Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Living in Arizona, I visited there a weekend when Tombstone was celebrating a milestone of some sort. There are always reenactments of the OK Corral going on but when it's a special occasion the best actors in town do the job. It was fantastic! In leaving that area, and after talking to a local historian, I bought Wyatt Earp on CD. I was recommended because of its historical accuracy. Contrary to other reviews, my opinion is that Costner, Quaid, Madson, and company couldn't have been better. I looked for nominations for any of them and found only Razzies. Dennis Quaid was particularly a standout in portraying Doc Holiday. What does it take for that type of performance to be recognized? I could go on but that film was made decades ago. Watch it. It's authentic.

Released just 1 year after the similar "Tombstone", "Wyatt Earp" was the Kevin Costner's response to Kevin Jarre's script, focused more on the central character of Wyatt since his upbringing, instead of the side characters that bring nothing to the film.Teaming again with Lawrence Kasdan after "The Big Chill" ('83) and the way popular "Silverado" ('85), that helped to resurrect the western genre in modern times, Kevin Costner, this time also as a producer and taking the lead role of the intrepid Wyatt Earp, both deliver an insightful semibiographical western film about the life of the legendary lawman since he was a boy in his family farm in Missouri to his later days in the Gold Rush in Alaska.With "Silverado" and his personal tryumph, "Dances with Wolves" in his resume, Costner moves comfortably in the western genre and provides a good performance as the stubborn and ruthless Wyatt Earp, giving him the needed humanity as a man who lost the love of his life and became cold and emotionless, only believing in kinship and that the law should prevail in the wild west, until he mets Josie Marcus, a daring actress and falls in love again.The movie is overlong and in the first hour the pace moves like a snail, but like an old american epic it takes time to establish the character(s) for telling their story(ies), even if some scenes were cut out to shorten the movie for another half a hour, creating then some loose ends for certain subplots and side characters, but at least was less disjointed than "Tombstone" in that matter.The production values are all splendid invocating the Old West, especially the beautiful cinematography by Owen Roizman, nominated for an Academy Award and the orchestration by James Newton Howard which reminds a lot of Bruce Broughton's score in "Silverado".The cast is good, but not as great as the rival "Tombstone", featuring besides Costner, Dennis Quaid who stole the movie as the lunger Doc Holliday, Wyatt's best friend and right hand, the actor is almost unrecognizable skinny playing the character and provides a memorable haunting performance that deserved to be Oscar nominated (he was even better than the amazing Kilmer's rendition of Doc); Gene Hackman in an extended cameo as the patriarch Earp; Michael Madsen, David Andrews, Linden Ashby & Jim Caviezel (in an earlier role) playing respectively, Virgil, James, Morgan & Warren Earp with Catherine O'Hara, JoBeth Williams (re-teaming with Kasdan after "The Big Chill") & Alison Elliott playing their wives with Annabeth Gish, Mare Winningham & Joanna Going portraying the three wifes of the long life of Wyatt Earp.The villains are less showy here than "Tombstone" and barely got decent screentime with the exception of Jeff Fahey (re-teaming with Kasdan after "Silverado") as Ike Clanton and Lewis Smith as Curly Bill Brocius. Strangely, the Johnny Ringo character way prominent in "Tombstone" as played greatly by Michael Biehn is only mentioned in the third act and was played by a stuntman.Mark Harmon as the sleazy Sheriff Johnny Behan; Tom Sizemore and Bill Pullman as the brothers Masterson, Wyatt's lawmen and Isabella Rossellini in the tiny role of Big Nose Kate, Doc Holliday's mistress complete the main cast.In short, "Wyatt Earp" flopped hard when it was released and was bashed by critics because of its length, slow pace and too much focus on Costner's character, with "Tombstone" being the critics and fans' favorite, but besides its all-star cast, fast pacing and shoot'em up / action oriented, the Cosmatos / Russell effort is inferior to this Kasdan / Costner re-teaming of "Wyatt Earp" that needs to be rediscovered by fans of an all american period piece epic film, produced and directed in the old style of the Western tradition...

I'm writing here starting with a clean slate: I watched the film without knowing who Wyatt Earp was, or that there was another film (Tombstone) about the same guy, which everyone has been comparing Wyatt Earp to. So, I'm not prejudiced and I'm not gonna make comparisons. It was just a boring film, with a nonsensical script that dragged on and on unnecessarily, occasionally introduced new characters who didn't have any meaningful contribution to the plot, and little to no sense of adventure and excitement. But the most annoying thing in the movie, I have to admit, is Kevin Costner himself. It seems that Mr Costner has a knack for playing the same character in every movie he stars in: a brooding, smile-less, miserable, cold-outside- but-with-a-heart-of- gold tough macho guy. Well, not such a good guy here, in my opinion. Just a cold-hearted bastard, as one of the characters calls him. But I digress. So, if the film wasn't unbearable enough, Costner's performance makes it even worse. Towards the end I had to fast- forward; I didn't miss anything important, and you wouldn't either, believe you me.

In the old West one of the most heavily milked upon subject that every fan of Western history will always spring into mind was the event that happened on October 26, 1881, that was the infamous showdown at the O.K. Corral located in Tombstone, Arizona. For many years, filmmakers have been making adaptations and documentaries about this fearsome battle that if you've seen enough of these, it's very hard for you to forget about. In 1993 and 1994, two movies spawned upon this topic came out one after the other that were pretty high in terms of budget. Those two film were "Tombstone" from 1993 and "Wyatt Earp" from 1994. In a sheer twist of irony, both films were being made pretty much simultaneously and nearing butting heads around the same locations. And while George Cosmatos' "Tombstone" emphasized on the epic gunfight itself, Lawrence Kasdan's "Wyatt Earp" concentrated on the main character of "Wyatt Earp". From his humble beginnings to his deadly showdown and everything else in between Kasdan left nothing out. In 1993, "Tombstone" received a substantial amount of praise and well-deserved accolades and was opened more to big box office success. Warner Brothers had to stall "Wyatt Earp" from its release months later as to avoid from being on a competitive level with "Tombstone". When "Wyatt Earp" was released in June of 1994, it still had the warm reception it had like "Tombstone", but the box office had a lower impact. My guess was that it came out too soon and people were still buzzing about "Tombstone" and just weren't freshening up to this more character driven film. And though it remains the kid brother to "Tombstone", it still doesn't mean this movie was terrible. In fact for a biopic, it is a very engaging film that deserves the humble credit it had. For a movie that crawls over the three hour hurdle, this movie literally chronicles Wyatt Earp from his childhood era as he wanted to free himself from his family life to move onto bigger and better things. We watch as he was vital in the building of the famous transcontinental railway lines even down to his personal life from the loss of his first wife his alcoholic phase from becoming an outlaw to throwing his evil ways away to becoming a lawman which eventually led him and his brothers to the big shooting party at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. One of the idiosyncrasies that makes this film special was that Kasdan and co-writer Dan Gordon really put a lot of thought and a lot of care for the material and there's never a dull scene and the narrative remains at a steady pace throughout. The performances were really accurate in it portrayals. Kevin Costner who at the time seemed like an aficionado in the Western genre was the perfect casting choice for the role of the titular character. He just felt his comfort zone in this very complex role. Though Costner carries the heavy cargo in this role doesn't mean that the supporting characters were insignificant. Round out the cast Dennis Quaid was equally riveting as another will known lawman named Doc Holiday. He even molded himself to lose 30 lbs. to look like a sickly man who has tuberculosis. Other well known performers include Michael Madsen as Wyatt's brother Virgil, Gene Hackman as his father Nicholas, Mark Harmon as lawman Johnny Behan, Catherine O'Hara as Allie, Bill Pullman as deputy Ed Masterson, Tom Sizemore as his brother Bat and Isabella Rosselini as a hooker named Big Nose Kate. In spite of this electrifying cast Kasdan ensures that no one gets usurped and no one is left out. The cinematography by Oscar nominee Owen Roizman stands out very well too. Roizman manages to make the landscapes look and feel quite authentic. If I was to say there was a weakness, it would have to be the length of this film. I'm not going to whine about the length, but even for a patient man, this film can be quite long and not very comfortable on the buttocks either. My advice, bring a soft cushion to watch this film, it is that long. After all's said and done, "Wyatt Earp" succeeds in being epic and provocative and very rich in both action and character. It displays a crew that enjoyed their work and the heart put into it. The characters were rich and the acting was superb. Sure it was lengthy, but it will still tug at your heartstrings. It's not better than "Tombstone", but equally captivating.