Rating: R | Runtime: 130 minutes
Release Date: December 25th, 1993 (USA)
Studio: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Director(s): George P. Cosmatos
Writer(s): Kevin Jarre

You gonna do something or just stand there and bleed?

The answer to the question, “Who was the other nominee for Best Desirable Male at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards alongside Billy Baldwin, Tom Cruise, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Denzel Washington?” is … a clammy, tuberculous-ravaged ghost as played by Val Kilmer. If he wasn’t so good in Tombstone to earn it on merit, I’d say he deserved a supporting actor Oscar nomination for pulling that feat off alone. Arnie Grape robbed him.

This film is a true embarrassment of riches acting-wise. Every two minutes I’m like, “Is that Spiros from “The Wire”?” Or, is that Trixie from “Deadwood”?” By the time Billy Bob Thornton arrived, I just stopped wondering and started assuming the guy who looked like Robert John Burke probably was Robert John Burke.

I’d give the first three-quarters a solid 8/10 thanks to devilishly good villains (an unhinged Powers Boothe and Michael Biehn), one of the best sidekicks in cinematic history (Kilmer), and a pitch perfect Dante Hicks to Jules Winnfield pivot from Kurt Russell. That tonally insane final quarter was messy, though. Weird cuts. Truncated storylines. And the film keeps going well past its logical narrative end to dance in the snow and have Robert Mitchum deliver a “what happened next” epilogue line reading straight from a 1970s teen comedy.

I also thought Ike might pop-up at the end to blow Earp’s head off since the latter kept letting him live to fight another day, before realizing it was much more damning that Earp didn’t think cowards were worth the lead.

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Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Kurt Russell, and Bill Paxton in TOMBSTONE.