Wuchak Released in 2001, "American Outlaws" is yet another rendition of Jesse James, Cole Younger and their Gang. This one focuses on the end of the Civil War and the first few years of the gang's activities,which lasted a whole decade in reality, from 1866-76, ending with the foiled Northfield, Minnesota, bank robbery on September 7, 1876. Jesse & Frank escaped while the others were captured or died. While Frank tried to settle down to a normal life in Virginia Jesse restarted the gang in 1879, but was shot by Robert Ford, one of his trusted gang members on April 3, 1882."American Outlaws" is highlighted by a great cast with palpable chemistry, including Colin Farrell as Jesse, Scott Caan (aka 'Danno') as Cole, the beautiful Ali Larter as Zee, Jesse's girlfriend/wife, and Timothy Dalton as the lead Pinkerton. Gabriel Macht, Will McCormack, Nathaniel Arcand and Gregory Smith are also on hand as notable members of the gang. The film plays it fairly serious accented by a fun, joie de vivre spirit, sorta like Indiana Jones in the wild West. You can tell the cast had a blast during filming. This is the exact opposite of the grim "The Long Riders" from 1980, which is arguably the best and most accurate film about the James-Younger Gang. As far as historical accuracy goes with "American Outlaws," well, there was a group of outlaws in Missouri called the James-Younger Gang and they did rob banks, trains, and stagecoaches in Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, West Virginia and Minnesota (whereas Jesse's later group continued the gangs' criminal legacy in Alabama, Missouri, Louisiana and Mississippi), other than this the historicity is pretty butchered for the sake of rousing Western entertainment. See "The Long Riders" for a more austere and accurate version of the tale.BOTTOM LINE: Even though "American Outlaws" loses points for inaccuracies and implausibilities, it scores high in overall entertainment value. It's a turn-off-your-brain-and-have-a-blast kind of Western. The movie performed poorly at the box office in 2001 and Roger Ebert gave it a scathing review. Ebert compared it to 1972's "The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid," which he praised. This was strange because that film wasn't exactly realistic either; in fact, it's a veritable parody or black comedy. These movies shouldn't be compared in the first place since "American Outlaws" details the gang's first year in action and "The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid" the gang's final bank robbery, a whole decade later. Furthermore, the two films are expressly opposite in tone: "American Outlaws" makes the wild West larger-than-life and ALMOST fun while the other film de-glamorizes it, making it profane, ugly and idiotic. In any event, "American Outlaws" is seriously rollicking Western lore worthy of one's video library. The film was shot in Central-East Texas (great locations, by the way) and runs a short-but-sweet 94 minutes.GRADE: B

dontspamme-11 I am not sure what this movie was aiming for. Entertainment? Fail. A historical expose? Fail. Plot? Fail. Acting? Hahaha....."Lame" does not adequately describe this Hollywood trash. Comparing this movie to other movies of the same genre (eg. "Young Guns") just insults the other movies. All of rave reviews here come across as if they are written by 12 year old girls, and even then it's a bit shocking for me to see them gushing and fawning over this poor excuse for a movie. It's hard to imagine how anyone with even a single brain cell kicking would find this trash to be enjoyable. This film receives one star from me because I can't give half-stars on IMDb.

rbrb Atrocious insult to western movies, and maybe the worst cowboy film ever. The one who plays Jesse James has an Irish accent and in common with all the cast he cannot act.The script is awful and the story seems to be acted out by a bunch of 3rd class hams or amateurs.The players cannot make up their minds if this is a farce or a melodrama. The "love" interest is some whining screechy cow who is a total turn off. This nonsense glorifies the killer criminals and their gang but everyone else is either a villain or in awe of them.What "special needs" case created this film?! 1/10

FloatingOpera7 American Outlaws (2001): Colin Farrell, Scott Caan, Gabriel Macht, Gregory Smith, Kathy Bates, Timothy Dalton, Al Larter, Harris Yulin, Will McCormack, Ronny Cox, Terry O'Quinn, Nathaniel Arcand, Joe Stevens, Ty O'Neal, Barry Tub, Tom Schuster, Robin Christian McNair, Brad Leland, Brady Coleman, Richard Jones, Jerry Cotton, Muse Watson, Ron Hayden, Riley Flynn, Shawn Patrick Nash, Kirk Hunter, David Jachin Kelley, Phillip Olivas, Frank Matthews, Chris Warner...Director Les Mayfield, Screenplay Roderic Taylor, John Rogers.American Outlaws from Director Les Mayfield, released in 2001, starred Colin Farrell, a rising star, as Jesse James. Essentially, this was about how Jesse James became the famed outlaw and it looks back at his youth in a sort of pre-quel to all subsequent Jesse James movies. Westerns on film have long enjoyed immense success. This film followed in the tradition of great Western-themed movies like Young Guns and Tombstone, though it did not do very well at the box office, possibly because this film uses humor to counter the action, in much the same way that "Maverick" with Mel Gibson did. Colin Farrell stars as a young Jesse James, who returns to his quiet home and mother (Kathy Bates) only to discover that a corrupt baron (Timothy Dalton) intends to buy the deeds to various homes and properties in order to build a railroad over them. It's up to Jesse and his band of brothers to fight off the bad guys and save his home. The film co-stars handsome Scott Caan, son of actor James Caan, in one of his better movies and roles as Cole, Jesse's brother. Gabriel Macht and Gregory Smith are the other brothers. Timothy Dalton, used to doing some "cruel guy" roles, is able to play the villain with natural ease. The music by Trevor Rabin is exhilarating and pulsating, the cinematography by Russell Boyd is larger-than-life, with vast town scenes and desert scenes. The writing/script is well done, with humorous touches here and there that provide relief from all the action. Because the film has some violence, it has either an R rating or PG-13 rating. It's one of the few Western films in recent years that I've enjoyed. Check out "American Outlaws".