Dog’s Movie House: “Outside The Wire” Entertaining, If Undemanding Sci-Fi Actioner!

Said story actually involves a drone pilot named Harp (Damon Idris) a cold, calculating individual who disobeys a direct order and launches a missile strike in an occupied area, killing two of his own soldiers. As punishment, his superiors intend to give Harp some boots-on-the-ground combat experience to feel the impact of his decisions. He’s assigned to Captain Leo (Mackie) who turns out to be a next generation cybernetic soldier. Their mission: to go “beyond the wire” in attempt to keep nuclear codes from falling into the hands of a Ukrainian warlord. What follows is a trial by fire for young Harp in terms of both combat education and rediscovering his humanity.

This story has been told many times before, but the drone pilot angle (covered in more current affairs related films like “Good Kill” and the excellent “Eye In The Sky”) combined with the futuristic technology makes for an interesting spin on the horrors of war. Little details, such as the robot soldiers being called “Gumps” (after the slow-witted buy well-meaning hero of “Forrest Gump”) add some lived-in detail to the futuristic proceedings. It helps that the special effects and production values are top notch and the action is quite well done.

Mackie has a lot of fun as the nearly human Leo. He acts human, more so than any other robot in recent memory. He’s matched by Damon Idris as Harp, a young man who’s lived his entire combat life inside a bubble and has a dash of cold water thrown in his face in terms of how is actions have affected the lives of others.

So what keeps “Outside The Wire” from being an instant sci-fi classic? Aside from being a straight forward action flick, “Outside The Wire” has a third act twist that takes a little bit away from the rest of the film. The motivations for the character’s actions are a tad murky, especially because they don’t go deeply into the technology involved in creating such advanced cyborgs. It’s a small gripe but it does take away a bit from the film, at least for yours truly.

Overall though, “Outside The Wire” is a solid action film that shows the improving quality of Netflix studios cinematic output. During this crappy weather you could definitely do worse than “Outside The Wire.” 3 1/2 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!

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