A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

I was a child of the 1960s; my Dad grew up watching "Westerns" at the theater. He in turn introduced my brother and I; "Westerns" like the iconic movies featuring John Wayne; Alan Ladd ("Shane"); Gary Cooper; Burt Lancaster; the original "The Magnificent Seven" movie; I could go on. After I got older and with the advent of the Clint Eastwood "Spaghetti westerns" I presumed good movies of the genre was of days past. Then I saw this. I knew Kirk Russell from his body of work, likewise other cast members, save Val Kilmer, was not that familiar with his body of work. If you are a fan of the "Western" movie genre, welcome home. This one will take you back. Thanksgiving day, 1996, my Dad sat on the edge of his seat watching this and smiling. This was the last "Western" he saw before he passed 1.5 months later. But my being able to play this for him and his enjoyment, gave me as much if not more enjoyment than the movie itself. If a GOOD Western is what you want, look no further. Some pretty decent others have followed, but cannot, nay, could not touch this one.

One of the best Westerns ever to come around Tombstone raised the viewer bar for classic Westerns and remained reasonably accurate in its story-telling. This Western has it all except for Indians which you don't even give a second thought but on second thought, there is a injun character bad guy so perhaps it does have everything. Guns, whiskey, cards, brawling, shoot-outs, dust, horses, good and bad guys, sheriffs and Marshalls, court scenes, women and even drugs too. No one knows for sure all the details but we do know that if you carried a gun or two, a knife and a rifle, chances are you not only needed to but used them often. Those that didn't died before their time. I am saying that to say this: killing remained a common problem forcing law and order to come into play or the killings would just go on. Bushwacking (getting the jump on someone) was common and shooting a person in the back was looked down on but there were many ways to kill and very few to testify. Nice long movie and who doesn't like all the stars and good supporting players they packed into it? Just well done all around. Great movie for a meal or sandwich with a tasty drink plus a decent snack to follow. I must also say the dialog was exceptional too. Get to your horses, mount-up and let's ride!

This movie begins with an outlaw gang known as "the Cowboys" riding into a Mexican village where a wedding is being conducted. After killing several police officers attending the wedding, the outlaws then rape the new bride and subsequently murder the local priest in the process. The scene then shifts to Tucson where "Wyatt Earp" (Kurt Russell) meets up with his brothers "Virgil" (Sam Elliott) and "Morgan" (Bill Paxton) en route to Tombstone. As luck would have it, upon arriving they meet up with "Doc Holliday" (Val Kilmer) who intervenes in the nick of time to prevent them from being ambushed by a man Wyatt had completely humiliated just an hour before. Unknown to them, their fortunes are about to change when the Cowboys decide to ride in and take ownership of Tombstone. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an entertaining film from start to finish. I especially liked the acting of Val Kilmer and Dana Delaney who brightened each scene they were in. On the flip side, however, I didn't quite care for the manner in which Wyatt Earp was characterized as historically he was just as much of a scoundrel as any of the other people depicted in this film. So to have him in the role of as one of "the good guys" seems a bit of a stretch. But that's Hollywood for you. Regardless, as stated earlier, I enjoyed this movie and because of that I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

******WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS. DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE ALREADY SEEN THE MOVIE******I live a hour from Tombstone and have been there several times and I have been at the gun site. A relative of Ike Clanton still runs a business there. I know a little bit about the history of the gun fight and of the circumstances that lead up to the fight.I was a little disappointed in the many big historical inaccuracies in the movie. I was hoping it would be the first movie to truly show what actually happened, but it didn't. That being said, the actual gun fight in the movie was pretty close to what actually happened, so that pulled the movie back up a little.The biggest disappointed was how Val played Doc Holliday. I don't know what he was thinking when he decided to play him as a kind of "dandy boy". Doc Holliday was a pretty tough character in real life and certainly wasn't a sissy. And they really lessened the real life role of "Big Nosed Kate" in the movie. She wan't some nobody bar girl in real life.Also, I didn't like how they portrayed Wyatt at all. They made it look like he was a fairly passive player in all this and didn't want to get involved in enforcing anything, which is absurd. He was a very experienced lawman in real life. What were they thinking in portraying him like this? Then they swung the pendulum the other way by making it look like he went out and killed about 30 cowboys - it was only 3. They also had Doc killing Ringo, but it was actually Wyatt that killed him.In the movie Wyatt didn't see Curly kill White, but in real life he did and even testified in Curly's behalf that it was an accident. Before White died he even said it was an accident.And for some reason they portrayed Josephine as some high class entertainer, when in actuality she was a low class prostitute.There are many other little incorrect representations of facts. One is concerning the timing of when Morgan arrived to Tombstone. 3 of the brothers did arrive in Tombstone at the same time, but it was Wyatt, Virgil, and James that arrived on the same day - Morgan arrived there later.And Virgil was made a US Marshall before they even arrived in Tombstone. In the movie they made it look like he wasn't even a lawman when they got there.I think if someone made a movie that more historically accurate, it would be even more interesting than anything they have done so far, so am hoping one day that will happen, but it didn't happen with this movie. But still I think it is a pretty good movie. It would have been a great movie if they would have portrayed Wyatt and Doc a little more realistically.