On outlaw kings and overlords

While the Coen Brothers’ “Ballad of Buster Scruggs” (out today) and next month’s “Roma” from Alfonso Cuaron earn distinction as Netflix’s most prestigious offerings, “Outlaw King” represents the largest scale movie to date for the streaming service.

Let’s just pretend Will Smith’s cops and ogres movie, “Bright,” never happened.

Anyway, “Outlaw King,” from “Hell or High Water” director David Mackenzie, tells the story of Robert the Bruce, who waged war with King Edward and a huge English army. The story picks up near the end of events depicted in 1995’s “Braveheart,” with William Wallace factoring a bit into the setup for this film.

Robert, declared King of Scotland in the early goings here, sees his numbers savagely depleted in a nighttime ambush, and the film follows his efforts to bolster support and pick off the English via guerrilla warfare. As one might expect from a movie like this, Mackenzie photographs the landscape with sweeping aplomb and stages several brutal battle scenes.

Pine does strong work as the stoic Robert (his Scottish accent is consistently sharp too), and his best scenes focus on his relationship with Elizabeth, the goddaughter of King Edward who is set into an arranged marriage with Robert before the rebellion takes shape. Elizabeth is played by Florence Pugh, who continues to be a compelling presence outside of her breakout in “Lady Macbeth” from 2016.

Several other characters populate “Outlaw King,” but with all the Scottish mud and blood, few make a strong impression outside of Aaron Taylor-Johnson as one of Robert’s more unhinged supporters. The villains, Stephen Dillane as King Edward and Billy Howle as Edward’s son and heir to the English throne, are serviceable if somewhat inessential.

The film clocks in at two hours, a good 20 minutes shorter than the cut of the movie that received a tepid response at some film festivals earlier this fall. In its current form “Outlaw King” works well when focused on Pine and Pugh, and the film delivers the proper scope for its historical significance. It’s a movie that probably would have had more impact on a big screen, so maybe sit in close to your TV.

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Monsters and Nazis meet in “Overlord”

If not for its spoiler-heavy marketing campaign, an audience could sit through the first 30 minutes of “Overlord” with the idea that it’s a straightforward, storm-the-castle-type World War II adventure.

Of course, the Nazis have some evil experiments on tap for a group of American paratroopers caught behind enemy lines. Our heroes (a small cast that includes Jovan Adepo and Wyatt Russell) are tasked with taking down a Nazi radio tower, but hidden underneath the tower sits a lab full of reanimated corpses. Things get a smidge gory.

Directed by Julius Avery (“Son of a Gun”), “Overlord” delivers satisfactory thrills while avoiding complicated and unnecessary mythology. The film is produced by J.J. Abrams and at one point was rumored to be part of the “Cloverfield” universe. Fortunately, “Overlord” avoids needless needle-threading and focuses on thrusting its charismatic young cast into ever-escalating moments of monster mayhem.

The premise and setting are enough to offset the presence of zombies, aka the most uninteresting ghouls in modern cinema.

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com