30
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 50Slant MagazineDerek SmithSlant MagazineDerek SmithThe film is subsumed by the unshakable sense that Jared Leto is intended to make Martin Zandvliet's take on the yakuza underworld more palatable for American audiences.
- 49IGNWilliam BibbianiIGNWilliam BibbianiIt 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.
- 42The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloAsano and the rest of the Japanese cast provide baseline credibility, but they can’t generate excitement from this morass of clichés.
- 40Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayLos Angeles TimesNoel MurrayThe Outsider is a slick copy of multiple, much-better films and TV series. It's so well-polished it's practically featureless.
- 38RogerEbert.comNick AllenRogerEbert.comNick AllenAs the story bloats to two hours by mistaking itself for an epic, The Outsider falls into a pit of boredom somewhere between the white savior complex of Tom Cruise in “The Last Samurai” and the much slicker kills by Alain Delon in “Le Samourai.”
- 33IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichThe 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.
- 30The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMerging standard gangster movie clichés of both the Japanese and American variety, The Outsider only manages to be ultra-violent and ultra-dull simultaneously.
- 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.
- 20The GuardianCharles BramescoThe GuardianCharles BramescoIt’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.
- 20VarietyAndrew BarkerVarietyAndrew BarkerDull, flavorless, and fundamentally incurious, “The Outsider” is a clueless misfire, the cinematic equivalent of a study-abroad student showing off the kanji forearm tattoo whose meaning he never bothered to learn.