646f9e108c A reformed ex-convict enters a love triangle and gets manipulated into being a scapegoat in a murder scheme for revenge.
Here we have an interesting story that could've been put on film by guys like Robert Rodriguez and become a minor hit. Which didn't happen, so this film has several drawbacks. The writing and acting is a mixed bag: bigger name actors like Mickey Rourke and Peter Greene stay low-key, whilst the actors we watch for the most of the movie are trying to act all over the place. The more emotional the scenes get, the worse they play out. The photography, lighting and editing is pretty inconsistent: some very decent shots, some very decent cuts, but mostly not. You could say Scott Leet and the gang spent more effort on getting the familiar faces into their movie (the above mentioned Rourke, Greene, Ed Lauter, who was with Rourke in Eureka, and Abraham Benrubi, of ER fame), they really didn't polish their material well enough. The movie is being eaten out by a couple of really annoying characters and scenes. Leet looks like a perfect movie ex-con, but he can't carry the film on his own, since Rourke hides in the shadow, his hair, sunglasses and a cowboy hat for the whole time he's in there - he actually IS a second lead, but he rarely does something with his character. Nevertheless - a nice effort. 5 out of 10.
I usually avoid B movies where the writer/director also stars in the lead role, as it's almost always pitiable self indulgence a lá The Room. In the case of Scott Leet's Out In Fifty though, there's an exception to the rule. A violent, mean revenge story with no light at the end of the troubled tunnel, it's a bizarre, sketchy little flick that benefits greatly from Mickey Rourke as one beast of a cop on the hunt for the convict (Leet) who accidentally killed his wife in the heat of a passionate affair. Remorseful and tormented, he just wants to quietly exist after he's eventually paroled, but Rourke, still hard bitten over the incident, has other plans. That's pretty much it, but the actors sell the dour tone nicely, especially Rourke, who is at his nastiest and most scarily volatile, with a seething, bleeding broken heart behind the coiled viper, hate filled exterior. Peter Greene is terrific as his former partner who does his best to reign the guy in, and there's work from Christina Applegate, Johnny Whitworth, Ed Lauter and Balthazar Getty as a weirdo pimp/motel owner. Leet isn't bad, especially in the writing department, and holds the thing together with reasonable triple threat talents, although he has scarcely been heard of since this one. Not bad, made better by Rourke and Greene's presence, and worth it for any fan of the two heavyweights.