Luckily for the makers of ''American Outlaws,'' Jesse James (Colin Farrell), his brother Frank (Gabriel Macht) and their cousin Cole Younger (Scott Caan) seem to have arrived on the scene just in time for the invention of the electric guitar. It wails on the soundtrack and makes this western, which doubtless considers itself to be a reimagining (as did ''Planet of the Apes''), sound as if it came from the mind of Jon Bon Jovi.

　　  

　　 Directed with anonymous pep by Les Mayfield, ''Outlaws'' is a dreary populist telling of the story of the James gang. And the Bon Jovi reference is apropos, since the movie treats the fellas like a touring band that breaks up because of feuding egos and the stresses of the road. Cole, incensed over the news focus on the James boys, wants to share the billing. In fact, as their notoriety grows, Cole wants top billing -- the Younger-James Gang -- leading to ruminative riffing by his amiable brother Bob (Will McCormack): ''Wouldn't people wonder if there was an older James gang?''

　　  

　　 It would need only a drug casualty to turn into ''Behind the Music: Jesse James,'' though -- choke, sob -- the James tour does claim a couple of lives, and it's easy to predict which ones.

　　  

　　 This could be the story of any disintegrating band, except that in this group, the Jameses complete each other, as someone said in ''Jerry Maguire.'' Their personalities are worked out in the kind of schematics taught in screenwriting classes. Frank is the plotter and Jesse is all impulse. At the outset, Union soldiers ambush a group of unsuspecting Rebels that includes Jesse, Frank and Cole. Pinned behind a wagon by both cannon and Gatling gunfire, the sharpshooter Frank asks Jesse for a diversion. A smile pulling at the corners of his face, Jesse creates an eye-catching one.

　　  

　　 At various moments, ''American Outlaws'' looks as if it wants to try something different and make Jesse an infantile psychopath who is awakened by his taste for violence. He lights up when he has a gun in his hand, but he has no conflicts about his nature; he may make you long for the Chekhovian depth of Emilio Estevez's Billy the Kid in the ''Young Guns'' movies. (Missing is the epic emotional scale of previous James Gang movies like ''The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid'' and ''The Long Riders,'' both worth seeking out.)

　　  

　　 ''American Outlaws'' paints all of its young stars as happy guys, so uncomplicated that they're thrilled to hear that Lee has surrendered at Appomattox; none of them seem bothered by the fact that the South has just lost the war. Upon returning home, they find that the railroad tycoon Thaddeus Rains (Harris Yulin) is behind a scheme to run them off their farms. (In this age of entertainment conglomerates like AOL-Time Warner, it seems droll for a Warner Brothers picture to single out the big-moneyed interest in one small town as a black-hatted villain.) ''As we have the most power, we may move with impunity,'' Rains snarls to his martinet (Terry O'Quinn), who is only too happy to carry out Rains's orders.

　　  

　　 Jesse, Frank and the others are forced down the road of vengeance after arson at their farm takes the life of their ma (Kathy Bates, whose maternal hamminess may bring misery to viewers).

　　  

　　 When Jesse and the gang follow Frank's notion of giving money they've taken from banks back to the poor farmers, they become heroes, and a true menace to Rains. ''They're disciplined and have a charismatic leader,'' notes Allan Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton), the 19th-century rent-a-cop hired by Rains to track down the gang.

　　  

　　 What Pinkerton doesn't mention, though he doesn't really have to, is that the real leader of the ''Outlaw'' band is Frank, played by Mr. Macht with desert-dry aplomb. It doesn't hurt that he gets the best lines. ''It's the scientific method I hear is all the rage,'' he says when plying a new technique during a crime. The script by Roderick Taylor and John Rogers has made Frank the film's George Burns, wiling away the movie by commenting on the world as it passes him by.

　　  

　　 Mr. Farrell, who works hard as Jesse, seems a little short on the star chemistry the role requires, but his director has surrounded him with fine actors. As Pinkerton, Mr. Dalton doesn't have nearly as much to work with, but he does well with what he is given. Pinkerton has a flinty charm, and Mr. Dalton is smart enough to wait out a pause, dropping a line to best effect. He seems squandered as a supporting player, trotting out a Sean Connery impression to remind us that he, too, played James Bond.

　　  

　　 Not all of the lines are good. ''Don't come back when you can't farm with a six-gun,'' an angry Cole warns Jesse, who wants to go off to marry Zee (Ali Larter).英语影评 Zee works her smile as prodigiously as any of the James gang twirl a six-shooter, and Ms. Larter is all flirty charisma. (Maybe most of dialogue was used up on Frank, since he's the closest thing to a character here.)

　　  

　　 The action set-pieces seem a little tentative, carefully trying to hit the marks of the Hong Kong battle sequences they imitate. Those martial-arts films pulled off the same stunts with much more confidence, but audiences new to this stuff will be impressed.

　　  

　　 It's been so long since a western had no ambition other than to provide simple entertainment that ''American Outlaws,'' with its aim to please, may do well at the box office. The mournful 1995 ''Wyatt Earp'' was heavier than a chuck wagon soufflé, and ''American Outlaws'' has learned from that. (It won't hurt that Western gear has come back in vogue; in their meticulously distressed dusters, the cast members look as if they're preparing for a W shoot.)

　　  

　　 ''American Outlaws'' may be simple, but it's also simple-minded; this is, after all, a movie determined to transform its Rebel soldier heroes into men of the people, making it as neglectful of politics as last summer's ''Patriot,'' which evaded that nasty issue of slavery during the America Revolution.
 

　　 ''American Outlaws'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for stagy violence and intimations of grown-up romance.