Too long

Rating: 4/10 (3 March 2011)

Tombstone, a George Cosmatos directed picture from 1993: I am sorry, but I must give this kind effort a weak score. There is far too much laconic self importance among the principles, and very little typical human behavior. The fact that nobody ever uttered a humorous line in the entire picture says something about what Hollywood believes comprises entertainment these days. And this is a very long movie, full of melo-dramatic seriousness. (I suppose "I'm your Huckleberry" expresses humor on some level, but. . .) Set in the late 1800s, Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp gives a very serious performance finding revenge laden motivations around every corner of the picture. Val Kilmer, as Doc Holiday, helps him some. . .at least offering a glimmer of lightness, but certainly not enough. He is somewhat lighter, but I would understand I suppose, given that his gun contains a vastly superior chamber for bullets than anyone had ever seen before. In one of the numerous gunfights, I have slowed the video down to count 35 consecutive bullets coming from his 2 guns a blazing. Credulity has little business in current Hollywood fare for ingestion, I suppose. Sam Elliot is just slow, serious, and weak here. His natural sounding accent for slow and stupid never gets more play than here. The rest of the cast seem to continually try to give the very image of themselves something definite to be remembered on screen, but is'nt this the directors entire idea here? Impression!?! I was not impressed, however.