Outside The Wire

You would think that people will learn that war does not solve all problems, but here we are in 2021 with several big wars in our catalogue, so many lives lost and it never seems to stop. I realise that wars will always be around, and there are military programs that are needed to keep certain situations more stable. Will i personally support a war? No, because i don´t believe in killing innocent people, who clearly suffer in war. Do i believe in killing war criminals? I personally feel that they should be locked up instead for life, for the crimes that they have commited. If a war criminal dies in war, i would of course not feel sorry for him at all, he will hopefully burn in hell. I am pretty sure there are people out there all over the world, who disagree with me on these subjects, and that´s ok. We all have personal opinions on many subjects, and we are allowed to express our throughts, and how we feel about this subject. War films can be found in many different categories, who tell stories from wars in different countries, and time periods in history. I have seen quite many war films over the years, and there are some good ones to choose between. One of the war films i feel we don´t hear much about anymore, is the 1988 American war film The Beast ( also known as The Beast Of War ) from director Kevin Reynolds ( director of the 90´s classic Waterworld ). This film takes place in the year of 1981 in Afghanistan, where a Sovjet T-55 tank who become lost during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. This is a really well made war film that especially have very powerful war scenes, and a great cast including actors such as Jason Patric, Stephen Baldwin ( one of his better acting roles ), Steven Bauer and many more. If you find this film on DVD, you should pick it up and give it a try. Netflix have produced quite many action films over the years, and they seem to find an audience who loves big guns, explosions and violence. I recently came across a film i was planning to see early this year called Outside The Wire, that seems to be a futuristic action film. Is this a great choice for action lovers worldwide, or is Outside The Wire a horrible film from start to finish?

In 2036, a civil war between pro-Russian insurgents and local resistances in Ukraine leads the US to deploy peacekeeping forces. During an operation, a team of United States Marines and "Gumps" ( robotic soldiers ) are ambushed. Drone pilot Lt. Thomas Harp ( Damson Idris ) disobey a direct order, deploys a Hellfire missile in a drone strike against a suspected enemy launcher, killing two Marines but saving 38. As punishment, Harp is sent to Camp Nathaniel, the US base of operations in Ukraine, where he is assigned to Captain Leo ( Anthony Mackie ), an android millitary officer. Harp and Leo are set out on a mission to prevent terrorist Victor Koval ( Pilou Asbaek ) from gaining control of a network of Cold War-era nuclear missile silos.

One of the first things i notice with Outside The Wire, is that this is a pretty basic military action film that we have seen several times before. I would not say that this film copy all films in this genre completely, but i guarantee that you will be reminded by other sci fi action films that takes place in the future. Does that affect the film in a negative way? Not really, since this film do have entertainment value, especially if you love sci fi action films. There is one problem though that becomes pretty clear with certain characters. And that is that some of the actors in this film, are not delivering characters that you will feel interested in. This is such a shame, because if they only would have worked more on delivering stronger characters, i think i would have enjoyed this film more. But let´s talk about something positive for a change. Actor Anthony Mackie ( who did a really powerful performance in the American war thriller The Hurt Locker, a must see ) delivers without a doubt one of the best acting performances in this film, as the character Captain Leo. I would not say this is one of the better films that he have done so far ( considering how many good films he have made in the past ), but he definetely shines out from an acting perspective in Outside The Wire. We also get a descent performance from actor Damson Idris as the character Harp, and the scenes that these two actors do together lift up the quality level of this film. So what about the action scenes, are they any good? If you don´t have too high expectations, and can accept some pretty basic ideas combined, then you will most likely have fun with the action scenes. Director Mikael Håfström ( who directed the very good horror film 1408 ) delivers a sci fi action film that may not deliver many surprises, but knows what kind of audience it was made for. If you don´t know what to watch, give this film a chance. Who knows, maybe you will feel inspired by a bright future, in the company of Outside The Wire.

Rating: DDD