Young Guns II

Well, I have to say I loved this movie when it first came out. It has a beautiful desert set, a wonderful array of actor driven characters, and the kind of gun fighting you could only imagine from a movie about Billy the Kid. But now that I've watched it more recently, it's highly amusing. To watch current stars like CSI's William Peterson and The Lord of the Rings' Viggo Mortensen at the dawn of their careers is something that can't be missed. Along with them are a flock of excellent 80's actors who will have you loving them all over again. Emelio Eztevez provides what is probably the best performance in his career along with the likes of Christian Slater, Kiefer Sutherland, and Lou Diamond Phillips. I recommend this as one of the best good time westerns that recent years have to offer, though the first movie of the series is a bit better. 7/10

No doubt anyone would question Christian Slater coming into the gang, but he works so well as a bad ass. Gee, I wonder why? :) He and Emilio play as the new rebels of the town, while Billy's old gang is moving on with their lives, but are soon arrested for walking with him, he wants the old gang back together to once again reck havec on the scene. The chemistry worked well again as the first one did, with some promising new cast like Christina Slater, Jon Bon Jovi, and an unknown Viggo Mortenson. I think if you enjoyed the first Young Guns, you are more than bound for another off your seat action western! Yee haw! OK, sorry, I can be a little over-dramatic at times. :-P

7/10

This film is far superior to the first part and I can't get enough of it. The actors are likeable and work very well as an ensemble, the action and story are very immersive and the score (by Alan Silvestri) is simply awesome. (The music on Young Guns is totally different, very inferior, and does not help to accentuate emotions at all.) On this note: anyone who says that Jon Bon Jovi did the music for this film is very mistaken. He wrote a couple of songs that appear on the end credits (and an album that was *inspired by* the movie) but Silvestri is the one who created one of the best movie scores I've heard, which is nearly as good as his Back to the Future music. (Shame it isn't available to buy anywhere.)

Now back to the film. It's both entertaining and moving, and also very funny and I highly recommend it. Like a previous commenter said, there's no need to see the first film as this one stands on its own very well and totally surpasses its predecessor. 8/10.

This sequel, set a little while after the events of the first film, opens much later, in the 1950s, with a young lawyer meeting an old man in the New Mexico desert. He claims that he is Billy the Kid and he has a tale to tell. As his story opens Billy is now riding with Pat Garrett and "Arkansas" Dave Rudabaugh. The governor offers Billy a pardon in exchange for testimony but this deal is reneged on and other surviving members of his old gang, Jose Chavez y Chavez and Josiah Gordon "Doc" Scurlock, are arrested... Billy soon escapes then breaks his friends out of captivity. Soon Billy has his old friend Pat Garrett hunting him down. Times are changing in New Mexico and Billy has less places to hide so he suggests heading south to 'Old' Mexico.

I really enjoyed this sequel, possibly more than I enjoyed the original. The story is a lot of fun as it delivers action and a degree of humour. The action includes shootouts, a knife fights and some impressive horse riding. The characters are a good mix; as well as Billy, Chavez and Doc there are new gang members; "Arkansas" Dave, played by Christian Slater; Hendry William French, played by Alan Ruck and young Tom O'Folliard, played by Balthazar Getty. These characters are an interesting mix and nicely compliment to old characters. Outside the gang William Petersen does a solid job as Pat Garrett. While it is very much a 'male film' there is a very enjoyable turn from Jenny Wright as brothel keeper Jane Greathouse, a friend of Billy's. Much of the film is fairly amusing but it does have its moments of tragedy; some real tear-jerkers. The film is shot in a way that brilliantly captures the rugged beauty of the New Mexico desert which is accompanied by a great score from Alan Silvestri. Overall I'd say this was a really enjoyable western that is well worth watching.

There have been only a handful of films to try to put the immortal story of Billy the Kid onto film. Among them was Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid with Val Kilmer and Young Guns I.

This is the sequel, of course, to the latter film, and it just might be the finest Billy the Kid film out there. True, some of the dialogue is shoddy ("I guess you don't know the true meaning of the word PALS!"), but that's not the point. The point is, this is the only film of all of them to really capture the spirit of Billy the Kid. There has always been a thin line in between characters such as the Kid, between legend and fact. Of course, this film reflects mostly on the legends, and it takes the attitude that in the midst of all the legend and stories that were told about Billy and his gang of cohorts, there was a very real, very human leader who allowed all the legends about him to get to his head. As a result, he must suffer the consequences.

The cast is at the top of its game, especially Esteves as the Kid, Sutherland as Doc and Diamond Phillips as Chavez. Slater and Ruck also lend their support as Arkansas Dave and Buckshot George, respectively. This motley group make up the "Young Guns," and their quest to get to the Mexican border and escape from former gang member Pat Garret. The film follows the standard Billy the Kid story, with only slight moderations, but this is the only film in which the spirit of Billy the Kid is alive and you truly feel like this character is what he thinks he is: some kind of god. This was exactly what the story needed, and it works for the same reason films like "Braveheart" worked: they don't try to do an accurate, historical retelling, but rather, they pay tribute to the legends centered around the character.

The soundtrack is also nice. Even if one hated this film, they have to admit that the Oscar-nominated song "Blaze of Glory" by Bon Jovi is a winner, and it captures the spirit of the whole film and the message that it was trying to make: that legends are forever.

Without a doubt, this is the best Billy the Kid film, and therefore it is one of the western genre's greatest achievement.

"Yoo hoo....I'll make you famous."