age to mention of. Rather you get Lex an English military contractor who travels to Los Angeles to identify the body of his daughter. When he notices the deceased isn’t his daughter, The Englishmen in a foreign land must utilize his unique skill set to get his daughter back. Does all this sound familiar? Well you are wrong there is a huge difference from anything you might have previously seen. Most notably Lex’s daughter Samantha is hiding, at no point was she taken, a more appropriate title would have been Taken 3 you killed the wrong roommate and now the one you thought you killed is hiding of course it could also be called “Hidden”

I saw this cold the only thing I could go off was the Poster. Let’s just say the poster misrepresents the film to such a point I thought I was watching the wrong movie, at no point is Caan in front of explosions holding a sniper rifle, I call Bravo Sierra on this ‘artwork’. The tagline is actually clever it says OutGunned, Outnumbered, Out for Blood. I took this literally, I thought this would be an epic bloodbath consisting of non descript Americans getting blown away. Keep moving there is no blood to see here. Lex is out for blood though, he is searching for his daughter.

For B-movie fare of this caliber a surprisingly strong cast was assembled the long forgotten Jason Patric (who would have thought it would be so tough for him to rebound from Speed 2 while Sandy got a pass) and Hollywood luminary James Caan. Though you would have no idea based on the poster they both take a backseat to Craig Fairbrass yes the Craig Fairbrass why you ask, he wrote the story it’s his Rocky.  I give him credit though if you look at his IMDB page you will see he has being going at it for 34 years or since the age of 16 he is an imposing 50 year old. The story leaves room for improvement at one point Caan kicks the crap out of a member of his security detail, a guy who happens to be twice his size and more than half his age. Lex is a stereotypical bad ass if you show up he will beat you down. I forgot to mention the other headlining actor Shannon Elizabeth who proves that showing your tits in the right movie can propel a career a decade longer than it deserved. She really stretches her acting muscles as a stripper who gets paid to help Lex and pose as an escort. Really groundbreaking work.

The entire film is pretty typical except for the genre except for one key issue. Everyone is so intent on finding Lex’s daughter yet nobody care or passes judgment on her for getting her roommate killed. They don’t notify her parents that she got killed. The movie ends with everyone all smiles yet never acknowledges the elephant in the room. The roommate died as a direct result of the daughter having her stand in for her.  Her entire existence was strictly to become a plot device.

Typical standard straight to dvd action flick, the hero can’t get hurt, people die a bloodless death. This is the type of movie that could have starred Steven Seagal, Liam  Neeson, The entire cast of Expendables one and twoo or anyone else who plays in this sandbox yet it all rests on the shoulders of Craig Fairbrass who despite everything does move it along nicely.

Grade-67