Netflix announced a few months ago that it was going to jump hard into original movie territory. The subscription streaming service plans to release 80 movies this year, and has already put out a ton, including the recent genre flick Mute. This week, the service is jumping into yakuza films with a movie starring Jared Leto as an outsider learning how to blend in to the Japanese underworld. The movie is officially out on March 9, but a few outlets have already released reviews for the flick, discussing the pace and plot of the movie, as well as the performances. If you'd like to read about what the critics are thinking, you can check out a look at some of their thoughts, below.
Frank Scheck over at THR says that the movie often looks great, but it's so slow the whole thing becomes tedious, noting,
The glacially-paced film is beautifully photographed and features impeccable production and costume design, but it strains so mightily for seriousness that it verges on self-parody.
At JoBlo, Chris Bumbray is a little more hopeful about the film, noting he had high expectations and that the flick does have some positive notes, but he also marks The Outsider as more of "a telefilm," which isn't exactly a compliment. More from that review:
It's still worth watching, as Leto's performance is excellent, as is Asano's, and there are a few interesting scenes (including the yubitsume ritual where offenders cut off their fingers to atone for misdeeds). Still, it's not the slam dunk you'd think it was given the heat on the script when the package was being assembled.
Over at IGN, William Bibbiani has a really catchy reason for disliking the flick, noting it's a "dreary genre" exercise, before really hitting home with this comment:
Organized crime may be organized, but it's hard to imagine that it's actually as dull as The Outsider makes it out to be. It's an environment in which people both live and die at the extreme end of the human experience, and yet everyone solemnly trudges from one locale to another, grimly accepting the formula of their lives.
Overall, reviews for The Outsider have been not-so-hot. Even the nicer critical comments have not been stunning, which has happened with a lot of Netflix products of late. In general, however, sometimes the audience reviews for Netflix movies have been a bit brighter. This movie only got a trailer a few weeks ago, so we haven't heard much about the film yet. Depending on your taste in genre films, it may still be worth a watch, but you probably shouldn't go in assuming it's going to be the next Academy Award nominee.
Catch The Outsider tomorrow at 3 a.m. PT, and check out what else is heading to Netflix with our full schedule.
