Out of Exile

Had the pleasure of watching this on the big screen. Kyle Kauwika Harris nailed it once again. The cast all played perfect parts that I feel were made for them. Hats off to the entire team that put this together. The movie touches on so many complex subjects of why each person is going down the path they are on. Whether it be childhood trauma, broken brother bonds, PTSD and the effects of war, love, friendship, hate, fear, wanting a better life, children. The characters have their reasons, sometimes surprising you on how deep those reasons run. The writing makes you feel this and root for the "bad guy". Best independent film to come out of Oklahoma in a long time. Bravo, everyone!

Clearly this was a low budget B film, and I can accept that, but I've never seen a film take such a fall in the final act as this film did. It actually had a decent score for a B film, and the cinematography was good. Writer and director Kyle Kauwika Harris did a fairly decent job directing, but failed to direct his cast properly, as most barely looked awake or wanting to be in the film, specifically Adam Hampton, who's acting was the worst, and was the most unconvincing character of them all. Not sure why he was cast as the lead.

This film needed lots of editing and cutting down, because there just wasn't enough meaty narrative to effectively fill in the 107 min runtime, and the snail speed pacing made it feel much longer. Although this story had nothing new to offer that hasn't been done many times before, and much better, at least the first two acts had a cohesive narrative, albeit cliched with the many unnecessary and mostly time-wasting sub plots and familiar genre tropes.

But Kauwika's third act unraveled so bad with tons of plot holes, and became convoluted so bad, it created more questions than answers. It tried to be smart, but failed. It's like Kauwika threw everything and the kitchen sink into the final act, hoping something would stick, and got too lazy to wrap up the viewers impatient investment of the first two acts, into a cohesive resolution. So much didn't make any sense in that third act. Had Kauwika wrapped up the narrative without the easily avoidable plot holes, I could've easily given this a 6 or a 7/10. But investing my time only to end up with an unsatisfied ending with more questions than answers, was annoying. Don't waste your time with this like I did.

I love a good cops & robbers thriller with a splash of heist action and Kyle Kauwika Harris 's Out Of Exile is just the ticket. Set against the backdrop of both the Oklahoma law enforcement and criminal underworld scene, it tells of paroled ex-con Gabriel (Adam Hampton) taking on scores to provide a better life for his daughter and resolute FBI agent Solomon (Ryan Merriman) who is determined to take him and his crew down, while also doing right by his own family. Gabriel works under the behest, intel and malevolent watch of underworld boss Whitman Rader, played by the always amazing Peter Greene in one of the meatiest, most memorably evil roles he's gotten in quite sometime. I love a crime film where the lines of what we perceive as morality are purposefully blurred until there is no discernible 'good or bad', just people in tough situations making impossible choices and living with the consequences, or dying with them. This is a taut, ruthlessly tense action picture with shootouts, bullet wounds and hand to hand combat that feels heavy, realistic and brutal. Hampton brings a harried, soulful quality and formidable physicality to his role, you believe this guy's fortitude in his goals and feel every agonizing thing go wrong alongside him every step of the way, until the final hauntingly ambiguous beat to his character arc. The supporting performances are all solidly intense, with Greene being the standout he usually is as an absolute snake and the last guy you'd want bankrolling your operation, even throwing in a subtle yet noticeable reference to his Usual Suspects character, who was also a fence. Director Harris has a feel for hard hitting action, bluntly profane real-world dialogue and uses a nervy, darkly ambient score by Corey Perschbacher to accent his action in high style. I am reminded of John Hillcoat's woefully underrated cops & robbers flick Triple 9 here, both this and that have a poetically melancholic, downbeat, almost noir emotional and atmospheric vernacular in the best possible way. Highly recommended.

Out of Exile is garbage. It immediately reeks of streaming-level quality. I thought about quitting 15 minutes in. I should have. Every aspect of this movie is bad.

The acting (and overacting) are the easiest giveaway. The story seems like it was written by artificial intelligence, copying parts of other movies of the genre. The "action" scenes are useless. The only good thing I can think of is it was able to get me invested in the lead character and his relationship with his daughter. Otherwise, it's pretty much a waste of time.

Streaming services are ruining my love for movies. I would guess somewhere around 90% are terrible, 9% are mediocre, and 1% are actually good. I think going forward I will only watch theatrical movies unless I hear multiple recommendations for a streaming movie. (1 viewing, 3/26/2023)

I rented this on release. Overall the film is trite. I found myself losing interest several times because it tended to drag in spots. I feel it could have been cut down shorter. The Protagonist Gabriel comes across as an aloof delivering an incredibly underwhelming performance. This could be perhaps the Actor seemingly more befitting as a Character Actor than a leading man. The brother Wes was a hot headed Veteran with ptsd. As a Veteran myself this was ridiculous. Stereotypes surrounding mental illness such as ptsd and the way this was portrayed was one dimensional and stereotypical of the "Dangerous" unhinged Veteran. The Character lacked depth and I found myself watching an Actor attempting to act mental illness and pop pills. His physicality came across more like someone on Cocaine then living with the challenges of ptsd. I didn't believe it. The Antagonist played by Peter Greene as Whitman Rader kept this film afloat. His Character came across gritty and believable. I found myself wanting to see him more as his Character was interesting. Had it not been for him I would have turned it off. Overall the film is nothing new. The plot, the heist story we've been fed many times before. However, if you are going to give it to me make it worth my investment of $6.99. If you're bored and can find nothing else to watch then add this to your list of disposable forgettable content being put out. Out of Exile gets 1 Star. I debated giving it 2, but just couldn't get over the stupid unbelievable Character Wes.