Out of Exile

This film is your generic bank robbery thriller but it does add a little flavor itself with a plot of about a man finding a way to redeem himself for his past transgressions while also trying to find a way to escape his criminal lifestyle before it is too late. This kinda of plot is a little different compared most bank robbery films as they are usually about guys trying to make it rich while escaping the law. This film does it differently as Gabe is trying get out of his previous bad deeds but also move on with his life and start a new one with his estranged daughter. Now I did enjoy the performances by Adam Hampton and Ryan Merriman both, I liked the story that Gabe had in this film as he is broken man that has paid for his mistakes by serving prison but due to not knowing life outside of crime, he goes right back into it. It is only when his brother botches the bank job and kills an armored bank guard does he see the errors of his ways. This story of Gabe is really a story of redemption and rebirth. As he tries to redeem himself from his sins by trying to fix all of the issues that he caused plus he plans to get himself a rebirth by starting a whole new life without crime involved. Now Adam's performance is very strong in this film and you can tell that he truly embraced the character that he is acting as. Which I very well enjoyed. Now Ryan Merriman may have just had the best performance of his career in this film. As Merriman usually is an actor who casted in very small time b Rated films or horror movies and isn't really take serious as a A-listed actor. But his performance in this movie was quite impressive as he plays an intimidating and cunning FBI agent very well. In fact as audience member I was blown away with how convincing his performance was as he looked intimidating onscreen which is incredible to say given Merriman's previous work. But hopefully this film may open the door for Ryan Merriman to have more serious and A-graded roles in the future. Now the one problem that I had with the movie was its ending as I felt it was a little too dark and depressing especially after the redemption arc that the story takes you on plus the ending is one of the those open ended cliffhangers that make you have to have own interpretation. I don't mind open ended films if they are necessary, I just didn't think that this film needed an open ended ending and should have had a more grounded and solid structured ending instead. But that is just my critique and opinion on the film. Overall though I had a decent fun time with this film and I could definitely see myself watching it again.

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.

This is a very well-made film. (solid acting, directing and story) I was pleasantly surprised by this film. Good storyline about bank robbers in TX. The movie did an excellent job of keeping consistent pace and the acting was pretty good. Also, I appreciated the fact that it had more character development and was a slow burn that did not feel slow. Directing and story-line well-made, and the twists and turns in the movie were effective and with purpose. I would actually recommend watching this one if you like a good thriller that has a nice storyline to it. Excellent work here and would like to see more like these.

Nothing original here. It's a recycled regurgitated story we've seen over and over again.

The sound editing is choppy and inconsistent. Especially during the stripper scene using crisp new dollar bills?!!

Actors acting and overacting. The bouncing camera gets tired and nauseating especially during the garage scene. At this point it's no longer watchable. The news reporter during the bar scene was awful and the bar fight argument was so over the top over or under acting it's hard to tell. Mixed with the bouncing camera is nauseating.

It's officially unwatchable at this point.

For a highschool or first year film school it would get a 4 or 5/10 at best. The script and story is tired. I can't even social media with it on in the background.

The high rating reviews are extremely exaggerated just like the acting.

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!