The Outsider

Just far enough off the well-worn mob movie path to be worth a look, even if — like too much on Netflix — you feel the need to bail and see what else is available before it bleeds out.

It takes extremely familiar plot points and plays them straight, adding nothing new except the premise - a white American joining the Yakuza - which ultimately has very little to do with how the story unfolds. The film might be a functional crime drama but it’s an incredibly unremarkable one.

The Outsider is a slick copy of multiple, much-better films and TV series. It's so well-polished it's practically featureless.

It’s clichéd, distant, afraid to truly immerse itself in anything but long looks, but at least it looks good. And that’s that.

The more this film begs to be told from the inside out, the more Zandvliet shoots it from the outside in. It’s enough to make you wish he hadn’t shot it at all.

Leto, with his whispery dialogue and complete lack of emotional range, fails to register on any level. While the film itself feels straight out of a Robert McKee seminar, as each twist and turn is telegraphed so blatantly, that it’s hard to see what Leto, who can be a good actor when he’s not too busy going all “method,” saw in it.

It’s by no means impossible to carve a challenging, meaningful story out of difficult interchanges between the east and west. To return to Scorsese, consider Silence, a fine film about European men slowly realizing just how little they understand of Japan. But neither Zandvliet, Baldwin, nor Leto care to look beyond themselves. They’re worse than the simple gaijin, or the over-affectionate weeaboo – they’re tourists who think they own the place.

I have no idea how the **** the critics gave scores so low. While outsider is not a masterpiece, is a ******** awesome movie about Yakuzas. It has Yakuza (the game series) vibes everywhere. Is literally like watching a sub story of yakuza games whit new characters and an awesome Leto's. 1950 japan is also perfectly reproducted, maybe thats the best part. A gaijin in a 1950 Yakuza war story, **** yeah Netflix, give me more!

It had some decent acting and story telling but unfortunately some parts were too long and generic as heck and our main actor barely had any emotions on his face the entire movie it was a pretty ok movie

Both good and disappointing at the same time. Nothing original about the narrative. A great supporting cast, the Japanese cast really shine. However, as expected its Leto's Potato-sack-esq presence which lets the team down. I can't help but wonder how much better this would have been with a better actor at the reigns.

An intriguing premise with good actors, but boring and uninspired with no sense of likability.

The Outsider is a film that I really believe it could have been quite good but it ended up being a boredom fest in which almost 40 minutes are spent before the story really begins to have a development and to be honest the conflict ends up being very poor and everything feels minor or irrelevant. A very poor effort and a a huge disappointment, another failure for Netflix. Even Jared Leto delivers one of his most simplistic performances in years.