It fails because of a weak screenplay by Roderick Taylor and John Rogers and laden, lazy direction by Les Mayfield.
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08/14/01
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American Outlaws (2001)
13
%
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Reviews Counted:100
Fresh:13
Rotten:87
Average Rating:3.6/10
Consensus: With corny dialogue, revisionist history, anachronistic music, and a generically attractive cast, American Outlaws is a sanitized, teenybopper version of Jesse James.
Theatrical Release:Aug 17, 2001 Wide
Box Office: $11,888,985
Synopsis: Director Les Mayfield (BLUE STREAK) attempts to revamp the Western genre with yet another telling of the Jesse James story. This time around, James (Colin Farrell), older brother Frank (Gabriel... [More]
Starring: Colin Farrell, Scott Caan, Ali Larter, Gabriel Macht
Director: Les Mayfield
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Reviews for American Outlaws
In terms of plot, character development, acting, directing -- heck, even production design -- there is absolutely nothing of interest or value.
08/27/01
Guns down credible acting, believable dialogue and historical accuracy.
08/16/01
The movie has a certain faith in itself and lack of pretension that gradually wins you over.
08/17/01
The movie's presumption of ignorance on the audience's part is monumental.
08/21/01
Top CriticFrom A to Z, this is a poor man's imitation of that legendary classic, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
08/15/01
I suppose the way to watch this film, if you feel compelled to watch it by some masochistic tendency you are powerless to control, is to regard it as a comedy.
08/16/01
Top CriticYes, Outlaws follows a template, but it does so expertly and at such a lively pace that its familiarity becomes a pleasure in itself for a knowing audience.
08/17/01
Narrative techniques are so fundamentally flawed, choppy and uncreative that Outlaws plays like a ESPN highlights reel and not like a movie at all.
08/15/01
History takes a backseat to buddy-movie cliches.
08/17/01
American Outlaws may well prove to be one of the funniest comedies of the season. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be a Western.
08/17/01
A slick but mindless throwback to the kind of Western that reminds you what revisionist Westerns revised.
08/17/01
Top CriticGenerally goofy fun – whether that kind of "fun" was intentional or not.
09/09/01
Marks the second time that O'Quinn has been in Young Guns and Dalton in The Rocketeer, leading me to conclude that I've wasted too much of my life watching terrible movies.
12/30/01
Finally, some good mainstream summer entertainment.
08/15/01
so atrociously ridiculous it's entertaining
08/16/01
So devoid of a narrative, it plays like a prolonged version of the Wild West stunt show at Knott's Berry Farm.
08/20/01
Whitewashes the characters and fudges all the issues by turning a powerful group of desperadoes into all-American heroes.
08/17/01
Top CriticSo lifeless that it's enough to turn the Generation Y demographic off to the western genre completely.
08/19/01
At its best, American Outlaws is absurd; at its worst, it’s tedious and laughable.
02/26/02
Latest News for American Outlaws
June 05, 2001:
Another example of the 'old story, young cast' formula that has been more and more common in recent years. 
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June 05, 2001:
Working in the studio's favor is the casting of Farrell -- who went from zero to must have hot young thing in 2.7 seconds after starring in last year's Vietnam era drama Tigerland.
More...
June 05, 2001:
Red-hot Irishman Farrell stars as the young Jesse James, who leads his pretty-boy posse against a scheming railroad baron.
More...
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