Absolutely Fantastic

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

This is a fantasy. Instead of telling a story about Frank and Jesse James, and the Cole brothers, all of which were bad people who robbed banks, trains, stagecoaches, and people in general--and murdered many. They are not heroes. They are villains. In this film, however, though many times described as doing horrible things and even shown as doing horrible things, they are painted as heroes.I can get over the inaccuracies. All movies have them. Some more than others but this one just seems to say, "Who cares?" -- and it doesn't. I am capable of separating the two and judging a film on the whole and rather than just nitpick it for certain things, such as historical accuracy.I can not picture Rob Lowe as Jesse James. Not even as I was watching it. And I thought perhaps that Bill Paxton could pull off Frank James but I was wrong. In the beginning I had hope for him but seemed as he played Frank as a clown.I won't lie and say there aren't good scenes but they don't make up for the rest of the film that is just overplayed, badly acted, and directed poorly.

The umpteenth retelling of the James gang story, Frank And Jesse is loaded with historical inaccuracies and blatant audience manipulation, but as a good old southern boy who still hasn't made peace with the Union, I'm suspending my BS detector and declaring this an awesome movie and one of the best westerns of the nineties!This is full of bloody shootouts and action packed escapes. Also, the period detail is much better than later independently produced westerns. My only problem is that all the best scenes are early on in the film and the rest of it suffers by comparison.Rob Lowe is probably the the last person I would have expected to star as Jesse James and I must admit I was a bit skeptical of him (translation: too pretty) but he did a good job portraying Jesse as an innocent youth pushed by the carpetbaggers and unforgiving northerners into becoming an avenger of southern pride and human dignity (the afore mentioned audience manipulation) before causing his own downfall through arrogance and carelessness.As Frank James, Bill Paxton gives an excellent performance that left me wondering why he hasn't been in more westerns.William Atherton and Luke Askew, as the villains, also stand out in this well cast movie.

The ever fascinating saga of Frank and Jesse James gets another treatment and a good one in Frank&Jesse starring Bill Paxton and Rob Lowe as the James Brothers. I've seen and reviewed now three films about the James brothers and their gang, Jesse James, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and now Frank&Jesse. It's interesting to me how similar the characters are in all the films.Jesse is the hardened bitter outlaw who may have started with justifiable reasons on his outlaw career, but has taken to the criminal life and likes it. And it brings out the bad points of his character as well. Whether played by Tyrone Power, Brad Pitt, or Rob Lowe, Jesse is given the same interpretation.As is Frank the charmer of the two brothers. Whether laconic charming like Henry Fonda or pretty garrulous as Bill Paxton does him, he's apparently the public relations man for the gang.The characters of the Younger Brothers are brought in here as well with country singer Randy Travis giving an outstanding portrayal of Cole Younger. In real life Younger like Frank James lived to a ripe old age way after the action in this film.Jesse is the king of outlaws, his reputation against fighting the railroads has made him notorious enough for Allan Pinkerton to be employed to take him down. Jesse is a wily one and after Pinkerton's nephew Tom Chick is killed in an attempt to arrest Jesse, it becomes a personal crusade for Pinkerton.As much as I liked the rest of the cast, the best in the film is William Atherton as the dedicated Allan Pinkerton. He's determined to use any means to bring Jesse and the gang and I do mean ANY. The wives have their moments also with Dana Wheeler-Nicholson as Frank's wife Annie and Maris Pitillo as Jesse's wife Zee. Pitillo's performance is hardly like the one by Nancy Kelly in the 20th Century Fox classic. She saves Jesse's bacon on one memorable occasion in the film.Frank&Jesse is one very good western which should have received a lot more attention than it did.

This was the second Jesse James film I ever saw. I first saw American Outlaws and realized that it wasn't very accurate. This is not a great film like Dances With Wolves or Tombstone, but is very good in my book. It shows a lot about what the former confederates had to go through after the war. The movie really shows the darker side of Jesse James and how passionate he was about what he did. Rob Lowe, Bill Paxton, and Randy Travis are great. But why do they have to change things like Bob Younger being a mute, their first bank robbery being in 1869 when it was in 1866, the fact that Jesse was shot once in the head and the second shot missed, and Bob Younger being shot by his brother Cole when he was actually captured with Cole after the North Field Raid. I believe that these things could have been changed and made a even better movie. Besides some other little things this is a fine historical movie and one of my personal favorites. If you like it see The Long Riders.