Outrage

This is ostensibly the story of a man's fight to defend himself and his family against three punks who have decided to make a target of him. What the story is really about is one of the problems with our legal system -- specifically the manner in which the police and the courts deal with juvenile criminals.

An independent insurance salesman named Tom Casey (Rob Lowe) is targeted by three well-to-do preppies that like to boost car stereos and trash other peoples' property for kicks. Casey observed the kids about to break into a car and reported their activities to the police. The cops arrive just in time to see the three breaking into Casey's car, with the head kid fondling a loaded revolver Casey kept under the front seat.

The cops arrest the trio of Yuppie larva for breaking into Casey's car and we learn that the head slime's mommy is a lawyer. A Rich Lawyer.

Casey, whose car has been completely trashed by the time the cops arrive, is arrested and charged with felony possession of a loaded handgun, for which he draws fifteen days in the lockup thanks to the truly lame defense offered by his brother-in-law.

Meanwhile, Mommy goes to Family Court and gets the charges against her Little Darling reduced to a wrist slap. Money fixes all, the kids walk away laughing and singing `I Love New York,' and get on with the serious business of harassing Casey's pregnant wife.

The remainder of the story unfolds in a fairly predictable manner, with so-so performances from the kids and a very good performance from Lowe.

The moral of this story seems to be, if you want something done right, do it yourself. If you want excuses, call the police.

Though the movie was well made, it left me with an outrage of how the justice sometimes works. I believe that this movie has mainly one purpose, to show that an innocent and concerned citizen can actually become victimized by the judiciary system with its many loopholes that will actually protect the guilty and punish the true victim. It was best demonstrated when the judge sent a man who had a loaded gun in his car and no previous conviction to prison and ignored the true crime of braking into cars to steal radios by someone whose mother was a lawyer. I recommend this movie for everyone to see the outrage of a man who hasn't done anything wrong and suffered from the criminal actions against him. Well, the title is most fitting.

Rob Lowe and Jennifer Grey star in Outrage and play a thirty something married couple who arouse the ire of a trio of punk preppies. And it all starts with Rob Lowe being a good citizen and the system victimizing him.

It all starts with Lowe seeing these kids breaking into his car and reporting same. They even catch the leader Eric Michael Cole with a licensed handgun Lowe was keeping in his glove compartment. So what happens the kids who are nicely connected, especially Cole with lawyer Kathryn Harrold for a mother get a slap on the wrist. Lowe gets arrested rather speciously in my opinion on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon and gets 15 days and a criminal record to boot.

But the kids especially Cole think they have to get even and Lowe ups the ante quite a bit with his attitude. After that these children of privilege sadistically torment Lowe and his wife and Lowe gets deeper and deeper in what could be some real trouble.

A talented cast puts over this film which does have a tendency toward the melodramatic. Cole is some piece of work, you can see a future Gordon Gekko in him if he can control himself just a tad.

Lowe and Grey who were Brat Pack charter members in the Eighties fill out their roles well as you can see some of their characters from the last decade grown up a bit. The film is definitely for fans of their's.

Outrage is a decent made for TV-movie. The story centers around Rob Lowe (St. Elmo's Fire, Wayne's World) a working man who one day thwarts a few teenagers attempt at robbery and becomes a victim of theirs in an attempt at terrorizing him and his wife. The film's weak elements are the non-frightening bad guys (almost laughable actually), the average at best script, and some poor supporting performances (the main bad guy especially). The film is well-directed though and makes you feel for the couple, but the film's main asset is Rob Lowe. Lowe gives a fairly strong lead performance and has several scenes where he especially shines. If Lowe keeps giving solid performances in small movies like this, maybe he can get himself some decent roles in big movies again.

A decent TV thriller, but nothing special. It explores how far a wealthy teenager will go when constantly getting away with crime. I did feel bad for the protagonist, who was a victim of the teenager, and wanted him to start thinking clearly in order to get his own revenge.