Yoo hoo, I'll make you famous. Young Guns II is directed by Geoff Murphy and written by John Fusco. It stars Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christian Slater, William Petersen, Alan Ruck, Vigo Mortensen and Balthazar Getty. Music is scored by Alan Silvestri, with contributions from Jon Bon Jovi, and cinematography is by Dean Semler. Brushy Bill Roberts, old and crusty, claims to be Billy The Kid. Which is quite a claim considering the Kid was long thought to have been killed by Patrick Floyd Garrett in 1881. Roberts tells a listening historian that after the break up of the Tunstall Regulators, the remaining members hooked up with Garrett and Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh and still lived the outlaw life... Young Guns was released in 1988 and became a big enough hit to warrant this sequel two years later. Reuniting gunslingers Billy the Kid (Estevez), Doc Scurlock (Sutherland) and Chavez (Phillips) from the first film, Young Guns II follows the same formula that worked so well two years previously. Billy is still a borderline nut case and his gang, for better or worse, follow him into a number of escapades. This time around, though, we have some added interest in the form of Christian Slater's cocky Rudabaugh, who, as an egotist, wants to run the gang himself. Things are further given a lift when Garrett (a darn fine William Petersen resplendent with major…

_**Desperate and reckless young gunmen in New Mexico**_ "Brushy Bill" Roberts is 90 years-old in 1950 and claims to be Billy the Kid, shortly before his death. He narrates the events from 69 years earlier: Pat Garrett (William Petersen) is hired to track down Billy (Emilio Estevez) and his gang, which includes Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips), Doc Scurlock (Keifer Sutherland), "Arkansas" Dave Rudabaugh (Christian Slater) and Henry William French (Alan Ruck). This 1990 sequel to "Young Guns" from two years prior is almost as good and in some ways even better. For one thing, there's more rollicking Western action. Secondly, the 80's pop rock score of the former is replaced by excellent music from Alan Silvestri, which has some moving parts. Speaking of 80's rock, Jon Bon Jovi has a couple of songs on the end credits: "Blaze of Glory" and "Billy Get Your Guns." The Kid was only 21 when he supposedly died in 1881 and Estevez does a good job of capturing the wild axx punk whereas Chavez and Henry are the most likable characters, not to mention Slater is notable as Arkansas Dave. Meanwhile the Southwest cinematography nicely captures the Old West. Besides these positives, the highlight for me was Jenny Wright as Jane Greathouse. One of her scenes is topped off by an unexpected "Whoa Mama" moment (repeated as a flashback at the end). Her career unfortunately fell apart shortly after…

"Young Guns II" has a very intriguing approach when delivering the all too familiar story detailing Billy the Kid's Mexico run - he is joined in this quest for freedom by some members of his gang after he saves them from certain death at the end of a hangman's rope - following a substancial bounty of $1,000 being placed on his head. This film does offer a measure of ambiguity in relation to Billy's eventual fate and after the tale is finally told the journalist's disputed claims are neither proven nor disproven and we are left to speculate about what the truth of the whole situation could possibly be in this extremely intelligent, interesting, and above all exceptionally well made western.

Young guns is one of those movies that is difficult not to appreciate, even if you are not a fan of this particular genre. I have seen a few different versions of Billy the Kid saga, I have even read about the life of this outlaw. The western genre is one of my favorites, so it is surprising that this is the first time I actually managed to watch the first and second installments of this movie. Time well spent and I would do it again. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐