Young Guns (1988)

Very best movie i ever watch

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I'm not going to say the film is good or even one of the best westerns out there but what I will say is that it's pretty darn entertaining. The plot of the film is Billy the kid and his band of regulators off on a revenge path on the gang that killed Tunstall. It's probably the type of movie people can eat popcorn to and have a good time but also has a lot of heart. I would recommend Young Guns to pretty much anybody, even those who aren't western fans. It's entertaining and that's all a film ever needs to be, right? I think so.

The main selling-points of Young Guns are the incredibly compelling story of Billy the Kid and its very talented cast- actors like Kiefer Sutherland, Terrence Stamp and Jack Palance promises a lot. While it is a long way from flawless, this viewer did find themselves liking Young Guns a good deal.Young Guns does have its problems. The hard-rock soundtrack is incredibly jarring, can sound cheap and doesn't fit at all within the film, a lot of the film goes at a fast pace and the music sounded somewhat pedestrian at times. The storytelling does become a little less involving and quite ridiculous in the last third, where it also loses the momentum that the rest of the film has. Pacing is also a touch chaotic in places, and while he does what he can Charlie Sheen is badly wasted, his underwritten role doing little for his talents.However, Young Guns is a good-looking film, with handsome scenery, evocative costumes and some clever, stylish filming. The dialogue is very witty and funny, the film blisters in the action with a tense and exciting if rather far-fetched somewhat climactic shootout and while it does butcher history the story is compelling and goes at a breakneck pace. While it entertain in the comedy, excites in the action and rouses as a Western, there are some nice dramatic moments, Lou Diamond Phillips' scene where he tells of the slaughter of his family is the film's most heartfelt scene. The relationship between Billy and Doc is also very well done, providing a lot of heart and funny moments. . Christopher Cain's direction is crisp and efficient, his decision to do the action in first-person comes over more than effectively.Very good cast too, there have been mixed reactions to the performances quality, for me it was one of Young Guns' biggest strengths. There were initial reservations as to whether Emilio Estevez was too modern and too nice for Billy, but he is cool, fun and likable with a touch of sassiness in the role, and is closer in age to most other actors who have portrayed Billy. Kiefer Sutherland has one of the most strongest written characters in the film, and is remarkably poetic in this film, a pleasant change from the usual roles he takes on. Lou Diamond Phillips does overact quite broadly in places, but does mostly act with real soul and poignancy, especially in the aforementioned scene. Casey Siemaszko is also very affecting, when he overcomes his fear it came over very emotionally. Dermont Mulroney has some good intensity without going overboard, and he is very amusing as well. In lesser roles, Terrence Stamp is a sympathetically and touchingly played and tragic father-type of figure, and Jack Palance is perfectly cast as Murphy (a rather one-dimensional role but Palance does much with it, and is genuinely menacing without trying too hard. Brian Keith is memorable in his short appearance.Overall, not a flawless film in any shape or form and won't work for everybody but on its own terms it was a very entertaining film. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I will firstly admit that I did not pay the fullest attention to this film while it was on, but I did understand everything going on, and I knew it was going to bit of an average film anyway, but still one I was interested in because of the all-star cast, from director Christopher Cain (The Next Karate Kid). Basically, set in 1878 in New Mexico, young gun men are picked up on the road by John Tunstall (Terence Stamp) to work on his ranch, but they also learn to read and be civilised, but competitive cattle seller and rich rancher Lawrence G. Murphy (Jack Palance) is hanging around and acting suspiciously. Tunstall is shot by Murphy's men during a scuffle, because Sheriff Brady (Daniel 'Danny' Kamin) is one of the gang Justice Wilson (Victor Izay) can't do anything about the situation, but attorney Alex McSween (Lost's Terry O'Quinn) persuades him to recruit the young men as deputies and give them the warrants to arrest the murderers. The young men: William H. Bonney (Emilio Estevez), who later becomes the infamous 'Billy the Kid', Josiah Gordon 'Doc' Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland), 'Jose' Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips), Richard 'Dick' Brewer (Charlie Sheen), Dirty Steve Stephens (Dermot Mulroney) and Charles 'Charley' Bowdre (Casey Siemaszko), do not intend to arrest the killers though, they just want to shoot them. After Dick and one of the others is killed the five remaining young gun men have the final showdown with Murphy and his gang, and Billy of course went on to become an outlaw and was eventually shot dead by Patrick Floyd 'Pat' Garrett (Patrick Wayne). Also starring Sharon Thomas Cain as Susan McSween, Brian Keith as Buckshot Roberts and Cody Palance, Jack's son as Baker. The cast all do their parts fine, especially Esteves in the leading role of the well known gunslinger, I may not have followed the story in full, but the action sequences are good to watch with all the guns firing and some blood, a not bad western. Worth watching!

Young Guns is directed by Christopher Cain and written by John Fusco. It stars Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemaszko, Terry O'Quinn, Jack Palance and Terence Stamp. Music is by Brian Banks and Anthony Marinelli and cinematography is by Dean Semler.Film is a telling of Billy the Kid's part in the Lincoln County War in New Mexico 1878. Plot sees the murder of John Tunstall send Billy and the rest of the Tunstall Regulators on a mission to avenge his murder.It ain't easy having pals.Often derided by Western movie purists as a sort of MTV Western made to showcase the various talents of the then Hollywood Brat Pack of Estevez, Sheen, Sutherland et al, Young Guns is actually a far more entertaining picture than some critical assessments suggest it is. It also has some rock solid Western history footings holding it up, yes it's far from accurate in various scenarios, age of characters and numbers in gangs etc, but the core story of the Lincoln County War is there. A massive success at the box office and spawning an equally successful sequel in 1990, Young Guns zips along at pace, contains high energy action sequences and provides plenty of quotable dialogue. Best of all, though, it doesn't take itself seriously, it wants to be a rooting-tooting Western of fun endeavours, if viewed on those terms it's an absolute winner, especially since the cast are playing it that way.Alex, if you stay they're gonna kill you. And then I'm gonna have to go around and kill all the guys who killed you. That's a lot of killing.Estevez is terrific as The Kid, blending boyish arrogance with fearless rage, a fun and scary character who is easy to get on the saddle with. Elsewhere it's a mixed bag, but apart from the disappointing Sheen, the casting decisions sit well and if you talk to ten different Young Guns fans you will most likely get a number of different answers come back as to who is their favourite Regulator (mine is Dirty Steve played by Mulroney if you are wondering?). O'Quinn is spot on as Alex McSween, Stamp adds classical tones to the ill fated John Tunstall and Palance is a neat fit as villain Lawrence Murphy. Nice to see Brian Keith get a cameo as a larger than life bounty hunter as well. Semler's photography and Cain's filming techniques are a bit too anachronistic at times and the Banks/Marinelli score too modern an accompaniment on occasions. But film rounds out as a nifty bit of Oater play for Gen X and showed that as the 1990s approached there was still love for this greatest of genres. 7.5/10