"The Out-Laws" fireman's carried by cast energy

The Out-Laws (2023)

There are roughly three types of comedies: the ones where you laugh nonstop and need to see again just to hear the jokes you missed; the ones that end up being a dead zone of unfunniness; and then there are the ones where you laugh just enough. “The Out-Laws” falls into that latter camp. 

The art of a tightly written, well-directed comedy with setups and payoffs isn’t dead (“Game Night,” hello?), but most of today’s movie comedies rely on talented casts and think that’s enough. Director Tyler Spindel (“The Wrong Missy”), Adam Sandler’s nephew, and writers Ben Zazove and Evan Turner do strike luck with who they have selling this riff on “Meet the Parents,” especially in the margins. It’s hit-and-miss and ultimately negligible but a cheerfully dopey and fitfully amusing formula action-comedy being fireman’s carried by its cast of game players. 

Zanily played by Adam DeVine as strait-laced as he can be, bank manager Owen Browning is about to get married to his yogi girlfriend Parker (Nina Dobrev). He’s excited that Parker’s off-the-grid parents are actually coming to the wedding now, and he gets to finally meet them. When Parker has to work and Owen shows them around, it turns out that his future in-laws, the adorably named Billy (Pierce Brosnan) and Lilly (Ellen Barkin), are edgy, hard-drinking adrenaline junkies. Oh, and they might be legendary bank robbers known as “The Ghost Bandits” who have just robbed from Owen’s bank. As the title suggests, these in-laws are…out-laws. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com

Grade: C +

Netflix released "The Out-Laws" (95 min.) to stream on July 7, 2023.