American Outlaws (2001)

The Indiana Jones Version.

The legend of the James/Younger gang gets another outing in this fanciful actioner that's guaranteed to have history buffs frothing at the mouth.

It very much comes off as a Western primed for the MTV generation, a young spunky cast are assembled and the action kitchen sink is thrown at the piece where ever possible. There's lashings of cool on show, some sexiness, and the prime action sequences are exciting. Yet it just comes off as soulless, something emphasised by the awful score and soundtrack.

Acting is OK, particularly from Timothy Dalton as Allan Pinkerton, the man tasked with bringing down Colin Farrell's Jesse James - this whilst having a grudging respect for the outlaw - while Gabriel Macht puts some assured calmness into the role of Frank James. Elsewhere everyone else is having fun even though they be hamstrung by the script.

There's hints of thought, such as the power of celebrity status and corporate greed, but these are few and far between, for this is what it is, an action film that works on that level only. 5/10

SPOILERS AHEAD! "American Outlaws" is cinematic proof that the American public will watch just about anything, even a film that makes "Young Guns" look like "The Searchers."

Colin Farrell is Jesse James and Gabriel Macht plays his brother Frank. After the film opens with perhaps the most fun ever had at a Civil War battle, the Jameses and Youngers head home to Missouri. There, evil railroad executives have moved into the state in record time and are trying to buy everyone's land to build a railroad. Farms are burned, people killed, and the Youngers and Jameses have had it. After Ma James (Kathy Bates, here for the paycheck) is killed in an attack, the guys decide to stick it to the man by robbing banks where the railroad company does business. The rest of the film is a series of explosions as the gang robs, Allan Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton) tries to track James down, and the boys escape from one pickle to another.

This film is stupid. So stupid. First of all, all the characters are straight out of a screenplay seminar: Jesse the dashing hero, Zee (Ali Larter) his love interest, Frank the smart one, Cole Younger (Scott Caan) the hothead, Bob Younger (Will McCormack) the "funny" one, Jim Younger (Gregory Smith) the boy who you know will die, Tom (Nathaniel Arcand) the politically correct Native American Indigenous People Indian Scout guy whose sole function here is to add some color to the cast of white guys, Rains (Harris Yulin) and Parker (Terry O'Quinn) are the villains, Ma James is the religious nut who has no problem with guns and killin', and Pinkerton, who enjoys the chase of James more than the capture. All the young men wear cool clothes and brandish magical pistols that reload themselves. Thank goodness everyone over thirty five is an idiot, so as these rascally killers can go John Woo/Chow Yun Fat all over their gold-filled rumps and do serious damage without ever killing an innocent bystander. Electric guitar riffs fill the soundtrack, and the film goes through all its preordained set pieces where the outcome has already been determined yet the film makers treat them as if they invented the genre. If you need to see cute guys without their shirts on, go online. If you need to see a decent western, watch anything but this. The entire cast and crew should be ashamed of themselves for coming up with this and shooting it. Did we learn nothing from "The Brady Bunch," when Bobby worshiped Jesse James until Mike brought home the son of one of the outlaw's victims? Why is that decades old sitcom more responsible than this dung? Wanna know the kicker to this whole migraine of a movie? Ma James is killed, prompting the boys to take revenge on the railroad. In real life, she outlived Jesse by almost forty years.

Avoid "American Outlaws" like you would the popular girl at the brothel.

**_Rousing, mythmaking account of the James-Younger Gang with Colin Farrell & Scott Caan_**

This is yet another rendition of Jesse James, Cole Younger and their Gang. It 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.

The flick is highlighted by a great cast with palpable chemistry, including Colin Farrell as Jesse, Scott Caan 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 meshed with "Young Guns." You can tell the cast had a blast during shooting. 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, Mississippi, Louisiana and Missouri). Also, Mrs. James' abode was bombed, but she survived, although she lost an arm, not to mention that event took place a full five years after the gang was formed. Other than this, the historicity is pretty butchered for the sake of rollicking Western entertainment.

Even though "American Outlaws" loses points for inaccuracies and implausibilities, it scores well 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 or so in action and "The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid" the gang's final bank robbery, near a 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 movie de-glamorizes it, making it profane, ugly and idiotic.

It's short 'n' sweet at 1h 34m and was shot Jul-Oct 2000 in Central-East Texas (in places like Bastrop, Wimberley, Dripping Springs, Palestine and Rusk) with the Florida sequence done in Tierra Verde at the entrance to Tampa Bay.

GRADE: B/B-