Tuesday's Overlooked Movies: The Baytown Outlaws

I'd never heard of this movie until Livia rented it while we were at the coast. But if you like oddball, over-the-top crime movies with a distinctive voice, you need to check this one out.

The plot involves three eccentric redneck brothers from Mobile, Alabama (played by actors I'd never heard of) who work as vigilantes for the local sheriff (Andre Braugher), who uses extra-legal means to keep the crime rate down in his county. He does this by sending these crazy brothers after even worse guys. But they freelance, too, and they're hired by Eva Longoria to rescue her handicapped godson from her crazed, criminal ex-husband, played by Billy Bob Thornton. (Of course he is. Who else would you cast in that part?) Assorted gangs of killers try to stop our redneck heroes from retrieving the kids. What kind of killers, you ask? Well, there are hookers/martial artists/assassins led by legendary stuntwoman Zoe Bell. There are black guys driving a truck turned into a tank like something Mr. T would design in THE A-TEAM. There's a group of Native American mercenaries. If you haven't figured it out by now, politically correct this movie ain't.

But it's so goofy it's a blast to watch. Somehow the filmmakers manage to make the viewer really care about these lunatic brothers, and it all leads up to a very satisfying ending. This may well be one of those love it or hate it movies, but I really enjoyed it.