Plot: What’s it about?
Julie Cosgrove (Cynthia Rothrock) is a beautiful woman, but she is also a highly skilled secret agent under the hire of the United States Government. Her fiance also happens to be an agent and she always prepared for the worst, but when he was gunned down in a dangerous assignment, she was still unable to continue. As such, Julie left the world of agents and secret missions behind her, opting to begin a new life and try to start over again. The memories of the tragic past would always haunt her, but perhaps a fresh start could help her to make some new memories, happy ones instead of depressing ones. But just as she starts this new life, she winds up involved with some locals who happen to be involved with the mafia in Florida. She is friends with these men however, so when one of them is killed, her repressed killer instinct is sent screaming to the surface and she is determined to even the score. On the run with the mafia and the government on her trail, can even Julie’s skills be enough to help her survive and find an escape?
This is a low budget action movie with some serious flaws, but thanks to the presence of Cynthia Rothrock, it remains watchable. Of course, Rothrock never found cinematic fame here in the U.S., but became a force in Asian movies and since she was a real life kickboxing champion, she has some awesome martial arts skills. Rothrock (China O’Brien, Yes Madam) is able to showcase some of her talents in Outside the Law, but she is never cut loose totally and this because of the film’s limited budget, which lessens the scope of the action sequences. I found the fight scenes to be well planned and executed, but they failed to have much of a grand finale, perhaps again due to the lack of sufficient funds. Even so, Rothrock is fun to watch as always and while Outside the Law could have used some additional work, it is well worth a rental. But sadly, Columbia has chosen to issue a full frame only edition of Outside the Law, which means even fans will want to avoid this release, as it compromises the intentions of the filmmakers. I know this is a low rent action movie and not high art, but I think every film deserves to be seen as filmmakers intended and such, let’s hope Columbia returns to their original aspect ratio ways of the past.
Video: How does it look?
Outside the Law is presented in a full frame transfer, which seems to be an open matte version of the intended aspect ratio. I say this because the film begins in a widescreen edition, then once the credits have ended, it removes the bars and continues in a full frame visual presentation. I know this movie played on cable first, but if it was shot with a widescreen format in mind, then I think it should be shown as such. But Columbia has been doing this a lot of late, forcing us to endure hacked visual efforts, which is a real shame indeed. The image is stable otherwise, but never amounts to much in terms of impressive visuals. The print is on the clean side, while colors and contrast are more than solid, but with a compromised aspect ratio, this one is doomed and even fans will want to skip this release.
Audio: How does it sound?
As this is an action movie, the included Dolby Digital 5.1 has some chances to shine, but in the end, it never proves to be that memorable. The more action driven scenes spike the surrounds and liven up the experience, but fail to reach “wow” levels, so it is kind of thin and plain at times, not too cool. In other words, you’ll know the speakers are active and all, but you won’t be impressed by the tracks makes use of them. The music sounds solid however, while dialogue is sharp and never becomes muffled in the least. This disc also includes a French language option, as well as subtitles in English, French, Spanish, and Korean.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc includes the film’s trailer.
