First off I don't care if this movie doesn't represent Jesse James, or the real Jesse James at least it was the most entertaining western to come along since Tombstone. The soundtrack was great, the actors were amazingly awesome! And the humor made my day. What makes me sad is when people expect a history lesson from a movie, thats not why I go see a movie. American Outlaws is on my top five list ranking number 1 or 2 thats how good this movie was. The director did an awesome job there was so much action and just enough drama. A must see for sure, if any reviews give a bad rating because it was not the real Jesse James get over it it wasn't on the History Channel! Sorry its just I read a post that someone got angry over it not representing the real Jesse James, I actually signed up just to defend the movie. Its a really good movie and worth renting for a couple of days was one of those kind of movies that when ever there was a sale of movies I was always looking for it. : ) MUST SEE!!!

This is fun and never a "Western" in exactly the same way as "Butch Cassidy" was fun and never a "Western".Moby's music is just as anachronistic as Burt Bacharach's."American Outlaws" presents Jesse James as a "Dark Knight"if you like,a Batman but without the brooding self - pity,a superhero with a sense of fun,immortal yet vulnerable.In all likelihood of course,Mr James was a grungy amoral killer but Mr Colin Farrel plays him like a guy in a Calvin Klein ad.And do you know what?It doesn't matter.From the opening sequence when the nascent James/ Younger gang destroy half the Union Army it is plain that this is not a movie that takes itself seriously. I have never seen so many bleached teeth outside of a California Teen movie,Mr Ronny Cox as the inevitable "Doc" is particularly well - endowed in that department,although Miss Ali Larter as his daughter and Jesse's squeeze runs him close.But it's easy to be picky. There's a lot of shootin' but very little killin',much stylised balletic action and a brilliantly bad performance from Mr Timothy Dalton as the founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency whom I believe to have been of Scottish extraction,and Mr Dalton does what I can only assume to be his level best to reflect that fact. "American Outlaws" is great entertainment in a Mouseketeer kind of way and only the grumpiest of purists will begrudge it.

Yes I'm sure you could pick at the dialogue for not being 'authentic' but who cares when you get to stare at Colin Farrell for an hour and a half. There is some bad acting at moments and i was never quite brought to tears at moments i felt i should be, but if you don't take this movie too seriously you'll love it. For what its supposed to be which is a fun, aesthetically pleasing updated western it does the job excellently. All the actors deliver the comedy well but its not too overdone you feel your hearing a cliché a second. The plot is easy to sit through without hurting your head, and whilst its never 'edge of your seat' stuff, i still was uncertain as to how it would end, and i found it a rather good ending actually. Watch this with an open mind when your looking for a light-hearted, easy on the eyes kind of movie and you won't be disappointed.

As westerns go, "American Outlaws" amounts to an above-average horse opera that knows when to giddy-yap and when to giddy-up. Les Mayfield, who directed "Flubber" and "Blue Streak," stages several exhilarating but bloodless gunfights that owe their epic grandeur to Hong Kong action maestro John Woo of "Face/Off" fame as much as traditional cowboy classics like Clint Eastwood's "The Outlaw Josey Wales." While this blatantly romanticized account of the notorious Jesse James-Cole Younger gang lacks the authenticity of either "The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid" (1972) or "The Long Riders" (1980), Mayfield keeps the action going at a gallop. Moreover, writers Roderick Taylor and John Rogers have juggled the chronological order of events to heighten dramatic impact. Clearly, "American Outlaws" duplicates the surefire "Young Guns" formula, portraying Jesse as a saintly Robin Hood bandit. While Irish heartthrob Colin Farrell resembles actor Tyrone Power, who starred as Jesse James in the prototypical 1939 Technicolor version "Jesse James," he looks nothing like the real-life Jesse Woodson James. Nevertheless,western aficionados should applaud the way that Mayfield has kept the conventions of the genre intact while adding enough fresh touches to enhance this superficial but stimulating shoot'em-up."American Outlaws" covers the early years of James-Younger gang. The upbeat Taylor & Rogers script doesn't depict the tragic demise Jesse met at the hands of the double-crossing sidewinder who bushwhacked him for the bounty. This flavorful variation unfolds as the Civil War concludes. Federal troops have pinned down Frank James (Gabriel Macht of "Simply Irresistible"), Cole Younger (Scott Caan of "Varsity Blues"), and Bob Younger (Gregory Smith of "Boiler Room") with cannon fire when Jesse (Colin Farrell of "Tigerland") rides to their rescue. Mayfield establishes Jesse's hell-bent-for-leather audacity when our impetuous protagonist launches a fearless charge against an army of Yankees. Farrell imitates John Wayne in "True Grit" as he rides full-tilt into battle, blazing away with two six-shooters while he keeps his horses' reins clenched between his teeth.After surviving this fracas, our heroes return to Missouri to resume farming. Along come villainous railroad baron Thaddeus Rains (Harris Yulin of "Rush Hour 2") and henchman Rollin Parker (Terry O'Quinn of "The Stepfather") who are stealing property at two dollars-per-acre. When they approach Ma James (Kathy Bates of "Misery"), she wants her sons to gun them down. Frank convinces Ma to hold off. Rains' chief troubleshooter, Allan Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton of "License to Kill"), warns them that was Rains' only offer. Parker retaliates after the James refuse to sell and sends his ruffians to dynamite their farm. Ma James dies in the explosion, and Jesse and Frank saddle up with the Youngers to wreck vengeance on the railroad.While "American Outlaws" doesn't qualify as a classic, this better-than-average sagebrusher provides a glimpse of the old West we haven't seen in many moons. As Jesse's stalwart wife Zee Mimms, Ali Larter of "Final Destination" has a way with stopping trains dead in their tracks. A crackerjack supporting cast, especially Dalton as Pinkerton, makes "American Outlaws" fun to watch.