Strangely enough, American Outlaws did not do all that well in its opening weekend. I say "strangely enough" because I actually thought it was a good movie (and not to be sarcastic like I usually am). It's a Hollywood take on Frank and Jesse James and perhaps doing a bit too much revisionist history to make them look "cool". Some great gunfight scenes make this movie pretty interesting to watch. (Writing of fight scenes, I also saw the preview for The Musketeer and the fight scenes shown were breathtaking, definitely *not* period-style fighting, but awe-inspiring nevertheless.)

We start out viewing a pastoral scene. A column of riders travelling down a road, obviously some sort of military group since one of them is holding up a battle standard (looks like the Texas flag), though the riders are not uniformed. Suddenly, they take fire from the flank. It's a Union infantry company! A cannon blares, a gatling gun chatters, and rifle fire tears through the troop as the men take cover.

Pinned down, the Confederates need a sharpshooter up front. "Get James down here?" "Jesse?" "No, the one that can shoot!" Frank (Gabriel Macht) moves up and starts shooting at the artillerymen, then punches a whole in an ammunition box and blowing it up, taking out the cannon. But the gatling gun turns its attention on Frank, preventing him from firing on it. They need a distraction. "That's all?" says Jesse (Colin Farrell) with a smile before sprinting off. "Oh God, he's smiling."

The Union infantry charges forward. Jesse bursts through the woods on horseback, twin revolvers blazing (at least when their empty he draws another pair, and then a last gun for a total of five on his body). The gatling gun swerves to track Jesse and that's when James pops up and shoots all three gatling gun operators (God bless repeating rifles!). The Union boys are routed and the Rangers are triumphant again!

It's only later that day that they find out that Lee surrendered a day or two ago. So now it's back home to Missouri and the civilian life. But things are not going well in Liberty. A Union garrison is stationed there and the railroad has been pressuring farmers to sell their land. Frank and Jesse visit Doc Mimms (Ronny Cox) and his now grown up daughter Zee (Ali Larter) to break the news that his son was killed in battle. "You should have seen him charging the Union cannon and gatling. He saved us all."

Back at home with Ma James (Kathy Bates), railroad representative Rollin Parker (Terry O'Quinn) along with railroad consultant Allan Pinkerton (founder of the detective agency, played by Timothy Dalton) offer to buy the James land "as a favor". Naturally they refuse. Later on Cole Younger (Scott Caan), cousin of Jesse and James and along with his brother Bob (Will McCormack) also part of that Rebel cavalry troop, is brought up on charges and is to be hanged. The boys break him out and things die down for a bit.

Enter Thaddeus Rains (Harris Yulin), principal owner of the railroad. Now that the Union garrison moves away, Rains orders his men to "fill the power vacuum". That night the Pinkerton men strike, burning down farms and by-the- way killing Ma James. Now it's war. But the boys know that they can't win by killing railroad workers. They have to strike where the stockholders will feel it: their bank accounts. So Jesse and Frank, joined by Cole, Bob, and their younger brother Jim (Gregory Smith), as well as three others embark on a spree of crime, robbing banks and striking at railroad depots. It's all heading down to a confrontation between Jesse and Allan Pinkerton.

Ok, that's enough of the first half of the movie. As I said, the gunfights are stellar. Since Jesse and the gang are the heroes, they have to have a righteous cause or otherwise the audience won't sympathise. Hence the evil railroad and killing Ma. Not that I have any problem with that, it makes for a more entertaining movie. The movie doesn't follow through to the bitter end (not that I know how Frank and Jesse were finally brought to justice) but that gives it a nice ending. It's a good movie and I think more generally entertaining than Captain Corelli's Mandolin which I also saw this weekend. It's too bad it hasn't done well so far at the box office, but advertising has been practically nonexistant as far as I can tell.