"American Outlaws" review

American Outlaws (2001)

Directed by Les Mayfield
Writing credits Roderick Taylor

Colin Farrell.... Jesse James
Scott Caan.... Cole Younger
Ali Larter.... Zerelda 'Zee' Mimms
Gabriel Macht.... Frank James

My Dad and I went to see this one. If I had any doubt as to what to expect from this movie, the trailers set me straight. Usually before an action flick, the theater will put up other action/thriller trailers in anticipation of a certain audience. Imagine my horror when the first trailer to come up was "Summer Catch" about heartbreak and baseball. Other teen heartthrob trailers followed. My Dad and I looked down with shame. Suckered again.

So a boy band decides to put on western clothes and pretend to be cowboys. They're a fun loving bank robbing gang. The name of this game was cheese. Modern rock tunes are blasting over the action. Everybody's hair was perfect. A scene near the end sums it up perfectly:

*SPOILER ON ENDING*

So the lawmen have captured the head outlaw. They are transporting him on a train. All of a sudden, in the middle of the track, stands the outlaws supermodel wife with a cannon! She lights the fuse and blasts the train. She then turns to the other members of the gang and says, "Now go and git my husband." If that level of cheese is within your tolerance limit, you might like this movie. As for me, all I could see was Hollywood running rampage over the Western genre with their pretty faces and inane dialogue.

SCORE: 1.5 out of 4 outlaw pop starsThe Wild West outlaws were well known for their perfect hair and blonde supermodel wives. This movie captures the time perfectly.