Excellent, a Must See

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Don't Believe the Hype

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

The movie is (loosely) based on Billy the Kid's adventures during the Lincoln County War, that took place in 1877-1878. The movie has this brat pack feeling to it. filled with fast action scenes and snappy one liners.The brat pack of gunmen consists of Billy the Kid (Emilio Estevez), Dick Brewer (Charlie Sheen), Dirty Steve (Dermot Mulroney), Doc Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland), Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Charley Bowdre (Casey Siemaszko). These young men are a bunch of misfits and gunmen that are gathered under the guidance of English cattle rancher John Tunstall (Terence Stamp). They work and protect his ranch and economic interests and John Tunstall gives the young gunmen food, shelter and an education in return. The movies main villain is the Irishman Lawrence G. Murphy (played by western movie veteran Jack Palance), whom also is a rancher and merchant and the natural rival to John Tunstall. The rivalry goes bad and John Tunstall is murdered and the movie turns into a tale of revenge. Billy the Kid's gang is deputised after meeting lawyer Alexander McSween (Terry O'Quinn). They were young and inexperienced but they were the only men with guts enough to challenge the terror of Lawrence Murphy, whom had a huge gang following him. The young gunmen takes on the name The Regulators as they ride out to arrest some of the murderers in Murhpy's gang. But hot-headed Billy wants instant justice and starts to murder his enemies and the Regulators are stripped of their badges. Despite becoming outlaws the Regulators keep hunting down Murphy's men while bounty hunters and law men are closing in on them. The movie is filled with cool and creative shooting scenes, the dialogue is fast and saucy and often really memorable. The movie has a fast pace and there if the movie had been directed by Peter Jackson it would have been 3 times 3 hours long. Young Guns is more fun than your old John Wayne / Clint Eastwood movies. Funny fact is that: Pat Garrett is played by John Wayne's son Patrick Wayne.The cast is brilliant and Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jack Palance and Emilio Estevez does some of their best work of their careers. The movie doesn't go deep and rarely scratches the surface and at times the dialogue feels more cool than realistic. This western has everything, it's an adventure, it has comedic elements, it's action and it has even got some romance in it. The movie is about friendship and going against the odds as the men keep challenging themselves to grow. It's a very entertaining movie, It doesn't compare to some of the old Spaghetti westerns out there but it doesn't try either. Young guns was a new brand of Western that we hadn't really seen before. It doesn't follow the real story of Billy the Kid correctly either. There are some fabrications of the truth here and there, but Young Guns come in all guns blazing and it does it with a big grin on it's face. The movie came out when the Western genre was more or less dead and buried, but the movie did pretty well despite scoring bad reviews and it helped revitalise the dead genre a bit. I've seen more than 100 western movies in my days but I still think that this is the most exciting western movie out there, maybe not the best but definitely one of the few that I can watch over and over again. Movie fans... Mount Up!

When people think of cowboys, they think John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Any cowboy movie that does not have them has some other tough, rugged, mean-looking dude as the star and as co-stars. Young Guns breaks that rule and is still able to come out a fantastic western. I'm not just saying this because it was the first western I'd seen, I really do think this is one of the very best.Young Guns is pretty much the Brat Pack in the old west. Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney and Casey Siemazko play real life gunslingers: Billy the Kid, Doc Scurlock, Chavez Chavez, Dick Brewer, Steve Stephens, and Charley Bowdre. This is loosely based on a true story when ranch owner, John Tunstall (Stamp) takes the men (known as Regulators) under his wing to educate them and get them to protect his ranch. When crooked Murphy (Palance) murders Tunstall, the Regulators want revenge and justice to be done, but Billy the Kid's insanity causes a massive manhunt where the young men may not survive.Our leading actors may not be mean-looking, but they do provide a sense of brutality and great acting. Emilio Estevez looks like a child, but he delivers an Oscar-worthy role as the crazy Kid. Kiefer Sutherland plays a rare good guy who also does a great job. I'm surprised he didn't get many good guy roles after this. Casting directors probably disagree with me. Dermot Mulroney is the closest to a John Wayne/Clint Eastwood character. "Dirty" Steve Stephens chews tobacco and is a filthy slob. Phillips and Siemazko do the most emotionally driven characters that give the heart and seriousness that adds dimensions to this. That is what I love about this. Young Guns is a character-driven movie with a solid plot.

Christopher Cain directed this surprisingly good western starring Emilio Estevez as Billy The Kid(William Bonney) who, along with other "young guns"(played by Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Philips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, and Casey Siemaszko) are taken under the wing of British rancher John Tunstall, who educates and helps them, but is brutally gunned down by a rival rancher(played by Jack Palance) forcing Billy and his new gang to avenge his death by killing the men responsible, thus becoming wanted outlaws themselves, and passing into legend... Well acted and entertaining western keeps viewers' attention throughout, and is quite exciting as a result.

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!