The yakuza, Japan’s rough equivalent to the American Mafia, have inspired some of the best crime movies of all time: Sonatine, Tokyo Drifter, Branded to Kill, Dead or Alive, Graveyard of Honor, Battles Without Honor & Humanity, Outrage, Youth of the Beast, The Wolves, Street Mobster, and, um, The Yakuza. “Oh sure,” said no one ever, “but none of those movies star Jared Leto.” Well, um, good news?
In The Outsider, your least favorite Joker plays Nick Lowell, a WWII American POW who gets out with the help of his cellmate, who wouldn’t ya know it, is in the ol’ Yakuza. So he sets out to pay his debt to the organization, and bloodbaths ensue, you get the idea. Anyway, here’s the trailer:
Credit where due: it’s a snazzy enough teaser (director Martin Zandvliet has real chops), with a fair amount of action and atmosphere. But every time they cut to solemn Jared Leto, it falls apart. Whose idea was this?
The Outsider hits Netflix on March 9.