It's 1887 Cuchillo, New Mexico. Masked men escape after a bank robbery. There's a bounty on them for killing a well connected man. The leader Henry (Chad Michael Murray) ruthlessly kills an elderly couple after being told the news of the bounty. They are pursued by Josiah (Luke Wilson) and his posse. Henry and the remaining two barge in on George Tildon and his family on their homestead.

This is drawing inspiration from the harsher exploitation elements with the western genre. It's doing too much hand-held and panning around. I'm not sure Wilson and Murray fit in this more brutal movie. They are too Hollywood with a certain personality. I keep thinking a Tarantino would infuse this with better dialogue and more intense thrills. He would have elevated the tension when they are staying in that cabin. It drags on and on despite the wild revelations. It's trying for a lot of things but it's not fully satisfying. There is value in trying but it keeps missing. I question why they don't kill George right from the start. He's a big guy who seems dangerous in a hand to hand fight. This movie tries hard at times but keeps playing a flat note.

After a bank robbery which involved a few killings, Josiah (Luke Wilson) a bounty hunter is called in. The gang pulls up at a farmhouse with two daughters which has its own hidden demons.

The film includes dark humor, plenty of killing with blood splatter, and an inkling of "A Dirty Western." I hated to see Aunt Ester (Frances Fisher) die, (sorry for that plot spoiler, but then again you can count the survivors on one hand). At two hours the film dragged on as it spent too much time at the farmhouse, which they could have consolidated.

This is not your typical western, written, directed, and produced by JT Mollner who managed a good job at consolidating all that in one credit. Many facial close-ups of Francesca Eastwood. Film is a bit raw.

Guide: F-word. Sex, rape. Male rear nudity.

OUTLAWS AND ANGELS is a recent western that seems to have been inspired by Tarantino's THE HATEFUL EIGHT. Like that film, the setting is a single building where a God-fearing family are assailed by a group of bandits with murder and more in mind. A film like this only succeeds if the script is a real zinger, but sadly the script here is pedestrian at best. It goes for a psychological approach with a number of character intricacies and sexual aspects, but it feels trite and pseudo-intellectual as a result. There's no suspense of any kind and some stark moments of shocking violence don't amount to much. The whole thing is also way overlong. The film is full of familiar faces but only Francesca Eastwood really stands out; the rest seem bored by the whole experience.