DEAD IN TOMBSTONE DVD (2013)

SYNOPSIS: Danny Trejo (Machete), Anthony Michael Hall (The Dark Knight) and Oscar® nominee Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) star in this unrated, action-packed battle for vengeance. As a ruthless gang overruns a small mining town, they murder their own leader, Guerrero Hernandez (Trejo), in a cold-blooded power grab. Sentenced to eternity in hell, Guerrero finds himself confronted by Satan himself (Rourke), offering a daring proposition: deliver the six souls of his former gang and he will escape damnation. With time running out, he sets out on a brutal rampage to avenge his own death!

MOVIE REVIEW:

More of an appetizer than a full meal, this straight-to-DVD Western, Dead In Tombstone stars Danny Trejo as Guerrero, an outlaw who is betrayed by his half-brother, Red (Anthony Michael Hall) after a robbery in a small mining town.

Obviously, Guerrero isn’t going to stay dead for long and he is revived by Satan himself, Lucifer (Mickey Rourke). After offering to bring the six souls of his former gang to the latter, Guerrero is given one day to accomplish his mission before he is wanted back in hell again.

It’s a rare treat to see a Western nowadays. The recent major Western on the big screen was a flop if you recall. Filmed in Romania where I suppose the costs are much lower, the overall production values displayed here are decent and even with the limited backlot space, director Roel Reiné who is an old hand when it comes to video titles (he did stuff liked Pistol Whipped, Death Race 2 and The Marine 2 if you are keen to check them out) deliver the goods when it calls for it. There are copious amount of gunfires, explosions and violence, bad acting and dialogue and a few cheap shots of unnecessary nudity bits in this surprisingly long 99 minutes feature.

I’m not sure which one is more embarrassing. The almost flat, predictable plotting from two credited writers or watching Academy Award nominated actor Mickey Rourke hamming it up as an overweight Devil. There ain’t much of a supernatural element to talk about. The introduction of it is to mainly serve as a mechanism to bring Guerrero to live, nothing fascinating or imaginary. It’s a straight-forward revenge flick after all. Guerrero on the other hand is a role made for poker face Danny Trejo and I’m not going to urge with that.    

Ultimately, Dead In Tombstone is another run-out-of-mill action flick hampered occasionally by poor ADR, shaky camera moves and clumsy edits. It does have its merits, rising slightly above the average crop of straight-to-DVD titles or you might simply want to wait for Trejo’s Machete Kills instead.  

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Although boasting a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the foley never actually deliver a convincing, powerful listening experience despite numerous scenes featuring gunfires, sound of horses galloping and explosions. Visual is perfunctory and has a TV feel more than a movie.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee