American Outlaws

Yet another pop Western all 'bout dem dang Jesse James gang varmints. But this one's different: it says nothing about them. Think Young Guns without the jokes. Farrell plays Jesse as a rumblin', tumblin' wild card with a heart for one special gal, Zee Mimms (Larter), whom he has to leave back home when railroading Yankee capitalists come swooping for war-weary Missouri farmers' land deeds. JJ's rebel running mates include his non-charismatic brother Frank (Macht), their pal Cole Younger (Caan) and various secondary saddletramps who make up numbers. Pilfering railroad cash from banks across the state, they're singularly unhampered by the attentions of Dalton's egregiously drab detective-mercenary Pinkerton. Flatfooted and flat-focused, rarely has a film been so impatient to get itself over with. Not a patch on Ang Lee's underrated Ride with the Devil.