Dead in Tombstone

While it is nice to see Mickey Rourke in any role and Danny Trejo has become Legend (one way or another) with Machete, this movie is not really great. It does have some really good costumes though and the set design is good too (I can't imagine them having a lot of money to spend, so it must be from another set or shoot ... no pun intended).

Action scenes are OK, the story not complicated, it's more or less what you'd expect from a movie like this. Dina Meyer has not really that much to do and she is the female lead in this. The angle on the good versus bad thing is not that bad, because it's not really a good guy doing the work here. Though obviously it doesn't really make that much sense (the "Deal" that is). But you shouldn't start thinking with movies like these

Man, what happened to Rourke? After "The Wrestler," he had a second act career resurgence that appeared to be another great Hollywood comeback story. He had a string of high-profile blockbuster films -- "Expendables," "Iron Man 2" among them -- and a whole list of films on IMDb that were slated in pre-production, many with large casts and studios.

He swore in all his cover story interviews around the release of The Wrestler that he'd "learned his lesson" the hard way by bad-mouthing Hollywood in the '80s and '90s, and that he wouldn't allow his career to become ruined again, as he had resorted to straight-to-video flicks in the late '90s and early '00s when his career was in truly dire straits. (He claims a narrative that he was out of work entirely for a decade, but the truth is, he was just appearing in really crap films.)

But he didn't heed his own words of wisdom. Within a couple years, these things had happened: he publicly dissed The Expendables 2, claiming he wouldn't return unless they paid him more. He was never cast in the film, and the plot was re-written to involve a younger character in his place. After the worldwide success of EX2, which could have been another franchise for Rourke, a producer on the film was asked whether he'd be back for round three. "Maybe if he doesn't act so crazy," was the reply from the producer. As of September 29th, the third film is in production, and Rourke's name is absent from the cast.

He also publicly bad-mouthed writer/director Martin McDonaugh (In Bruges), claiming he wasn't being paid enough by the "creep" to star in the film Seven Psychopaths; he dropped out, and was replaced by Woody Harrelson. The film wasn't a big hit financially, but critics loved it, and it had a huge ensemble cast. Instead of starring in that film, he starred in a straight-to-video movie with Kellen Lutz...if you don't know who that guy is, it's because he was one of the shirtless vampires in Twilight.

Then he bad-mouthed Marvel Studios, claiming they butchered Iron Man 2. Not a huge deal since his character had no chance of coming back anyway, but it's more burnt bridges. He also annoyed the crap out of Robert Downey Jr on the set of the film (RDJ went out on a limb for him and fought to have him cast in the film after Rourke's pay demands were deemed too high by Marvel, btw); apparently his Method Acting routine was hugely obnoxious to cast and crew, as he demanded odd flourishes such as blaring Gnarls Barkley's song "Crazy" at full volume before filming every one of his scenes.

My point of this long-winded rant is that Mickey Rourke has essentially ruined what could have been a golden opportunity comeback to fulfill his early potential as one of the great actors of all time, and now he has resorted to starring in utter dreck like this film, which is an absolutely abysmal production and something that any actor should be embarrassed to list on their resume.

It's a standard revenge flick, set in a western atmosphere. It is poorly made (the low budget stands out at every turn), poorly acted (Anthony Michael Hall is the villain - enough said), and poorly shot (the lighting is atrocious at times). Danny Trejo has experienced some kind of grindhouse-type career revival thanks to Robert Rodriguez, but he's best buried as a minor character in ensemble films, and he does not have the charm or charisma to carry a full-length picture.

The only remotely interesting thing about this film? Rourke plays the devil incarnate. Which, if you've ever seen his 1987 psychological thriller "Angel Heart," is an interesting twist. Unfortunately this film isn't remotely similar to Angel Heart in any other regard, which was one of the best films of the 1980s in this humble critic's opinion; Dead in Tombstone, by contrast, is Dead On Arrival (har, har) and a truly bad film.

Rourke, you only have yourself to blame for this.

I'm a huge fan of both Trejo and Rourke and seeing them on screen together was a lot of fun. But their star quality charisma sadly fails to lift this movie out of the muck of poor writing and pacing.

The production seems to be about on par with a Sy-Fy channel "original" movie, better than a straight to DVD production but not by much.

The western elements are played for full cartoon caricature stereotype and look decent enough while being obviously anachronistic, there's just no real excitement to the movie at all. It's very standard revenge plot action wannabe without the budget and flash to carry it off. You know everything you need to know in the first 5 minutes of the movie and if you are like me and have seen a lot of action movies you'll even be able to accurately predict many of the set action sequences before they happen.

I would have liked to see a less action oriented flick with the same premise that let Trejo and Rourke's acting chops shine. As it stands the movie is pretty forgettable.

Not recommended.

"I'm gonna stay here and I'm gonna take over this town and you can go to hell." When a gang lead by Guerrero (Trejo) enters a small mining town for a night of drinking he is surprised when the gang revolts and kills him in order to stay and control the town they now call Tombstone. When he wakes up in Hell he makes a deal with the Devil in order to live again. Now has an instrument of Satan all he has to do is kill the gang that killed him or face eternal damnation. Once again this is a Danny Trejo movie which means this will be a short review. His fans will watch this either way so what I will say is that this is pretty cheesy with a ridiculous plot. On the other hand this does have Trejo in it for more then 5 minutes and Mickey Rourke is also in this for added fun. This is a true western in the way that there are no zombies or other gimmick to make people watch. Other then that this is another movie for Trejo fans. Overall, not terrible but nothing to rush and see either. I give it a C+.

For me dead in tombstone is not a terrible movie. But it is also not that great. Danny trejo being the star is the whole selling point of this movie and without his gruth gun slinging talk it would not be entertaining. Bassically in this movie trejo is the lead of a band of men that gets killed by some bandits. We think he is dead and I thought great now the film will be boring. But not. He wakes up in hell and micky rouke playing a type of devil says he can be alive if he brings the souls of the six men responsible for his death. Then he gets bloody revenge there are some explosions and fire and its alright. Not a great movie altogether. Alright cast but entertaining for what it is.