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OUTLANDER - support this movie!
16 years ago
General
Just watched this again on DVD ... MAN this is a great film. The problem is, in all likelihood hardly any of you lot have even heard of it, outside those I've already touted it to. And even then ...
So anyway ... for those of you not in the know (most of you, of course), Outlander was one of this year's pre-Summer releases that got criminally overlooked on its release. It's wonderfully high-concept - Jim Caviezel (yeah, him who was once Jesus Christ under Mel Gibson) stars as Kainan, an alien astronaut who crash-lands in Dark Age Norway, inadvertently bringing with him a stowaway monster that sets about massacring the local population, which means Kainan has to join forces with the local Vikings to stop it ...
I know, I know, it sounds so super-cheesy and throwaway - indeed writer/director Howard McCain had this screenplay on the slow-burn ever since the early 90s before it finally got picked up for MUCH LESS than his intended budget - but it WORKS. This is a FUN FILM, pure and simple. It's from the Conan the Barbarian school of fantasy film-making - subtle as a brick, enjoyably violent without ever being gratuitously nasty, and it never takes itself too seriously ... and yet, at the same time, it features some truly memorable characters, played with gusto by a proper high-quality cast. This movie has a substantial, on-his-game turn from John Hurt for God's sake! And Hellboy's Ron Perlman shows up halfway through to be his usual charmingly broody self ...
But it's Caviezel's central turn as Kainan that really sells this film. He's the hero, certainly, but he's not particularly likeable - this is a man out for revenge, pure and simple - the beast, Morwen, slaughtered his whole settlement, but there's more to his aggro-angst than just grief (but I won't give anything more away because that would spoil one hell of a cool twist). Caviezel's always been a really watchable actor, but I don't think I've ever taken to one of his characters so easily.
And the monster's class, too. It's not a classic Xenomorphesque spindly spider-beasty like you'd get from a Giger-style sci-fi horror flick - Kainan gets the idea of the Morwen across to the Vikings by calling it a dragon, and that's a pretty apt description. This beasty's a quadruped for starters, all taut muscles and arched, predatory back, but more than that it's got this really cool thing with a built-in bioluminescence that gives it a really unique look ... best movie monster this year for me, so far at least ...
This movie really has been massively short-changed this year. It snuck into the cinema well under the radar and maybe did a week or two of business before disappearing again, then we didn't hear anything from it again until it came out again on DVD, once again with very little fanfare. If there's any justice it's destined for future cult greatness, but it could just as easily vanish without a trace ... SO HERE, NOW, I RULE WE BEGIN TO CAMPAIGN FOR SOME RECOGNITION FOR THIS GREAT FILM! Seriously, check it out. Track it down on DVD, watch it. A few times. Really get to love it. Then tell your friends. Blog it something rotten ... we need to save this film from obscurity!
God knows it deserves it ...
So anyway ... for those of you not in the know (most of you, of course), Outlander was one of this year's pre-Summer releases that got criminally overlooked on its release. It's wonderfully high-concept - Jim Caviezel (yeah, him who was once Jesus Christ under Mel Gibson) stars as Kainan, an alien astronaut who crash-lands in Dark Age Norway, inadvertently bringing with him a stowaway monster that sets about massacring the local population, which means Kainan has to join forces with the local Vikings to stop it ...
I know, I know, it sounds so super-cheesy and throwaway - indeed writer/director Howard McCain had this screenplay on the slow-burn ever since the early 90s before it finally got picked up for MUCH LESS than his intended budget - but it WORKS. This is a FUN FILM, pure and simple. It's from the Conan the Barbarian school of fantasy film-making - subtle as a brick, enjoyably violent without ever being gratuitously nasty, and it never takes itself too seriously ... and yet, at the same time, it features some truly memorable characters, played with gusto by a proper high-quality cast. This movie has a substantial, on-his-game turn from John Hurt for God's sake! And Hellboy's Ron Perlman shows up halfway through to be his usual charmingly broody self ...
But it's Caviezel's central turn as Kainan that really sells this film. He's the hero, certainly, but he's not particularly likeable - this is a man out for revenge, pure and simple - the beast, Morwen, slaughtered his whole settlement, but there's more to his aggro-angst than just grief (but I won't give anything more away because that would spoil one hell of a cool twist). Caviezel's always been a really watchable actor, but I don't think I've ever taken to one of his characters so easily.
And the monster's class, too. It's not a classic Xenomorphesque spindly spider-beasty like you'd get from a Giger-style sci-fi horror flick - Kainan gets the idea of the Morwen across to the Vikings by calling it a dragon, and that's a pretty apt description. This beasty's a quadruped for starters, all taut muscles and arched, predatory back, but more than that it's got this really cool thing with a built-in bioluminescence that gives it a really unique look ... best movie monster this year for me, so far at least ...
This movie really has been massively short-changed this year. It snuck into the cinema well under the radar and maybe did a week or two of business before disappearing again, then we didn't hear anything from it again until it came out again on DVD, once again with very little fanfare. If there's any justice it's destined for future cult greatness, but it could just as easily vanish without a trace ... SO HERE, NOW, I RULE WE BEGIN TO CAMPAIGN FOR SOME RECOGNITION FOR THIS GREAT FILM! Seriously, check it out. Track it down on DVD, watch it. A few times. Really get to love it. Then tell your friends. Blog it something rotten ... we need to save this film from obscurity!
God knows it deserves it ...
