TOMBSTONE (1993) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: George P. Cosmatos
Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott,
Dana Delaney, Joanna Pacula, Powers Boothe,
Michael Rooker, Charlton Heston, Bill Paxton,
Stephen Lang, Thomas Haden Church,
Billy Bob Thornton, Harry Carey Jr.
The Earp brothers and Doc Holliday go up against the bad guys in yet another cinematic retelling of the events leading up to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It's a playfully off-the-wall western, openly stealing from every frontier shoot-'em-up since "The Great Train Robbery". (It even runs the final shot from "The Great Train Robbery" in its introduction.) From there it takes off on whatever offbeat tangents its creators can come up with. (In a classic face-off not to be found in any other movie, Doc and Johnny Ringo trade quips in Latin, before engaging in a test of manual dexterity in which Ringo shows his skill at twirling a six-gun and Doc responds by mimicking the routine with a coffee cup.) A lot of "Tombstone" is like that: predictable only on the surface, and more than a little weird around the edges.
Powers Boothe
(1948-2017)
