Take a bunch of vikings, add some space monsters, throw in Jim Caviezel to kick some ass, and Fallout Boy for no reason (other than Ron Perlman is awesome, and they need to make another Hell Boy movie ASAP), and you have Outlander, the best movie that Hollywood decided I didn’t need to see in a theater. No, my home theater system didn’t let me down, but this movie deserved the big screen. The 13th Warrior was awesome on the big screen, and great 70 more times at home, thanks in no small part to that first big screen awesomeness aftertaste.
This time though, they just decided to not waste all that money on previews and advertising, put it out in “limited release”, and then let us all just grab it on Netflix based on idiots like me doing their advertising. If you didn’t deserve to see this, I would tell them to screw off, but you do, even if they don’t deserve your patronage.
No, it wasn’t full of the best special effects or stunning dialogue, but the vikings also didn’t wear cow horns on their helmets. It wasn’t over the top and epic like hollywood seems to believe is all we want, but rather, more like a good book. There were just enough key characters to be interesting, and just enough character development to make you care a tad bit when they get chomped. Really though, if you are going to enjoy this movie, you are probably already sold. If not, get back to playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
What perplexes me is that Netflix has an option for Blu-ray, but no release date. How could they release a new sci-fi / fantasy pic without a Blu-ray option? Lo def looks so-so when when blown up to 6 feet. Well, it’s in the waiting area of my queue and will be moved topside as soon as it’s available.
I was also surprised that for all the ads and trailers they played for The Brothers Bloom, it’s not getting a wide release, either.
No disrespect, but Hello Kitty may be around a lot longer than the memory of Outlander. HK has a gigantic advertising/manufacturing complex behind her, and she has muscle. Witness the Hello Kitty Hospital and Hello Kitty car accessories that are being snapped up by latent adults.
That being said, I confuse this effort with a Sean Connery movie called “Outland” back in the 80s. It was notable because it was just a re-telling of High Noon using a mining complex on Io as the background. Forgettable movie, but great shots of bad guy’s heads blowing up in the vacuum of space (in actuality, they wouldn’t).
This merits a viewing. Will definitely check at my local DVD rental store. And that’s where the best movies are located nowadays, anyway.
If only I had a decent DVD rental store in my area, staffed by competent, knowledgeable employees, that could provide informative, yet condescending and witty suggestions. I would imagine that between customer interactions they would partake in ceaseless banter consisting of improbably complex and well thought out dialogues clearly not a reflection of the “dude” dialogue mumbled by most people that partake.