Delayed Reaction: Outlaw King

The Pitch: Remember how much you liked Hell or High Water even though that didn't look very good when you first heard about it? Well, same director.

An historical epic about the rebellion of Robert the Bruce.

I assume other people also have the problem where they watch a movie they know they've never seen before but feel like they have seen it. That's how I felt about Outlaw King. It's a new movie, but it sure felt like one I watched in 1998 and forgot about until now. It would be like if I gave Kingdom of Heaven another viewing. The Braveheart comparison is almost too easy. William Wallace's death is literally an inciting act in Outlaw King.

Oh, that's right. Derivative is the word I'm looking for. I tend to hate using that word. It's overused and confused with "inspired by" too often. In a way, all films are derrivative because they are all diived from something before them. I only like to pull out 'derivative' when it's something like Outlaw King, where it immediately gets confused in my mind with other films. Ask me in a month, and I won't be able to tell the cast of this apart from Apostle, I bet.

That all isn't to say I disliked Outlaw King. It's solid. Chris Pine is good. I've become a big Florence Pugh fan in the last year. It was fun to realize after the fact that Aaron Taylor Johnson played James Douglas. I didn't even think the character looked like anyone, so imagine my surprise when it's Kick-Ass under all that hair. The movie is properly dirty and bloddy. It's a land of perpetual overcast that I've come to expect in any historical epic set in the United Kingdom. By now, it has become clear that the magic of Hell or High Water came more from Taylor Sheridan's screenplay than David Mackenzie's direction. There's worse things to be than watchable though. That's what Outlaw King is. MacKenzie has made a fine medieval action drama in an era when that alone isn't enough to capture an audience's attention.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend