Saturday, June 28, 2008

Tombstone the movie

I've seen this Tombstone movie several times, but we had company who had passed through Tombstone and saw the recreation at the OK Corral, so we pulled it out and watched it with them for old times sake.

It's truly a fun movie, and it's even more fun to watch with a crowd who has seen it several times - we shoulda just gone ahead and dressed Western and pretended it was Rocky Horror Picture Show! PD's favorite line is Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp saying to Billy Bob Thornton as the gambler, "Go ahead, skin it. Skin that smoke wagon" to challenge him to draw his gun first. We laughed and laughed at the absurdity of the line - I mean, "smoke wagon"? Go figure, but Kurt sure manages to make it sound sexy.

Then Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday mimicking the cowboy's expertise with twirling a gun by twirling a shot glass cracked us all up again. Kilmer's performance as the dying Holliday is nothing short of brilliant, and his Virginia drawl is wonderful. Myself, I'm not a Sam Elliott fan, but I was the Lone Ranger in that opinion in this crowd. I just think he doesn't open his mouth wide enough, he doesn't have any expression other than squinty eyes, and basically he needs to modulate his voice a little. But that's just me.

The movie makes Curly Bill, played by Powers Booth, to be meaner and lower than a rattlesnake so there's no doubt in anyone's mind who wears the white hats in this movie - no depth whatsoever - he's bad to the bone, and don't you fergit it. Poor Bill - maybe someday some director will let him be the hero in the movie, and show us what a sumbitch those ol' Earp brothers really were. After all, Wyatt's adulterous affair with whassername the actress, played by Dana Delaney, doesn't make him the most appealing fellow around.

It's a 5 star keeper movie all around, just for the fun and games. I'll be wearing a coupla six shooters next time, too.

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