Between My Big Fat Greek Wedding to Crazy Rich Asians, family comedies about meeting one’s in-laws might not have reinvented the scary, pressure-cooker experience so many undergo, but they undoubtedly set a high bar with their flawless charm. For years, studios have tried their hardest to resuscitate the classic comedy brimming with memorable one-liners and slapstick humor in a landscape of blockbuster franchises, yet nothing stands out on its own. Though many might fuel these comedies with star power, there is a whole roster of films that just fall short of their delivery, much like Netflix’s newest action-comedy, The Out-Laws. Starring Adam DeVine, Pierce Brosnan, Ellen Barkin, and Nina Dobrev, the 90-minute feature from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison is often laugh-out-loud but it falls victim to formulaic tropes and boilerplate writing that doesn’t add anything significant to the genre.

Boasting an incredible cast, rounded out brilliantly by Poorna Jagannathan, Michael Rooker, Richard Kind, Julie Hagerty, and Lil Rel Howery, the film looks promising on the surface. After all, it’s got everything an action-packed summer comedy should have as it attempts to put an intense spin on Meet the Parents. However, in brushing aside the humor, The Out-Laws becomes more involved in its efforts than the actual execution. This flattens many of the details that could potentially make it memorable. The movie takes some very hard turns and at times will go 100 miles per hour in a cul de sac, but not in a way that is natural to the absurdities grounded in reality.

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‘The Out-Laws’ Escalates Quickly
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With sitcom-like execution from director Tyler Spindel and a script by Ben Zazove and Evan Turner that asks too much of its cast, The Out-Laws stars DeVine as Owen Browning, a straight-laced bank manager about to marry the love of his life, Parker (Dobrev). However, throughout their entire relationship and time together, he hasn’t met her parents — as if that wasn’t a major red flag. It’s also one of the weird parts of the movie considering Owen’s personality is very by the book and that dynamic with Parker is unequivocally contradictory to who he is portrayed to be. Owen’s parents (played by Kind and Hagerty) soon encourage him to reach out to Parker’s parents ahead of the ceremony.

However, things take a major turn after Owen makes a phone call to a storage locker facility holding Parker’s belongings. As luck would have it, his soon-to-be-in-laws, Billy (Brosnan) and Lilly (Barkin) suddenly show up. Through some very brief interactions with Parker’s parents the night before and a moment that finds Owen drunk out of his mind spilling secrets about his bank, the hapless character is soon in the midst of a robbery masterminded by a pair of masked gunmen, believed to be the Ghost Bandits — a pair of notorious, high-tech thieves known for their elaborate robberies. As the robbery unfolds and Owen observes the situation carefully, he gets a feeling that Billy and Lilly might actually be behind the robbery and works his hardest to prove it. Unfortunately, along the way of his figuring things out and pinning them to the bank robbery, Parker gets kidnapped, which forces Owen to team up with her parents on a questionable crime spree to save her.

When it comes to the casting of The Out-Laws, the film employs some really solid talent that gives it their all. But it asks too much from them and it isn’t fair. Instead, what we get is a lopsided action-comedy with actors who can be really funny and lean into absurdities, but a storyline that is weak and at times uneven. With a permeating lack of substance, the cast is the only glue that binds this film together. DeVine, who currently stars in The Righteous Gemstones, is as always hilarious and manages to almost save the film with his boyish charm even if the script mismanages his talent. Reminiscent of Jim Carrey from the ‘90s mixed with real-world neuroticism, DeVine helps steer The Out-Laws to where it needs to be for an often enjoyable, hearty 90 minutes. His chemistry with everyone works quite well, particularly his interactions with Brosnan and Barkin.

Ellen Barkin and Pierce Brosnan are Underutilized in ‘The Out-Laws’
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The two veteran actors are at the top of their game with the material, offering some very sly, deadpan delivery that complements DeVine’s standup experience. But it also feels like Brosnan gets more growth and understanding than Barkin’s character, who is often left to the wayside much like Dobrev’s. Both women are incredible talents outside this film, but The Out-Laws doesn’t make much use of them. In how we see Brosnan grow irritated by DeVine and the two have some very funny scenes together, we don’t see a lot of that similar interaction with him or Dobrev. Again, this is reflective of a script that is imbalanced, particularly in its writing of women, and missing some crucial elements of a movie riffing on Meet the Parents.

Brosnan gets to shine a lot in this film, almost as much as DeVine. With the former James Bond actor dipping his toes in comedy and notably, being a big fan of the genre, he definitely elevates the writing as much as he can. There are some very funny scenes he shares with Kind that make the movie enjoyable. Kind’s history in comedy has paid off in this film as he knows exactly how to land a joke and with the blend of his personality and Hagerty’s, the two heighten the scenes they share and make for some laugh-out-loud moments. Fans can also expect an appearance from DeVine’s Workaholics co-star, Blake Anderson, as Owen’s goofy cousin. Of course, Owen is not without his own set of friends at work, including Howery as a bumbling security guard who wants to do anything but secure the area, and Laci Mosley as one of the bank tellers whose fierce sass sets the two in their place. Howery and Mosley bring a nice balance to DeVine’s uneasiness and manage to work with what they’re given.

Audiences will get a kick out of Rooker’s character, FBI agent Roger Oldham, who’s on the trail of the Ghost Bandits and manages to work with DeVine. Though his character falls into the age-old trope of “divorced detective wants his wife back,” he makes it work most comically and with timing that plays well to DeVine’s. Jagannathan as Rehan, the Ghost Bandits’ rival and Parker’s kidnapper does a great job and is one of the most underrated actresses of our time. While she is funny and creates some eccentric evil villain quirks, the female character again is not well fleshed out. In so many ways, she could have had a stronger personality being the movie’s main villain, but instead, she is very one-dimensional despite Jagannathan giving her everything. This is symptomatic and almost an extension of writing in the male gaze where women are not full figures. Rehan has the hots for Billy and makes lewd jokes about him. Meanwhile, Lauren Lapkus is a manager of a rival bank who orgasms at the opening of a vault she shows Owen. Sure, she is a fierce boss like Rehan, both at the top of their careers, respectively. But in these interactions, the men are tame and appear off-put by the behavior of a woman owning her sexuality and making her moves, reducing the comedy to being about the expectations of women in society who are still entrenched in societal norms.

‘The Out-Laws’ Is Another Misfire for Netflix
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As Owen’s buttoned-up personality clashes with Billy and Lilly, The Out-Laws follows one of the more platitudinous premises that we’ve seen in countless wedding comedies. The script offers audiences nothing new in terms of mystery or suspense and relies too much on its tropes to lead the characters. In so many ways it feels redundant and pushes Netflix further into the twilight zone of straight-to-VOD comedies that has, in recent years, become an obscure purgatory for good actors in bad movies. By no means does The Out-Laws attempt to sit on par with Father of the Bride or Meet the Parents with their charming simplicity that strikes a nerve, but it still has its moments of heart, though they are few and far between.

Throughout the entire film, none of the characters evolve much, nor do their actions offer any depth. Instead, we are subjected to a lot of fluff to cover up these missteps and find ourselves in some very eccentric situations, like a wedding bakery shootout that features a very funny appearance from Betsy Sodoro and Jackie Sandler and an intense, jaw-dropping, car chase scene through a cemetery. The scene badly wants to recreate the Farrelly Brothers’ style of comedy with its exaggerated irreverence at play, but it only works with DeVine’s sweaty and apologetic anxiety.

The Out-Laws has a workable premise with a great star-studded cast led by a sincere DeVine and is funny with great potential outside its humor. But it never hits the mark and only works in pieces due to recycled ideas and formulaic tropes across clichéd writing. The film works hard to be likable but it takes some heartbreakingly lazy turns that don’t elevate the story or its characters. Because of this, it’s hard to tell what the movie wants to be and just how far it can go with a basic premise.

Rating: C-

The Out-Laws is now streaming on Netflix.