American Outlaws

I like Western movies. I wished Hollywood made more Western movies. So, when Hollywood does decide to quell the hunger of a Western flick fan by making one...how can one resist?

I have to say I enjoyed "American Outlaws". It isn't hard-core Western but a fun, likeable summer movie. I liked the cast of this film. Colin Farrell was fun to watch as Jesse James but I absolutely loved Gabriel Macht as his older brother Frank. Bill McCormack was funny as Bob Younger and even Scott Caan, whom you aren't sure if you should like or not gave a good performance as Cole Younger.

I liked the twist this movie offers painting the James/Younger gang as the good guys and the Pinkerton's as the bad guys. It was different and that's what made it fun.

Sure this film isn't historically accurate but who cares?? Some have complained that the shooting scenes weren't realistic enough...who cares?? Do we really need so much violence to feel satisfied? Do we need to see how a bullet ravages the human body to feel that a Western is worth while? The point is made well enough without all the blood and gore. Don't let these pointless anecdotes deter you from watching this movie. You might be surprised! I certainly was.

"American Outlaws" is a fun, family movie. We should thank Warner Bros. for making a film/Western that our kids can watch without all the other junk (bad language, nudity, sexual innuendos etc.) that inundates most movies today! If you like Westerns and even if you don't, check this one out!

I knew not to expect much from AMERICAN OUTLAWS. The glory days of westerns are long gone, and the new ones can't all be SILVERADOs and WYATT EARPs. But I was expecting to at least have a fun time, even if it was another film that portrayed real-life bad guys as the "heroes" of the movie.

Even on just a level of pure entertainment, AMERICAN OUTLAWS didn't score that well. I'm not sure why, but this film was just bland most of the time, and the actors (despite some talented ones in the parts) just seemed to walk through the performances, as if they were simply trying to just get the whole thing over with. Even the versatile Timothy Dalton seemed to be at a lost as to what to do.

And the characters themselves were terrible. By the end of the film, we still knew nothing about any of them. I like to have at least some understanding of the characters in a film. Whether they're the good guys or the bad guys, at least give me something about them to understand, sympathize with, or relate to. Sure, Frank and Jessie wanted revenge for a personal tragedy, but the depiction of that tragedy is handled so lazily we often forget about it for the rest of the film. The other characters tagging along with the brothers do so to make a stand against the railroad tycoon (Harris Yulin), but again, we don't get anything from them personally to make us root for their success.

A couple of the action scenes are nicely-executed, if sometimes over the top. The Hyperion job is the standout sequence of the entire film, as the James-Younger gang must fight their way out of a trap while attempting to rob a bank. And Trevor Rabin's exciting score (which I had already bought a few months ago and really enjoyed) helped make some of the boring parts seem more important.

Perhaps if the script had treated the material seriously and if the director had stayed awake during the shoot, it might have at least passed as a good time-waster for a dull Saturday night.

I thought this movie would be awful, but I was surprised. This film is not great, and done on a low budget, but has some entertainment value. They have the James gang portrayed as good guys in this film, not a realistic version. Timothy Dalton plays a good role as Pinkerton. In the end this film is a little like Raiders of the Lost Ark.

It's not the Long Riders and it's not Who shot Jesse James. It's loosely factual and sometimes comical. Make up your own mind. It's entertaining and isn't that what movies are supposed to be?

You know, it makes me laugh when I read other people's negative reviews on this movie. Yeah, this movie is riddled with historical inaccuracies and all the outlaws are so darn young and good looking, but hey, that's not the point. I don't think this movie was meant to be a serious study about Frank and Jesse James. This movie was made strictly to entertain and to make people laugh.

One already knows from the first five minutes into the movie that this is a comedy/action movie. I enjoyed it for what it was, mindless entertainment! Yeah, Colin Farrell is HOT! As a matter of fact, the rest of the outlaws are all very young and cute. Even if the females audience do not care much for the plot or for the cartoon violence, I'm sure they would get some visceral thrill out of seeing all these good looking young guys together on the screen. The male audience will enjoy the humor and the fight scenes and big explosions and Ali Larter, the pretty blonde actress that plays Zee. Ali Larter reminds me of the models in the old 1970s' shampoo commercials, all shiny blonde hair and big smiles.

This movie was fun to watch from beginning to end. I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a fun action comedy.

By the way, now that the DVD is out, I hope everyone catches the deleted scenes from the movie. They are very good. It's a shame these scenes were not included into the movie, they would've showed a little more depth to the characters of Frank and Jesse James.