Young Guns

Its easy to pass off Young Guns as an eager to please piece of throwaway rock video style entertainment aimed at the younger demographic but that would be unfair.The thing is,it knows what it wants to be and it does it very well.The young cast all perform with great fun and energy thus enriching the film immeasurably.They are well supported by Jack Palance and Terrence Stamp who bring weight to proceedings, particularly Palance who seems to revel in his hammy role.Emilio Estevez's interpretation of Billy The Kid is a great watch too,his realisation of the character may be a million miles from the reality but when there's this much fun being had on screen,who cares!? The music in the film is a little jarring in places,electric guitars screaming Van Halen style over a western horse chase feel very much out of place but its never distracting enough to take you out of the fun. So in summary Young Guns is a western that wants to entertain you and I say it succeeds well.It was never intended to be a Sergio Leone classic western,just a fun ride with characters you can root for.On that level,it is a triumph.

Here is one of the most underrated Western films of all time. What we have here is the untold story of "The Regulators," led by the infamous Billy the Kid (Emilio Estevez). The film follows the group of six young men (none of them over 21 years old, but they all look like they're 25 or 30.) The story is quite simple; their guardian is murdered, and they are deputized to find the suspects and bring them in. When Billy goes on a killing spree of the murderers, the boys are on the run from the law themselves. The great effect of this film is how it mixes exciting Western action with comedy and boyish charm. Each actor plays their part as it is meant to be played, nothing special but still exceptional. Each character also has their defining traits that make them individually likable. One of the most lovable is Doc (Kiefer Sutherland) who is great with the steel, but also claims to be a poet, even though all of his poems are slightly tweaked versions of classic poems by acclaimed authors. Lastly, we are given a wonderful, almost-evil villain played wonderfully by the Western legend, Jack Palance. This film, being made just before the 1990s, contains new comedic elements for the genre, but is also quite relatable to the classic, beloved Westerns of earlier decades. It doesn't look like other 1980s films aesthetically; it looks more like a technicolor 1950s Western, and it is very refreshing. The film is not necessarily under-watched by Western fans, but does not receive the acclaim it deserves. It's easily one of the most fun Westerns of the last three or four decades.

Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Emilo Estevez and Lou Diamond Phillips star in this light weight western, re-telling of the Billy The Kid story. This movie plays fast and loose with history and is in not particularly accurate about most details but as an enjoyable western adventure it succeeds. The movies style harks back to the old days of the western adventure such as Rio Bravo etc and while nowhere near it in terms of class it is a worthwhile watch. Jack Palance makes a fantastic bad guy and Terranc Stamp puts in a good performance as the gangs father figure. Performances of the brat pack are pretty good and I really enjoyed Estevez's portrayal of the kid. If you like westerns and enjoyed modern versions such as Tombstone you'll enjoy this movie. 7/10 - Not exactly Unforgiven or Rio Bravo but still a worthwhile watch for any western fan.

Young Guns was the brat pack western starring some of the brat packers of the late 1980s, well a few were deemed to be seen as rising stars such as Dermot Mulroney and Casey Siemaszko. The rest are more bona fide brat packers such as Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Lou Diamond Phillips, Kiefer Sutherland accompanied by a rock score. However there is also room for western veterans like Jack Palance and Brian Keith. Estevez is the hot headed Billy the Kid who became regulators when their boss (Terence Stamp) is murdered by Palance's gang. Now when the film came out some critics were rather sniffy about the film and you have to applaud the movie for shaking the genre up a bit. However it is bewildering silly as well. In the shootout with Brian Keith in the latrine, well they could had just gone round the side to attack him and even from behind. Maybe they needed a reason to write Charlie Sheen out of the movie a third of the way through as he was in demand as an actor at the time. There is also the silly scene where the characters get high which now looks laughable. Estevez character is supposedly to be fiercely loyal to his slain boss but also appears to be psychotic. I remember liking the film a lot when it first came out but now it looks dismal. You end up thinking why does Stamp's character want to surround himself with young lost men. Sutherland's poetic character comes off best but even his romance with the Chinese ward of Palance looks rather odd.