Out of Exile

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.

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.

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.

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!

I really enjoyed this. Many twists and turns and the characters are developed nicely. Great performances from the cast. I think the writer/director did an amazing job bringing this story to life. I have watched this movie four times. A good reminder that every choice we make in life will cause a reaction.

There are some memorable lines in this movie and a cameo from Jake the Snake Roberts. I loved seeing him in this.

Adam Hampton and Kyle Jacob Henry bring the heat and Mark Adam Goff has a great performance as well.

Memorable performances from the entire cast.

I highly recommend watching this.