Reviewed by Adam Whittaker
Stars Laurence Fishburne, Natalie Cole, Laurie Metcalfe, Daniel Williams, Bill Cobbs,
Bill Nunn, Cicely Tyson, Isaiah Washington, Brigid Coulter | Written by Walter Mosley
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £7.99 | Runtime 104 minutes | Directed by Michael Apted
Always Outnumbered Always Outgunned is, putting it mildly, strange. Strange in an intriguing way. The acting is excellent, the mood and feel compelling, your attention held throughout. So the problem? Well, nothing really happens.
Fishburne plays Socrates, a convicted murderer who is doing his utmost to start a new life following his release. His day consists of collecting trash that he can recycle for a small return and trawling every supermarket he can locate in his desperation to get a job. His attitude and background let him down, his menacing demeanour and threatening behaviour preventing him from creating the future he so desires. He is surrounded by crime yet is respected by his associates who also fear him. Trouble follows him wherever he goes including car thieves, crack dealers and murderers but he takes in a foster kid and cares for him like his own, trying in desperation to steer him along the righteous path in life and not the path he himself chose.
Fishburne is, as ever, superb, and the depth and quality of his portrayal of Socrates are a joy to watch. The issue is that the movie never really goes anywhere, with small insights into other characters and their lives that are never fully explored. The ending is short but certainly not sweet and leaves you frustrated that few of the plot lines are totally played out. Questions remain unanswered but not in a way that leaves you pondering the fate of a character or what may have happened next, but in a disappointed and almost mislead fashion. Some of the ideas and intricacies that Apted and Mosley have woven into this movie are fascinating but are not developed, situations created but not fully addressed.
Having watched this movie twice it would be wrong to say that it's a poor movie. It isn't but is probably one of the most frustrating movies ever. It has the potential to be a classic and there is no doubt that if some of the sequences had been seen through to a conclusion, it would have been.
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