Even at the age of 45, Cynthia Rothrock is a superb martial artist, but "Outside The Law" / "Never Say Die" is a mediocre vehicle for her. The plot is completely uninteresting, and the scattered fight scenes don't compensate for that, because a) they are mostly shot in too-tight close-ups, b) the editing is choppy, c) the villains don't offer much of a challenge to Cynthia. Only James Lew is introduced as a worthy opponent, but even their fight scene at the end of the movie is not as long as it should have been. There is an amusing nod to Rothrock's Hong Kong film past ("You can read Chinese?", her friend asks her - "Enough to order from a menu", she responds). Sidenote: when an action film starts with a couple discussing how many kids (and pets) they will have when they get married, you know one of them is not going to be around for long. (**)
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gridoon9 November 2005
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Leofwine_draca6 April 2016Cynthia Rothrock continues to plod a path through Z-grade material in OUTSIDE THE LAW, an entirely redundant B-movie in terms of originality or on-screen excitement. The only notable thing about this is that it was shot in Puerto Rico, which must have been fun for the cast and crew, but sadly that exotic experience doesn't translate into fun for the viewers at home.
Rothrock plays a disgruntled former secret agent trying to turn her back on her old life. However, she soon gets involved with various hoodlums, and is forced to rely on her fighting skills in order to survive. I don't mind bad stories in action vehicles for stars like this, but I do demand quality fight scenes. Sadly, they're very badly filmed here, choppy and poorly edited throughout, and it's obvious that Rothrock was being doubled half the time.
Even worse, Rothrock's acting isn't too hot, and she's saddled with the stupidest-looking wig for most of the running time. Fellow martial artist Jeff Wincott also appears in a non-fighting role - what's the point of that? - alongside the familiar faces of Stephen Macht (THE MONSTER SQUAD), Brad Greenquist (PET SEMATARY), and Don Harvey (DIE HARD 2). -
wellthatswhatithinkanyway16 September 2002STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs
Martial arts star Cynthia Rothrock enters suddenly and unexpectedly back into our lives with this standard chunk of DTV action fodder.As a Grade-D action flick,it serves it's purpose well.The plot is a little wavey and disjointed,but Rothrock is the driving force of the show.She's not just a great martial artist,but she ain't a BAD actress either,and both these assets are in equal abundance throughout.*** -
rdamian196324 October 2021This movie is a combination of a poorly written script, horrible acting and a cliche storyline. The cinematography is horrible. Action sequences are poorly executed and poorly choreographed. If you see this title pass it by.
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tarbosh220006 June 2024Julie Cosgrove (Rothrock) is a U. S. Government Secret Agent - so secret, in fact, that no one knows her exact job title with the feds. When an op in Cartagena, Colombia, goes horribly wrong, Julie decides to quit the force (if she were a police officer, presumably she'd have handed in her badge and gun). She then decides to pursue a quiet life somewhere in central Florida. As part of her plan, she changes her hair so she looks exactly like Reba McEntire. But, as tends to be the case with Reba, er, Julie Cosgrove, trouble finds her wherever she goes.
Her old boss who sent her on her fateful Colombian misadventure, Dick Dawson (Macht), is after her, so he sends federal goons after her. Then the local law enforcement, Detective Froman (Lauria), is after her. Not to be outdone, local head honcho/kingpin-type baddie Michael Peyton (Wincott) is also after her, and he has his own, mafia-connected goons such as a baddie named Ramon and another one named Cho Sung (Lew). With seemingly everyone gunning for Julie, what will she do? She may have to go OUTSIDE THE LAW.
There's nothing terribly wrong with Outside The Law, per se, but it is a bit on the duller side of things. Even Rothrock herself says it isn't one of her best. It's no surprise director Montesi went on to do mostly TV show episodes and telefilms. OTL has that flat, "Why Try Harder?" look to it that doesn't evince a ton of creativity behind the camera. Also, it seems that the film is building up to a big fight between Jeff Wincott and Cynthia Rothrock, which never happens. That was a disappointment. James Lew is not used anywhere near his full potential, and Jeff Moldovan plays only "Bearded Thug". The gathered cast is an impressive one, but overall we as the viewer are constantly reminded that we're in the 2002 DTV doldrums.
Besides Rothrock, who is always watchable no matter what, only Dan Lauria - somewhat of a hometown hero for us - stands out as Detective Froman. He wears Hawaiian-type shirts and speaks in a Huey Long "Kingfish"-style Southern drawl. It was a treat to see him do a role like this and we really enjoyed that. Stephen Macht was bland as Dick Dawson - Eric Roberts would have been perfect for that part, and he may have livened it up a bit more. Overall, there are some shootouts and beat-em-up scenes that keep things moving, but it's not exactly thrill-a-minute stuff here.
There's a Zack Morris-style pretty-boy character for Julie Cosgrove to fall in love with, which sets him apart from the constant cadres of creeps that are constantly harassing Julie in this small town. Everywhere she goes, she has to employ her Martial Arts on them, it seems. Bad for her, lucky for us, the viewer. Talk radio was a big thing back then and there are some scenes with talk radio on in the background, which puts us in a very definable time and place. Julie Cosgrove ends up adopting a dog she simply calls "Dog" because she's too much of a badass to come up with a frou-frou name like Fluffy or Twinkles.
While the film was set mostly in "Central Florida", it was shot in Puerto Rico. The director, Montesi, is Chilean, so maybe it was easy for him to communicate in Spanish-speaking countries. Maybe it wasn't so easy for everybody else. Montesi's most notable film to date is Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal (2001), which is a highly entertaining romp, moreso than this one.
So, if you've ever wanted to see a Reba McEntire action film, Outside The Law is probably as close as you're ever going to get. -
The best of Cynthia Rothrock's starring vehicles are those that center her martial arts skills, and the lion's share of these are deliciously blunt, over the top, ridiculous romps. 'Outside the law' does let Rothrock exercise her knowledge of martial disciplines, if not nearly as much as one may prefer. In fact, while in general this is a reasonably solid action-thriller, one big problem is that it feels like a movie anyone could have made. It feels like a movie we've seen before with someone else (probably Ashley Judd, or Jennifer Lopez), and that we'll inevitably see again, with still another cast. None of this is to say that this feature is bad, but there's no one aspect that leaps out as being particularly remarkable, or praiseworthy. You could do a lot worse - but there are plenty of other titles to check out first.
What instances of action we do get are fun, including the climactic showdown. These scenes are nonetheless dampened somewhat by overzealous camerawork and editing which further hinders the production at large at some points. Some small inclusions don't add anything to the story, whether in the dialogue or scene writing, while characters are common and familiar for the space they inhabit in the narrative. That narrative is mostly fine as it's written, but at the climax and ending it becomes considerably more specious. James Lew's character has no meaningful connection to an antagonist except that he's been hired halfway through the runtime as extra muscle; that the noted climactic showdown is between Rothrock's Julie and Lew's Cho Sung makes it hard to care as much about the inevitable outcome. The ease with which the heroes are able to infiltrate the enemy hideout in the last stretch of the film defies suspension of disbelief, and the threads of the plot are tied together so haphazardly that the resolution is in no way satisfying.
I don't like the way 'Outside the law' was shot and sequenced, but otherwise I think it's well made from a technical standpoint. The material requires nothing special of the cast, but they are generally fine in realizing their characters and the story. It's passably entertaining. For anything that's done fairly well, however, there's just no real spark. Once again - anyone could have made this movie. Rothrock stars - great; so what? I'd love to speak at still greater length about all the details herein, love them or hate them, but the movie just doesn't make much of an impression, nor try to. At least it helped to pay the bills for the cast and crew, so it has that going for it.
There are many features in the world that are far worse than 'Outside the law.' Whatever it was about this to draw your attention, however, the simple fact of the matter is that there are plenty of other titles more noteworthy and deserving of your attention. Casually enjoyable, this is something best left for an extra lazy day. -
aeiryl5 October 2012I liked this so much, I bought it. Definitely not an 'A' movie, but Cynthia Rothrock and Seamus Dever (Army Wives) make it worth watching. Dever is excellent in everything I've seen, and I think Rothrock is a good actress as well as martial arts / kick-boxing star and both are very good in this. The fight choreography is nice to watch and well executed. I personally like 'one person can take on City Hall' movies and 'don't give up when the odds are against you' movies. This is both. Very inspiring.
When I first saw this, from the ending, I expected some agent was working on putting together a deal for a TV series. I still think they should have done a pilot / series about where this character goes from here as she is driving out of town. It's perfect, she helps people while on the run (The Fugitive, The Pretender). -
I have not yet seen any of Cynthia Rothrock's Hong Kong-made movies. I hear they are supposed to be good, and I'll be reporting on them when I get the DVDs in the mail from my DVD mail rental service. However, I have seen a number of her American-made movies, and after seeing them I have come up with this movie rule: "Any Cynthia Rothrock movie that is American-made is bound to be awful."
OUTSIDE THE LAW does not break that rule. To begin with, Rothrock in this movie is not showcased as well as with her other movies. She is given a bad hairstyle and dye job in this movie, for one thing. Also, though she is an accomplished martial artist in real life, you wouldn't know it from this movie. The fight scenes here are really bad - quick cuts, obvious doubles, and about the only time you see Rothrock making a martial arts movie clearly is when she punches someone - something ANYONE could do.
To make matters worse, she's in a slow-moving, mostly uneventful (few fight sequences, for one thing) story. You could chop off whole hunks of the movie without harming the small story, for one thing. Oh, and if you are thinking of sticking through the molasses to see Rothrock and Jeff Wincott fight, let me warn you that they NEVER get into a fight. I don't think Wincott does any martial arts at any time in the movie despite being skilled in martial arts in real life!
I'm hoping Rothrock's Hong Kong movies will be better, even though I am preparing myself for the worst.