Brushy Bill Roberts claims that he is the famous outlaw William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid, who was supposedly shot and killed by Pat Garrett in 1881. The old man gives a very convincing story on how he and Garrett, along with a few others led the outlaw life and avoided the law, as wanted men. Garrett, a friend of Billy's, was paid by John Chisum, a cattle king, to eliminate Billy the Kid. So, Garrett and Ashmun Upson set out on a journey to find Billy the Kid.....This must be one of the first instances were a movie studio decided to cash in on the success of the first movie, and bring the rating right down in order to get as much cash in as possible. These days it's quite common for a movie to have a lower rating like Die Hard, or Terminator, but back then, it was extremely rare.And the result, while still pretty watchable, is just pointless and an excuse to get more young and upcoming stars to appear in a film together. This time Slater, Getty, and Ruck are the new additions to Billy's gang. Why? They just are, that's why.So the gimmick is to have an old man claim he's William H. Bonney, and tell the films narrative. So we spend the first act getting the gang back together, the second act having them stab each other in the back and argue a lot, and the third act to provide us with as much overacting from Estevez as possible.And if you look really closely around the hour and ten minute mark, you can pause it and see the exact point where Estevez ruins his chances of becoming an A-list star. All the work he put in the first movie is ruined by making his Billy the kid seem as comic book as humanly possible, and it takes away any drama or urgency the film has with Petersen on his trail (he's the best thing in it by the way).So all in all it's totally watchable, with a wonderful cast, but you find yourself asking the question.....Why? every now and again.And I still can't find Tom Cruise in this.

Young Guns 2 (1990): Dir: Geoff Murphy / Cast: Emilio Estivez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christian Slater, William Petersen: Decent sequel examining the life of Billy the Kid while never revealing the source of his survival. He narrates the film explaining his escape from the law and regrouping with his gang. They head for the boarder with Pat Garrett closing in on them. Structured with several gunfights well filmed by Geoff Murphy who previously made the futuristic The Quiet Earth. Emilio Estivez reprises his role as the Kid with crazy comical daring. Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips return as gang members who eventually have a dispute that concludes with Phillips holding his arm out stretched offering Sutherland back his embedded knife. Christian Slater is added to the cast as a journalist out to discover the truth behind the Kid's existence as well as try to visualize what it must have been like. William Petersen plays Pat Garrett who is tasked with taking down Billy the Kid and his gang of outlaws. Entertaining sequel full of gun fire highlighted with Bon Jovi theme Blaze of Glory. One could say that the film is out to answer questions but since Billy's mortality isn't explained then that pretty much defeats the purpose. Otherwise this is a flawed but well produced entertaining sequel that sparks humour and old fashion western gunfights. Score: 6 / 10

The first "Young guns" movie was hardly a classic , but definitely a good movie worth watching. It was aimed at MTV teenagers and quite a refreshing take on western. It also made enough money back in the 80's (when western movies weren't really popular) for studio to make a sequel. The audience like the simple revenge story and charm of the young stars of that movie.This movie lacks solid story. The first one had a good motivation for our heroes – revenge. Here they are running and arguing between each other , but the whole movie lacks a hook. The conflict between Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid is too thin to keep the viewer interested. The movie seems to more like a collection of short scenes (sometimes good ones) instead of well written story. "Young guns 2" doesn't go anywhere from the beginning to the end. I also didn't care if the story of Roberts was real or not.The movie is also rather awfully directed by Geoff Murphy. The pacing is dreadful. The whole movie feels like it's 3 hours long , despite a rather normal running time. It makes the movie hard to watch and boring on re-watch. The movie lacks the freshness of the original."Young guns 2" is mainly concentrated on Emilio Estevez ("Stakeout") , who is walking the thin line of being likable and annoying here. Kiefer Sutherland ("The lost boys") and Lou Diamond Philips ("Stand and deliver") don't really have much to play. The newcomers – Christian Slater ("True romance") , William Petersen ("To live and die in LA") and James Coburn ("Iron cross") aren't really interesting.The music by Alan Silvestri is nice and the movie has some nice scenes, jokes and dialogues. The songs by Jon Bon Jovi are good too ("Blaze of glory" anyone ?). It doesn't change the fact that this is a very forced sequel made without any idea for good story. I give it 3/10.

This movie can't even be classified as a "Western". Emilio Estevez was not convincing. Then, we were subjected to viewing his naked butt. The guy is just not a good actor...Then, someone is always calling after him...."Beellaaay...Beellaaay..." Not, Billy; Beellaaay. Puhleeze. Then, there's the part where Lou Diamond Phillips' character gets stabbed right through his forearm. Can you imagine the pain and bone breakage associated with such an injury? The severed nerves, tendons..the inevitable infection? Nope. The knife was simply pulled out without so much as a wince. Then, he's just fine in the next scene, as if nothing had happened. Nobody was convincing in this film. It just seemed like a bunch of short Hollywood types hamming it up.