Young Guns

Day 252 - 9/9/09 - Movie #251

BEFORE: I couldn't come up with a movie based around the number "9" - or even a Beatles movie, since I've seen them all...so instead I'm watching the Brat Pack go Western. Don't worry, it's all part of the plan. I had a feeling that I might have seen this movie, but if I did, I don't remember it at all. If it seems too familiar, I'll switch over to "Young Guns II". In the meantime, let's enjoy some back-to-back Jack Palance!

THE PLOT: A group of young gunmen, led by Billy the Kid, become deputies to avenge the murder of the rancher who became their benefactor. But when Billy takes their authority too far, they become the hunted.

AFTER: See, Billy the Kid was just misunderstood, right? He's just a guy who went a bit too far - or else he was a nutjob serial killer, this movie ultimately isn't sure which way it wants to portray him.

It's not bad as an ensemble movie - like in "The Magnificent Seven", they really went out of their ways to give each character a different personality - Charlie Sheen plays the paranoid one, Kiefer Sutherland is the group poet, Dermot Mulroney is the "dirty" one, and Lou Diamond Philips is the half-Native American spiritual one.

I guess maybe I hadn't seen this one before, the storyline wasn't familiar at all.

Terence Stamp plays John Tunstall, the man who educates the "Regulators" that work on his ranch, and Jack Palance plays the rival rancher who wants him gone. Cameos from Patrick Wayne (son of John) as Pat Garrett, and playing Tunstall's lawyer looked familiar - he was Terry O'Quinn, who plays that bald guy on "Lost".

RATING: 7 out of 10 deputy badges