“Baytown Outlaws”: A Tarantino wannabe takes on rednecks
Billy Bob Thornton and Andre Braugher provide window-dressing for the racist fantasy of "The Baytown Outlaws"
Topics: Movies, Action movies, django unchained, Quentin Tarantino, The Boondock Saints, The Baytown Outlaws, Billy Bob Thornton, Entertainment News
I’m tempted to tell you that, except for its thoroughly repellent racial and sexual politics, the imitation-Tarantino action flick called “The Baytown Outlaws” – which you could be watching on your TV or computer or mobile device right now, instead of “working” – isn’t much worse than “Django Unchained.” But that’s admittedly like saying that, except for that episode in Ford’s Theatre, John Wilkes Booth was one of the cooler Americans of the 19th century.
How’s that for sneaking two Oscar contenders into an article about a January VOD release that will never be nominated for any awards by anybody? In all seriousness, I’m not sure whether to recommend “The Baytown Outlaws” as a guns ‘n’ glory time-waster or warn you off it as a piece of mendacious trash. So I’ll do both. A superficial and stylish redneck-sploitation spree, “Baytown Outlaws” has no real reason to exist beyond the quest for cash. Its appealing B-plus supporting cast, including Billy Bob Thornton, Eva Longoria and Andre Braugher, almost elevate it to the level of mainstream mediocrity – but then again, that was never the goal.
Instead, director and co-writer Barry Battles is after the specific grade of faux-Tarantino-ness represented by “The Boondock Saints,” arguably the first true cult hit of the 21st century. This is like the neo-Confederate version of “Boondock Saints,” mixed with a faint dose of the Coen brothers’ “Raising Arizona.” A trio of unwashed and nearly illiterate Alabama brothers, who are supposedly lovable despite being depraved contract killers and the sons of an infamous Klansman, hit the road in a zany kidnapping plot involving a disabled teenager. Among the numerous people they must kill en route are a gaggle of leather-clad hookers, a Native American biker gang who go around scalping people, and a bunch of heavily armed African-American dudes in an assault vehicle.




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