American Outlaws (2001)

So much average

Simply A Masterpiece

How sad is this?

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Brothers Frank James (Gabriel Macht) and Jesse James (Collin Farrell) return home after the war with their confederate friends Cole Younger (Scott Caan) and his brothers. Jesse finds Zee Mimms (Ali Larter) all grown up. Railroad baron Thaddeus Rains (Harris Yulin) and his muscle Allan Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton) are forcing local landowners to sell their land cheap. They have the Army on their side. The boys form the James Younger gang to rob trains in revenge.The problem starts with Jesse James letting the young Union soldier escape in the heat of a savage battle. Next we're introduced to Zee with Ali Larter doing a hair flip like a model doing a shampoo commercial. Finally, Farrell and Caan are shirtless and spritz down with water. It's ten minutes in and I want to give up. It's trying to be Young Guns but it's nowhere near as fun. Estevez understood the idea and played up the camp. Farrell may not understand that this is not a serious movie. I don't think anybody sees it except possibly Caan. Even as camp, the actors are way too pretty. It's frustrating.

I suspect that western outlaws Jesse James and Billy the Kid will fascinate us and be subjects for an endless number of films. In this case the action of the film stops well short of his dramatic and sudden end. For that you view The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. Probably the film closest to the actual facts is the one that starred Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter as Jesse and Frank James. American Outlaws however gives Cole Younger and his brothers their due. The Youngers were cousins of the James. Younger like Frank James lived past their outlaw days in the old west and died in bed.Colin Farrell in the way he plays Jesse is very suggestive of Tyrone Power in his reckless swashbuckling manner where he takes up the outlaw trade after losing his mother to railroad greed in grabbing up farms for a right of way. They messed with the wrong brothers because these guys learned about waging war under William Quantrill and his raiders. Some of southern persuasion say the James and Younger brothers were just the last rebels to surrender. Gabriel Macht plays a more loquacious and educated version than the most famous Frank James of all Henry Fonda.Scott Caan is Cole Younger and this is a man concerned with billing. No one is going to take any credit away from the Youngers in the exploits of the gang. Kathy Bates is the tragic James mother and Ali Larter is Jesse's wife Zerelda who in this version might have understudied Belle Starr.Timothy Dalton is Allan Pinkerton charged by the railroad with bringing in the outlaws any way he can. Unlike in a lot of versions Pinkerton is shown as ruthless, but he has a healthy respect for the skill these outlaws employ. Harris Yulin plays the railroad president who is the author of all the miseries sustained by the James/Younger gang.I'm actually surprised that another Jesse James film came out so soon after Rob Lowe essayed the part and did it well in his Jesse James film. Both are well done films in the spirit of the legend of Jesse James and his exploits.American Outlaws ain't history, but it's a crackling good western.

... Im gonna make this short. If historical inaccuracy and bad accents bother you than you will probably hate this movie. Those of us who don't have a stick up our tush, however, can enjoy a fun action flick. This is a romanticized fictional story about Jessie James and his war personal war on the railroad.This isn't like the dark and gritty westerns that all the liberal critics rave about. This wont leave you walking way considering jumping off a bridge because your so disgusted or depressed. It's a fun and exciting action movie.In reality I'd probably only give it 6 or 7 stars but I wanted to offset the 1 star reviews as much as possible.

As westerns go, "American Outlaws" amounts to an above-average horse opera that knows when to giddy-yap and when to giddy-up. Les Mayfield, who directed "Flubber" and "Blue Streak," stages several exhilarating but bloodless gunfights that owe their epic grandeur to Hong Kong action maestro John Woo of "Face/Off" fame as much as traditional cowboy classics like Clint Eastwood's "The Outlaw Josey Wales." While this blatantly romanticized account of the notorious Jesse James-Cole Younger gang lacks the authenticity of either "The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid" (1972) or "The Long Riders" (1980), Mayfield keeps the action going at a gallop. Moreover, writers Roderick Taylor and John Rogers have juggled the chronological order of events to heighten dramatic impact. Clearly, "American Outlaws" duplicates the surefire "Young Guns" formula, portraying Jesse as a saintly Robin Hood bandit. While Irish heartthrob Colin Farrell resembles actor Tyrone Power, who starred as Jesse James in the prototypical 1939 Technicolor version "Jesse James," he looks nothing like the real-life Jesse Woodson James. Nevertheless,western aficionados should applaud the way that Mayfield has kept the conventions of the genre intact while adding enough fresh touches to enhance this superficial but stimulating shoot'em-up."American Outlaws" covers the early years of James-Younger gang. The upbeat Taylor & Rogers script doesn't depict the tragic demise Jesse met at the hands of the double-crossing sidewinder who bushwhacked him for the bounty. This flavorful variation unfolds as the Civil War concludes. Federal troops have pinned down Frank James (Gabriel Macht of "Simply Irresistible"), Cole Younger (Scott Caan of "Varsity Blues"), and Bob Younger (Gregory Smith of "Boiler Room") with cannon fire when Jesse (Colin Farrell of "Tigerland") rides to their rescue. Mayfield establishes Jesse's hell-bent-for-leather audacity when our impetuous protagonist launches a fearless charge against an army of Yankees. Farrell imitates John Wayne in "True Grit" as he rides full-tilt into battle, blazing away with two six-shooters while he keeps his horses' reins clenched between his teeth.After surviving this fracas, our heroes return to Missouri to resume farming. Along come villainous railroad baron Thaddeus Rains (Harris Yulin of "Rush Hour 2") and henchman Rollin Parker (Terry O'Quinn of "The Stepfather") who are stealing property at two dollars-per-acre. When they approach Ma James (Kathy Bates of "Misery"), she wants her sons to gun them down. Frank convinces Ma to hold off. Rains' chief troubleshooter, Allan Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton of "License to Kill"), warns them that was Rains' only offer. Parker retaliates after the James refuse to sell and sends his ruffians to dynamite their farm. Ma James dies in the explosion, and Jesse and Frank saddle up with the Youngers to wreck vengeance on the railroad.While "American Outlaws" doesn't qualify as a classic, this better-than-average sagebrusher provides a glimpse of the old West we haven't seen in many moons. As Jesse's stalwart wife Zee Mimms, Ali Larter of "Final Destination" has a way with stopping trains dead in their tracks. A crackerjack supporting cast, especially Dalton as Pinkerton, makes "American Outlaws" fun to watch.