Young Guns is a classic western adventure told through the lens of a big '80s action flick, cheesy guitar rock soundtrack and all. As a guy who loves "movie-moments", it's perfect. (Talking to the guy in the bar who wants to kill Billy the Kid. Discovering the traitor in the group. Shooting dude in the bathroom. The final standoff. Peyote.) Other than Sutherland's blandness and Sheen's accent, the performances are characters are a great hang.

The movie is (loosely) based on Billy the Kid's adventures during the Lincoln County War, that took place in 1877-1878. The movie has this brat pack feeling to it. filled with fast action scenes and snappy one liners.The brat pack of gunmen consists of Billy the Kid (Emilio Estevez), Dick Brewer (Charlie Sheen), Dirty Steve (Dermot Mulroney), Doc Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland), Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Charley Bowdre (Casey Siemaszko). These young men are a bunch of misfits and gunmen that are gathered under the guidance of English cattle rancher John Tunstall (Terence Stamp). They work and protect his ranch and economic interests and John Tunstall gives the young gunmen food, shelter and an education in return. The movies main villain is the Irishman Lawrence G. Murphy (played by western movie veteran Jack Palance), whom also is a rancher and merchant and the natural rival to John Tunstall. The rivalry goes bad and John Tunstall is murdered and the movie turns into a tale of revenge. Billy the Kid's gang is deputised after meeting lawyer Alexander McSween (Terry O'Quinn). They were young and inexperienced but they were the only men with guts enough to challenge the terror of Lawrence Murphy, whom had a huge gang following him. The young gunmen takes on the name The Regulators as they ride out to arrest some of the murderers in Murhpy's gang. But hot-headed Billy wants instant justice and starts to murder his enemies and the Regulators are stripped of their badges. Despite becoming outlaws the Regulators keep hunting down Murphy's men while bounty hunters and law men are closing in on them. The movie is filled with cool and creative shooting scenes, the dialogue is fast and saucy and often really memorable. The movie has a fast pace and there if the movie had been directed by Peter Jackson it would have been 3 times 3 hours long. Young Guns is more fun than your old John Wayne / Clint Eastwood movies. Funny fact is that: Pat Garrett is played by John Wayne's son Patrick Wayne.The cast is brilliant and Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jack Palance and Emilio Estevez does some of their best work of their careers. The movie doesn't go deep and rarely scratches the surface and at times the dialogue feels more cool than realistic. This western has everything, it's an adventure, it has comedic elements, it's action and it has even got some romance in it. The movie is about friendship and going against the odds as the men keep challenging themselves to grow. It's a very entertaining movie, It doesn't compare to some of the old Spaghetti westerns out there but it doesn't try either. Young guns was a new brand of Western that we hadn't really seen before. It doesn't follow the real story of Billy the Kid correctly either. There are some fabrications of the truth here and there, but Young Guns come in all guns blazing and it does it with a big grin on it's face. The movie came out when the Western genre was more or less dead and buried, but the movie did pretty well despite scoring bad reviews and it helped revitalise the dead genre a bit. I've seen more than 100 western movies in my days but I still think that this is the most exciting western movie out there, maybe not the best but definitely one of the few that I can watch over and over again. Movie fans... Mount Up!

I have not seen a lot of westerns so I don't pretend to be some expert on western movies. However this is without a doubt one of the best westerns of all-time and my favorite western of all-time. I know some people criticize this film for not being historically accurate or a shallow attempt to be a "hip" western. Well, the truth is this film is not 100% accurate with history but what movie is? I liked the idea of this being a hip western staring Hollywood's "brat pack" with rock music playing in the background. I think it fits because this is basically a story about Billy the kid, a outlaw who was under 20 years old so it makes sense to give this one a younger or hipper feel to it. I like the Billy the kid story and I've seen many movies about him but this is the best one for 3 reasons. 1: I liked that they started from the beginning, other films focus on the "later" years when he met Pat Garret. 2: I like that this is more about the gang and not just about Billy. 3: Emilio Estevez is the best Billy the kid. I think the story is very well done, it's the best depiction of the Lincoln county war in New Mexico and the changes made were for the better. Like in real life John Tunstall was only twenty something and their were about a dozen or so "regulaters" not just the 6 shown here but the changes made worked for the better. The film is well directed by Chris Cain with a great balance of action, humor and is appropriately violent. I also like the look of the film, it really makes you feel like their in the wild west during 1878 and not on some sound stage. It also has a great cast! With the great Terrance Stamp who's perfectly cast as John Tunstall, an older English man who takes in six young rebellious men to work at his cattle ranch. The villain is the always great Jack Palance as Murphy, who kills Tunstal, starting the war. The 6 young boys search for justice so they become sheriffs but thanks to Billy killing everyone who they're supposed to arrest, they become outlaws. I LOVE Emillio Estevez as Billy the Kid. I know many would say his interpretation is not historically accurate but I think it's much more the way we would like to imagine the kid. Emillio gives one of his best performances and he was cheated out of an Oscar nomination. I think they did a great job in blending a lot of color to the kid. Billy is a lot of things in this movie, he's cocky, rebellious, trigger-happy, a little crazy, a loyal friend, and charming. Billy is perfectly portrayed as an anti-hero like he should be. Emillio always makes him likable even if we know he's a little crazy. I do like how they make Billy a little crazy as he takes pleasure in killing his enemies. His kills are marked by his unforgettable giggle, I love Emillio's lunatic sounding laugh. Billy is fearless who enjoys the thrill of life or death situations. But despite his wild behavior he's extremely loyal to his friends which gives him a lot of heart. Kiefer Sutherland is great as the more sensitive "Doc", one of my favorite performances of his. I love Lou Diamond Phillips as Chavez Y Chavez, possibly his best role and I love his knife skills. Dermot Mulloney is great as "dirty" Steve and he has a lot of funny moments. Casey Siemasko is great as Charlie, the more scared one of the bunch. I love Charlie Sheen as Dick, the appointed leader of the gang. I like how he fought for leadership of the regulators with his real life brother Emillio as Billy. I like the name of the gang as "the regulators", that's a cool name. The film has non stop action, good humor, good characters and the theme of friendship works well here.I love the rock'n'roll theme music. I like that they show Emillio/Billy take the now famous Billy the kid picture as well. One of my favorite movies of all-time.

I will firstly admit that I did not pay the fullest attention to this film while it was on, but I did understand everything going on, and I knew it was going to bit of an average film anyway, but still one I was interested in because of the all-star cast, from director Christopher Cain (The Next Karate Kid). Basically, set in 1878 in New Mexico, young gun men are picked up on the road by John Tunstall (Terence Stamp) to work on his ranch, but they also learn to read and be civilised, but competitive cattle seller and rich rancher Lawrence G. Murphy (Jack Palance) is hanging around and acting suspiciously. Tunstall is shot by Murphy's men during a scuffle, because Sheriff Brady (Daniel 'Danny' Kamin) is one of the gang Justice Wilson (Victor Izay) can't do anything about the situation, but attorney Alex McSween (Lost's Terry O'Quinn) persuades him to recruit the young men as deputies and give them the warrants to arrest the murderers. The young men: William H. Bonney (Emilio Estevez), who later becomes the infamous 'Billy the Kid', Josiah Gordon 'Doc' Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland), 'Jose' Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips), Richard 'Dick' Brewer (Charlie Sheen), Dirty Steve Stephens (Dermot Mulroney) and Charles 'Charley' Bowdre (Casey Siemaszko), do not intend to arrest the killers though, they just want to shoot them. After Dick and one of the others is killed the five remaining young gun men have the final showdown with Murphy and his gang, and Billy of course went on to become an outlaw and was eventually shot dead by Patrick Floyd 'Pat' Garrett (Patrick Wayne). Also starring Sharon Thomas Cain as Susan McSween, Brian Keith as Buckshot Roberts and Cody Palance, Jack's son as Baker. The cast all do their parts fine, especially Esteves in the leading role of the well known gunslinger, I may not have followed the story in full, but the action sequences are good to watch with all the guns firing and some blood, a not bad western. Worth watching!