Review by Jude
Felton
It took Danny
Trejo longer than most, but he eventually got to the point in his career where
he is the star of his films. Whether or not said films are any good is another
matter completely; with Machete being probably the highest profile film, and
one that wasn’t particularly good. However, the Trejo machine is now in full
effect, and this results in us getting films like Dead in Tombstone.
As you might
have guessed, Dead in Tombstone is a Western, albeit it one with a supernatural
twist, and it’s one that the filmmakers couldn’t really go too far wrong with.
You get Trejo as Guerrero, the “good” guy, Anthony Michael Hall as the “bad”
guy, and Mickey “Goddamn” Rourke as the Devil. How the hell could you go wrong?
The plot is
classic main character gets betrayed and comes back for revenge faire, and
follows Trejo’s character, who happens to be a bank robber. His gang, and
former right-hand man Red (Anthony Michael Hall), turn on him and send him
straight to hell. Whilst there he meets the Devil, and makes a pact in order to
get his revenge. From here on in it’s Guerrero hunting down his former gang,
with a little added semi-love interest in the shape of Dina Meyer’s Calathea.
Dead in
Tombstone isn’t out to re-invent the wheel, not that you would expect it to,
and is happy enough to perform as an entertaining slice of violent Western
mayhem. The movie is helped considerably by the appearance of Anthony Michael
Hall, who’s as watchable as ever, and Rourke hams it up, as you might expect.
Trejo, in the lead, pretty much plays Trejo; he scowls a lot, shows his tattoos
and generally plays the anti-hero bad-ass.
What does
surprise me, is that Universal have once again given this direct to Blu/DVD
movie a solid release; as they did with the recent Curse of Chucky. I don’t
really see the need to include a rated version, alongside the unrated cut, but
there are a decent amount of special features contained over the two discs.
Also, Universal once again delivers a fine looking Blu-ray. Seriously, as a
company they are truly underrated when it comes to the quality of their Blu-ray
transfers. Maybe they aren’t “cool” enough for some? Anyway, the picture is
pretty damned good.
As a slice of
B movie entertainment, there are far worse movies out there, and Trejo has
starred in some of them, but Dead in Tombstone delivers just enough to make it
worth the 2 hours you’ll invest in it. It’s not a great film, by any stretch of
the imagination; however it is fun and has all the clichés you might expect in
this sort of film. Hell, they even set it up for a sequel, should that ever
happen.
At the end of
the day, if you’re a fan of the main cast of Dead in Tombstone, you’re probably
going to enjoy it far more than if you’re not. And, how often do you get to see
a supernatural Western that was filmed in Romania? Exactly. Dead in Tombstone
is above average, but only just.
Dead in Tombstone hits Blu-ray and DVD on October 22nd from Universal.
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