HIGH DEF UNIVERSE

Reviewed by Allie Schembra

Recalled from the battlefields of Afghanistan to identify the remains of his daughter, British mercenary Lex Walker (Craig Fairbrass) arrives in Los Angeles to find that the body in the morgue belongs to a stranger. With his daughter now missing, Walker convinces a street-wise detective (Jason Patric) that is daughter is still alive and in danger. The two follow a trail of high-tech intrigue that leads him to his daughter’s former boss (James Caan), a crooked cyber-millionaire who will do whatever it takes to protect his empire – including taking down anyone who gets in the way. Driven by his desperation and rage, Walker must fight his way through an army of thugs and hired killers to save the one person that means more to him than life itself.

Lex Walker, a British mercenary stationed in Afghanistan, receives a message that his daughter has been found dead of a drug overdose in Los Angeles. He immediately heads to L.A. to identify the body, but when he arrives, the dead girl is not his daughter, Sam. Convinced she is still alive, her tracks down her last phone call, which was to her boss, Mr. Schuuster. Walker goes to speak with Schuuster and gets the run around. After being forcibly removed from the building, Walker is taken in and questioned by the police. There he meets Detective Klein, who he convinces that Sam is still alive. Klein releases him telling him to stay away from Schuuster.

In the meantime, Walker is tracking down all the places Sam could have gone and finds Margo, a waitress in a bar who knows where she might be… or at least who he could talk to to find her. She takes him to a club, where he meets Sam’s boyfriend. The boyfriend runs away, and when Walker catches up to him, convinces him that he is not there to hurt him, he just wants to talk and find out what he knows about Sam. After escaping an ambush, Walker and his new cohorts track down Sam’s location and, after a brief scuffle, the two are reunited.

Sam explains why she disappeared and that it has everything to do with some illegal business Schuuster is handling. She tells her father that the only way for her to finish what she’s started is to go to Schuuster’s house and access t computer system from them. The group makes a plan and while Margo distracts Schuuster, Sam and Walker sneak upstairs into the home office. Outside, Klein has figured out that Schuuster does have something to do with the murder of the girl on the beach and Sam’s disappearance. As he prepares to enter Schuuster’s home, all hell breaks loose and people end up dead or injured.

The Outsider, while full of plot holes and a strangely unbelievable storyline is, to say the least, entertaining. I’m not quite sure what the point of Jason Patric’s character was, other than to provide a bit of filler, but I am a fan of his, so I didn’t mind too much. The acting wasn’t terrible, but of course no one is going to win any awards for it. It was an interesting movie with a bit of action that held my attention for 90 minutes.

The Outsider is presented in 1080p High-Definition Widescreen 2.40:1. Lines were sharp and during the action scenes there was no blurring. Colors were bright were they needed to be and blended well with each other.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 was pretty good. Gunshots were a little too loud, but for the most part, I could hear everything said. Background sounds were not too overwhelming and all the dialogue could be easily heard.

There are no special features for The Outsider

The Outsider is an entertaining movie to watch when you just want to watch something to keep you occupied. It’s a movie to put on in the background and watch a few minutes of, here and there. If you miss a couple minutes, you aren’t missing any major plot points and can easily catch up without rewinding. Don’t over-analyze it and you will enjoy it.