Thursday, September 4, 2014

Young Guns (1988)

Director: Christopher Cain

Writer: John Fusco

Composers: Brian Banks, Anthony Marinelli

Starring: Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemaszko, Terence Stamp, Jack Palance, Terry O'Quinn, Sharon Thomas Cain, Geoffrey Blake, Alice Carter, Brian Keith

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Six reasons why the west was wild.

Plot: A group of young gunmen, led by Billy the Kid, become deputies to avenge the murder of the rancher who became their benefactor. But when Billy takes their authority too far, they become the hunted.



My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Oh, geez.  I first saw this a decade ago and I've just watched it for the last time.  I remember thinking it was OK and that's about right.  Some of the acting is truly horrible.  There's a scene where Chavez (Phillips) gives his big monologue about what his motivations are and it's just awful.  Wow.  And there's some poorly written dialogue, too. The music alternates from good and bad and that's where the crap ends.  The peyote scene is the best in the picture.  Hilarious.  There's some nice Western location shooting and plenty of action. Plus you get a little bit of Jack Palance (I'll take what I can get from this awesome cat) and a few other familiar faces.  Of the titular characters, Estevez and Sutherland come off best and they add a refreshing sense of fun to the film.  The ending is rather ridiculous and that damned electric guitar in the score makes it cheesy as hell (am I supposed to feel inspired by it?).  I was still a teenager when this came out and I wonder if I would have dug it at that age.  Who knows and cares, right?  The Blu-ray looks great with an appropriate amount of film grain and its got a few extras including a trailer for CRANK (2006), a trailer for various Lionsgate Blu-rays and one for ULTIMATE AVENGERS 2 (2006), an advanced trivia track (oooooooh) and a 31 minute documentary called "The Real Billy the Kid" which is fun and tells you everything the average person would want to know about the Kid.

No comments:

Post a Comment