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      American Outlaws

      PG-13 Released Aug 17, 2001 1 hr. 33 min. Western Action List
      13% 102 Reviews Tomatometer 67% 25,000+ Ratings Audience Score After the Civil War ends, Confederate soldiers Frank (Gabriel Macht) and Jesse James (Colin Farrell) return home with the three Younger brothers to learn that railroad baron Thaddeus Rains (Harris Yulin) is trying to drive Missouri citizens out of their homes. When both families resist, the James boys' mother (Kathy Bates) is murdered. Furious, the two groups of brothers team up for a series of robberies designed to hurt the railroad. Detective Allan Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton) pursues them. Read More Read Less

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      Critics Consensus

      With corny dialogue, revisionist history, anachronistic music, and a generically attractive cast, American Outlaws is a sanitized, teenybopper version of Jesse James.

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      Audience Reviews

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      Farah R American Outlaws is more like a music video than a movie. The acting is corny, the story is weak, and the whole thing is wrapped in cliches. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 10/06/23 Full Review Brian D I was laughing hysterically and then realized it wasn't a comedy and then I laughed even harder. Who wrote this movie?? This movie was a bad excuse for the actors to take their shirts off. I didn't know they had pompadours in the 1871. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 07/10/23 Full Review Audience Member Jesse James (George Stults) and his brother Frank (Tim Abell) have emerged from a robbery gone wrong and Jesse is healing up with the help of Carrie (Siri Baruc) and Mary (Lauren Eckstrom). They don't know that Marhsall Kane (Peter Fonda, who started his career making low budget Roger Corman films and fits in just fine here) is coming after them as well as his men making a play for the money and leaving the brothers in the cold. How do you feel about day for night? Do you love it? Would you be happy just to have Jeffrey Combs show up for a little bit? Will you watch every western there is? Are you a fan of Fred Olen Ray or perhaps writing an entire week of a web site about his movies? There's still someone on IMDB that's calling out the historical and weapon accuracy of Ray's movies, such as how the movie is set in the 1860s and civilians are carrying Colt Model 1873 Single Action Army revolvers — which weren't available to the general population until 1875 or later — and none of the guns recoil when they're shot. I appreciate the writer's attention to detail and invite them to write for the site. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review tom m Reasonably entertaining. The dialogue was a bit stilted, but I guess it's a 20 year old production so it may not have aged all that well. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Vastly inaccurate depiction of the Jesse James gang. Colin Farrell does everything he can to carry the bitter plot. There are some decent action sequences here and there. This is a corny and forgettable Western movie. Definitely wasted a good story with mediocre execution. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member With the exception of a handful of tightly-done action sequences, this really is more of a train wreck than a train robbery. Unless you paid for a ticket, in which case it was closer to robbery. Colin Farrell essentially does not keep a lid on his densely Irish accent and almost seems like he made no attempt to sound Missourian, unlike the comically overacted cast of forgettable and campy outlaws around him. Furthermore, this story has literally nothing to do with the life and times of Jesse and Frank James or Cole Younger and brothers, except that the characters are all named for real people. Not one single one of these events is even marginally grounded in reality, unless you count grandiose retellings of heists as faithful historical filmmaking. The movie plays more along the lines of "Stand By Me," with the cast giving the impression of immature, teenage rebels doing nothing truly wrong; damn what those rich adults trying to build a railroad and run the US Army think. They just don't understand high school. The dialogue is upsettingly poor and is lousy with patriotic platitudes, forced catchphrases and Nickelodeon-caliber banter between what are supposed to be hardened killers. It's all the more jarring, then, when a real action sequence breaks the total lack of tension and shows some blood. God bless Kathy Bates for putting her lifeless post-Misery star power behind this disaster, and God help the screen writers who gave her literally like 7 lines. Shockingly, this movie has quite a few then-contemporary and future stars who must have kept this off their CVs going forward. Pass. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

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      Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Rated: D+ Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Nell Minow Common Sense Media Silly western revisits Jesse James. Rated: 3/5 Dec 21, 2010 Full Review Jamie Russell BBC.com The kind of film that will have you throwing your popcorn at the screen in disgust. Rated: 2/5 Dec 17, 2001 Full Review Ken Hanke Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) Let's cast a lot of cute boys as the James/Younger gang. In between hold-ups, they can bicker about who's the cutest and, oh yeah, they can take their shirts off a lot. Rated: 2/5 Jun 16, 2013 Full Review Kit Bowen Hollywood.com Rated: 2/5 Nov 20, 2008 Full Review Mark Halverson Sacramento News & Review Rated: 1/5 Aug 7, 2008 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis After the Civil War ends, Confederate soldiers Frank (Gabriel Macht) and Jesse James (Colin Farrell) return home with the three Younger brothers to learn that railroad baron Thaddeus Rains (Harris Yulin) is trying to drive Missouri citizens out of their homes. When both families resist, the James boys' mother (Kathy Bates) is murdered. Furious, the two groups of brothers team up for a series of robberies designed to hurt the railroad. Detective Allan Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton) pursues them.
      Director
      Les Mayfield
      Executive Producer
      Jonathan A. Zimbert
      Screenwriter
      Roderick Taylor, John Rogers
      Distributor
      Warner Bros. Pictures
      Production Co
      Morgan Creek Productions
      Rating
      PG-13 (Western Violence)
      Genre
      Western, Action
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Aug 17, 2001, Wide
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Dec 1, 2017
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $13.3M
      Sound Mix
      Dolby Stereo, Dolby A, SDDS, DTS, Surround, Dolby Digital, Dolby SR
      Aspect Ratio
      Flat (1.85:1)
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