ViewGuide

Created Feb 19, 2008 09:21PM PST • Edited Dec 11, 2019 06:18PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Bad 1.0

   Think the title is long? Consider yourself warned: this boring movie never seems to end, meandering for nearly 2½ hours. Plus it commits the deadly sin of assuming that the viewer is familiar with the particulars of Jesse James’ early legend, without which the poorly told story has no narrative foundation.

4. Acting

   Pretty Bad 1.5

   Brad Pitt fails to inspire dread, awe or respect as Jesse James, leaving a huge vacuum at the core of the movie. Casey Affleck, so good in Gone, Baby, Gone, here has little to play off and so fizzles out. The rest of the cast is wasted in this long mess of a movie.

5. Male Stars Pretty Bad 1.5

   Boo to Brad Pitt, who’s more Keanu Reeves than Tyler Durden as Jesse James.

6. Female Stars Barely OK 2.0

7. Female Costars Barely OK 2.0

8. Male Costars Barely OK 2.0

10. Film

    Bad 1.0

    The structure of this overlong film just didn’t work. Extensive voice-over narration and frequent cutting between parallel plot lines made it emotionally distant at best.

11. Direction Awful 0.0

12. Play Pretty Awful 0.5

13. Music Barely OK 2.0

14. Visuals Good 3.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.7

17. Sex Innocent 1.5

18. Violence Fierce 2.0

19. Rudeness Salty 1.6

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

22. Circumstantial Glib 2.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0