Parents' Guide to

Outcast

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Medieval adventure is violent, almost laughably bad.

Movie NR 2015 99 minutes
Outcast Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 1 parent review

Shay S.
Shay S. Adult
March 14, 2023
age 14+

This Is What I Think

It's a pretty decent movie, I'd say. Aside from the 2 curse words I heard (one being the f-bomb) and abundance of blood (there were 2 or 3 instances where I went wide-eyed), the acting was very good and convincing, it kept up a decent pace, it had a sort of classic "fallen hero" plot, and the characters each had satisfying plot arcs. The landscape was beautiful. The filming style was a bit erratic at times (I'm pretty forgiving with that sort of thing). Fun and numerous fight scenes (I love some good peril). It actually had something of a moral code underlying the plot. In the end, I wouldn't recommend it to friends because of the violence and 2 curse words, but other than that, it was a decent watch.
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What's the Story?

In the 12th century, a Chinese ruler names his youngest son -- the kindly, bookish Zhao (Bill Su Jiahang) -- as his heir. The eldest son, brutal warlord Shing (Andy On), kills their father and blames the murder on Zhao, causing Zhao and his older sister, Lian (Liu Yifei), to flee. They take with them an important royal seal that Shing must retrieve. Thankfully, a lone, mysterious warrior (Hayden Christensen) happens along to help them escape the hordes of evil soldiers on their trail. Eventually the warrior finds his way back to his own master, known as "The White Ghost" (Nicolas Cage). Together they wage a final battle in hopes of restoring Zhao to the throne.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1):
Kids say (4):

A master storyteller might have been able to make something good out of the creaky OUTCAST, but Nick Powell, a stuntman making his directorial debut, is no master. Cage appears in less than a third of this stone-faced movie; for once, it could have used more of his loony acting. The filming is atrocious, with wobbly camera work and rat-a-tat-tat editing that often favors five separate shots when one would do fine. In one scene, a character dumps a bucket of water over his head; Powell shows it in three cuts, including one from inside the bucket.

Set in medieval times, the movie consists largely of fight scenes staged with modern-day techniques that look out of place and phony. Both Cage and Christensen perform their cringe-worthy dialogue in accents they can't quite manage and hairstyles that are distractingly odd. The movie's only attribute is that it's so bad it might benefit from a Mystery Science Theater 3000-style drubbing.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Outcast's violence. How did it affect you? How much is shown, or not shown? Which has more impact? Was all of the violence necessary to tell the story?

  • How are drug use (opium) and drinking depicted in the movie? Are the characters addicted? Why do they do it? Are there realistic consequences for their use?

  • How are characters from other cultures shown in this movie? From whose point of view is the story told? Are there stereotypes?

Movie Details

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