weak as hell

Rating: 6/10 (5 July 2004)

I watched this right after having seen most of "Wyatt Earp" on TV, and I gotta say, that movie beats the hell out of this one, even *with* Kevin Costner. Whereas "Wyatt Earp" is a movie about the legend of the man, "Tombstone" is a dumbed-down Hollywood depiction of one instance in the West that happens to revolve centrally around that man. Most everything that happens in "Tombstone", from the very first scene with "the Cowboys", is stylized to the Hollywood convention; "Wyatt Earp" presents its story in a much more realistic manner. Everything in it feels more down-to-earth. People seem to react more in the way real people would. This film comes across as too contrived. The best thing about it is Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday, which I think I like a little more than Dennis Quaid's in WE, but he was quite good as well. The facts that I've read seem to line up more with WE, too, so I'd recommend skipping this one and seeing that.