Outpost

Starring: Ray Stevenson, Julian Wadhamm, Richard Brake

Synopsis:

In Outpost, a group of mercenaries are led to believe that they are being hired to escort a businessman into a dangerous no-man's land. The task proves to be less easy than advertised as an old enemy returns to finish what it started during the second world war.

Review:

I was expecting very little with this movie. In fact the only draw was that Ray Stevenson was in it playing a soldier. Why? You ask. A latent homosexual leaning to macho men in uniform? Er...no. I liked Stevenson's portrayal of Roman Centurion Titus Pollo, in the HBO series Rome and when I heard he was to play Frank Castle in The Punisher War Zone, I was intrigued. Stevenson's character, "DC" isn't exactly the Punisher but his performance indicates what the new Punisher movie could be like.

Like most movies or TV of it's type it's worth leaving your brain disengaged along the way. There are some awful blunders if you look hard enough. Again, using my Jurassic Park finale reference, it T-Rex's towards the end. The movie has set up some rules along the way, only to disregard them at the very end.

The performances are fairly solid. Stevenson plays a no-nonsense, by the numbers portrayal of a soldier who'd rather sacrifice the mission than his men. For Spaced fans it's a bit wierd seeing Michael Smiley, the bicycle courier "Tyres" O'Flaherty, as a merc. Richard Brake, who is an instantly recognisable character actor from Batman Begins and Doom, amoungst other roles, does a stellar job.

The lack of effects betrays the budget of the movie, but the atmosphere and direction more than make up for it. Similar to the Fog in a few instances, the film hints that characters meet a quite grisly end but it's not often shown. The lack of gore is made up for with grizzly sound fx and reaction shots which play on the imagination a lot more effectively. There are a couple of occasions when mutilated bodies have been left for the survivors to find, but these shots aren't clear enough to convey the horrific spectacle enough. Possibly budgetary restrictions again. The Nazi element brings back good memories of the Michael Mann film, The Keep. Thankfully, the plot is not as convoluted, even if the end is a little silly.

A very effective horror action movie which is well worth a rental. The director, Steve Barker, is worth looking out for in the future, judging from this movie. I hope he continues to do genre pieces.

6 Out of 10 (Review by Wayfarer)

(Editor's note - We've included both the UK artwork(top) and US DVD cover(bottom) as part of our review for want of better images. The UK cover is much more evocative and a better indication of the movie's atmosphere than the dreadful photoshop effort the US got which makes the movie look almost home-made!)

Custom Search