Young Guns Blu-ray features bad video and mediocre audio in this poor Blu-ray release
The year is 1878, Lincoln County. John Tunstall, a British ranchowner, hires six rebellious boys as "regulators" to protect his ranch against the ruthless Santa Fe Ring. When Tunstall is killed in an ambush, the Regulators, led by the wild-tempered Billy the Kid (Estevez), declare war on the Ring. As their vendetta turns into a bloody rampage, they are branded outlaws, becoming the objects of the largest manhunt in Western history.
What do you get when you mix up Emilio Estevez, Kiefer
Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Lou Diamond Phillips, Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemaszko, Terrence
Stamp, Terry O'Quinn, and Jack Palance? One of the better casts of the last twenty years in a fun
little western called Young Guns. This is a film meant to rake in the money
based on the names on the marquee, so go into it expecting an agreeable, mindless shoot 'em
up movie and not something like one of the great recent westerns such as Tombstone and
Open
Range and you'll have a blast as you ride with the Young Guns.
Hey! Is that Tom Cruise down there?
Young Guns is the story of Billy the Kid and his fellow "Regulators," a group of young,
promising men with troubled pasts hired by John Tunstall (Terence Stamp), an English cattle
Rancher now living in New Mexico. He is in fierce competition with Mr. Murphy (Jack Palance), a
rich rival with
many men serving him who wants nothing more than to see Tunstall's ranch fail. When
Murphy's
men murder Tunstall, Billy and the Regulators decide to avenge their mentor and kill Murphy and
as
many of his men as they can. One can't help but like Mr. Tunstall, and it's a shame he had to
bow
out so early in the movie, but his death is the driving force behind the plot.
This is
good,
fun entertainment. It's the old west meets 1980s style. There is some synthesizer action going
on
over the score, and it fits the mood of the picture well. The acting is solid but slightly over the
top.
Jack Palance plays a caricature of the evil old west rancher as only Jack Palance can.
He's great, of course. This is still a very good cast today, and it was chock-full of all of the
up-and-coming stars of the late 1980s. Emilio Estevez has a blast playing Billy the Kid, and he is
sure
fun to watch in several scenes, including one where he toys with a man who is out to kill Billy to
collect the bounty that is out on his head. Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips turn in
moderately good
performances.
Charlie Sheen is good, too, but his accent in this movie is one of the worst I have heard, right up
there with some of Kevin Costner's
notoriously bad efforts in films like Thirteen Days and JFK. It's the supporting
cast members that
really drive the film, however. Terrence Stamp, Terry O'Quinn, and Jack Palance are all very good
in their limited roles.
This 1080p, 1.85:1 presentation of Young Guns is bad, and there's no way around it.
This movie is almost 20 years old, but that
doesn't excuse the problems evident on this disc. The opening credits text is jagged and
pixelated around the edges. Noise is present throughout along with random speckles and dirt on
the print. Edge enhancement is severe in most scenes and doesn't go away for the majority of the
movie
and when it does, the image suddenly becomes overly soft. Blacks sometimes appear to be dark
blue rather than black. Despite these problems, this was an obvious upgrade for me, coming from
an old, non
anamorphic version of the film. Don't get me wrong; the disc is by no means unwatchable, but it
could be far, far better. This is
the best we're likely to see Young Guns look for quite some time (at least until Lionsgate
releases the inevitable special edition), so there is no reason to
avoid this disc based on the video quality if you really like this film.
Presented with both 5.1 DD EX and 6.1 DTS HD tracks, the audio fares much, much better than the
video on this disc. A good portion of the movie is dialogue driven. It sounds fine, and there is good
ambience to be heard. Horses trotting, birds chirping, and blowing wind permeate the soundtrack.
When the gunfights erupt, surrounds are active as bullets fly all around and explosions erupt
with bass heavy authority. This is an adequate track that gets the job done, but not one you'll ever
use as a demo to show off your sound system.
Lionsgate has left the cabinet pretty bare in the extras department on this disc. Out of the Blue
Trivia is a fun little pop-up trivia track that provides interesting tidbits about the real story
behind the movie, fun facts from the set (did you know Tom Cruise makes a brief appearance in
Young Guns?), and it keeps up with the death toll throughout the runtime of the picture.
Sometimes these tidbits
disappear from the screen too quickly. Please note that the audio reverts to a 2.0 Dolby
Digital track when this feature is selected. The other feature is a documentary entitled The Real
Billy the Kid (480p, 30:57). This is a decent feature, narrated as if for children, but with some
good basic background on Billy the Kid. 1080p trailers for Ultimate Avengers 2 and
Crank round out the special features.
Young Guns is a great Saturday afternoon action flick. It's funny, has great action, a plot
that gets it from beginning to end without being an embarrassment, and an all-star cast.
Unfortunately, the technical aspects of this disc are subpar. The video quality is well below average
(though watchable) and the audio is adequate at best. Supplements are scarce, and I am sure
there is much more out there that is just waiting for a special edition on Blu-ray at some point in
the future. If you like this movie and all you have is a non-anamorphic DVD or laserdisc or VHS
copy, this is worth an upgrade, but otherwise I'd pass on this one. There is bound to be a better
edition available at some point in the future.
