Horrible insult to the tradition of westerns, 'American Outlaws' is worthwhile only as another stepping stone in the career of Colin Farrell. He's horrible as much as anyone in the cast, but he'll be in much better movies as a rule, soon...For now, he can be forgiven this.

James brothers are portrayed as nitwits who grimace when their 'WANTED' poster does not look like them..then later, when the poster has been improved (but the movie has not),they smile.

One of their group is old enough to order a milk shake so naturally he's the first to go. He must have won the pool.

Kathy Bates and Timothy Dalton - one question..did you owe back taxes?

Gabriel Macht is the only actor who has an clue what's going on, and he's also the only one who looks like he's from that period. All the rest have designer haircuts and Scott Caan even got a tint job. None of the dialogue is suited to the era, either; they all might as well be meeting at a rave.

See 'The Long Riders', 'Tombstone', anything else.. 1/10. John Ford is weeping somewhere.

If you're not too concerned about historical accuracy, this is an adequate time filler, but so much of it is made up that if you know something about the James-Younger Gang, you'll wind up shaking your head. Irishman Colin Farrell as the infamous Western outlaw would be your first head scratcher, with poetic license galore on display throughout the picture. For example, Ma James (Kathy Bates) wasn't killed in the explosion initiated by Pinkerton agents at the family homestead in Missouri, though a younger half brother of Jesse's was. Nor was cousin Jim Younger killed in a posse chase following the robbery of the Hyperion Bank; all three of the Youngers were involved with Frank and Jesse in the disastrous Great Northfield Minnesota Bank Robbery of 1876, in which all the Youngers were wounded and later captured trying to escape.

What this story does get right is the rivalry between Cole Younger (Scott Caan) and Jesse for leadership of their gang, with Jesse attaining that status by virtue of his flamboyant manner and daring exploits. Their image as bandits gained something of a Robin Hood like status when their targets included corrupt bankers, businessmen and politicians. It wasn't until after the Pinkerton bombing that public opinion began to turn against the gang. The idea that Jesse and Allan Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton) came to some sort of agreement to overlook Jesse's crimes if he moved to Tennessee is another one of the big fictions the movie has to offer.

There are better movie treatments of Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang for Western movie fans, and one of the best is 2007's "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". It's a stunningly visual film, with cinematography that will take your breath away, focusing more on Jesse and his relationship with the man who eventually came to murder him. For action fans, you'd be hard pressed to find a better stunt scene than the one filmed in "The Long Riders", with it's choreographed slow motion horse jump through the windows of a shop during the escape from the Northfield Minnesota Raid. Both are well recommended for their story lines and reliance on historical facts.

I suspect that western outlaws Jesse James and Billy the Kid will fascinate us and be subjects for an endless number of films. In this case the action of the film stops well short of his dramatic and sudden end. For that you view The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford.

Probably the film closest to the actual facts is the one that starred Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter as Jesse and Frank James. American Outlaws however gives Cole Younger and his brothers their due. The Youngers were cousins of the James. Younger like Frank James lived past their outlaw days in the old west and died in bed.

Colin Farrell in the way he plays Jesse is very suggestive of Tyrone Power in his reckless swashbuckling manner where he takes up the outlaw trade after losing his mother to railroad greed in grabbing up farms for a right of way. They messed with the wrong brothers because these guys learned about waging war under William Quantrill and his raiders. Some of southern persuasion say the James and Younger brothers were just the last rebels to surrender. Gabriel Macht plays a more loquacious and educated version than the most famous Frank James of all Henry Fonda.

Scott Caan is Cole Younger and this is a man concerned with billing. No one is going to take any credit away from the Youngers in the exploits of the gang. Kathy Bates is the tragic James mother and Ali Larter is Jesse's wife Zerelda who in this version might have understudied Belle Starr.

Timothy Dalton is Allan Pinkerton charged by the railroad with bringing in the outlaws any way he can. Unlike in a lot of versions Pinkerton is shown as ruthless, but he has a healthy respect for the skill these outlaws employ. Harris Yulin plays the railroad president who is the author of all the miseries sustained by the James/Younger gang.

I'm actually surprised that another Jesse James film came out so soon after Rob Lowe essayed the part and did it well in his Jesse James film. Both are well done films in the spirit of the legend of Jesse James and his exploits.

American Outlaws ain't history, but it's a crackling good western.