Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The Newton Boys (1998): Dir: Richard Linklater / Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Skeet Ulrich, Dwight Yoakam: This is about as boring as a western can get. The best aspect of this film are interviews with the real Newton Boys in the conclusion. They were bank robbers in the 1920's but the story is a long dreary bore with hopeless settings and characters whom we really never care about. Matthew McConaughey leads the pack that includes Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Skeet Ulrich, and Dwight Yoakam. They might have well stayed home for all the humanity they give these roles. They are names on faces that never elevate off the screen. It never involves viewers and much of it is predictable and repetitious with a dull action climax. Director Richard Linklater often examines consequences of human behaviour. He previously made superior films such as Dazed and Confused and Slacker and despite The Newton Boys being a different outing for him to direct, the final product is about as exciting as a kick to the crotch. What he does do is bring certain purpose to the material as it showcases the lifestyle of these boys and the historical elements. The ensemble cast is an unfortunate waste when the actual Newton Boys interviews might have been more entertaining for ninety minutes. This film plays like a history report as oppose to a feature film. Score: 4 / 10

"The Newton Boys" begins as an old movie, with old wasted colors, kind of black and white. This is the way we meet the players (what actually are the actors), and together with a very happy music (that also seemed old), the credits are simple; maybe boring. "If the movie is in black and white, I won't watch it", said my friend Matías. In fact, the movie started and it was in colors, and very nice colors by the way.We see Willis Newton (Matthew McConaughey) and before we notice we are in Texas; with the horses, ranches, and the cowboys that always seem good people when they mostly do bad things. Maybe it is because we love to hear them talking, and the cast of this movie is very convincing in that aspect. Soon Willis encounters two younger guys, riding some difficult horses. These are Jesse and Joe Newton (Ethan Hawke and Skeet Ulrich), also cowboys and Willis' brothers. Now we're living the true story of the Newton Brothers.With the help of Brentwood Glasscock (Dwight Yoakam), alias Glass, and later with the last brother Dock's (Vincent D'Onofrio) collaboration, Willis and his gang robbed a lot of banks and one train that got them to their end. Well, not their end because, unlike any regular cowboy, the Newtons reached ages surpassing the 70 years.With his writing partners, director Richard Linklater created his adapted vision of the story, located in the pages of Claude Stanush's book. His own vision of these enchanting cowboys that made up stories to beautiful women, drank a lot and lived a full life. Stanush, Linklater and Clark Walter achieved something wild in terms of screenplay, because I'm not sure if a man could live the situations these characters experience, but who knows? In other cowboy movies like "American Outlaws" these things occur, and it's all about the characters. In "Outlaws" it was the excellent Colin Farrell, now it is a whole talented ensemble.I'm a fan of Richard Linklater's work. And admirer of his camera, settings, colors...The respect he has for his colorful characters, without caring how surreal they can be at times, when he is telling a real story. Led by McConaughey's Willis (who makes a more charismatic leading man than Farrell), usual in Linklater's filmography, Ethan Hawke follows, in good shape as always; he commits more with Linklater than with any director. Then we have a gifted Skeet Ulrich in one of his most natural and charming performances; he isn't getting many jobs today, but here it was a great work. As always, Vincent D'Onofrio sticks to what is requested of him. It is also to notice Dwight Yoakam's efforts, in his most remarkable appearance; now I won't forget about him. Everyone else fulfills, and the women I was talking about, Louise Brown has an important part, played convincingly by the always good Julianna Margulies.It was some weeks ago, that a friend of mine told me he did a work about a director's filmography. He had chosen Woody Allen. I hadn't done the work, but he asked me: "Who would you choose?". "Richard Linklater", I answered.

This is the story of the most successful bank robbers in the United States.It is well acted and the violence is not over the top.Slight spoiler: They never killed anyone during the course of robbing many banks.Watching this movie is just plain fun and worth the time. Sometimes we root for the bad guys and this is one of those times.One of the neatest things in this movie comes at the end. If you are the type of person that shuts it off as soon as the credits start to roll, don't do it this time!!!

Pitiful! I walked out of this movie and chastised my roommate for having dragged me to it! The thirty minutes that I saw showed no acting whatsoever. All it showed was a bunch of young actors that look good to chicks acting like a bunch of country hicks a "whoopin' and a hollerin'".