Review: Dead in Tombstone

Danny Trejo plays a dead rock musician…er…outlaw who strikes a deal with the Devil himself (Mickey Rourke himself) to be resurrected for 24 hours in order to kill the bastard turncoat bandits who bumped him off in the first place, led by Anthony Michael Hall. If he brings the Devil these six souls (who, along with Trejo were planning on taking over a gold-mining town), he’ll save his own soul from an eternally Hellish fate. Or so Beelzebub says. I mean, he’s the Devil and he’s played by Mickey Rourke, after all. Dina Meyer plays a local widow whose husband was killed, leaving her vengeful towards Hall’s gang too.

 

Direct-to-DVD specialist Roel Reine has made a name for himself making films that are a damn sight better than they have any right to be but never quite good enough to recommend. “Death Race 2”, “The Marine 2”, and Steven Seagal’s “Pistol Whipped” all had their desirable elements, but were just shy of being worthwhile. Well, you can add this Satanically-tinged western from 2013 to the list of watchable but unmemorable films from Mr. Reine, who also serves as his own DOP here. He’s no Albert Pyun or Uwe Boll, and might one day direct a good film. I’ll be waiting in anticipation.

 

Scripted by Brendan Cowles and Shane Kuhn, the film is like “Machete” dropped into a version of “The Crow” set in the Wild West. And it’s better than it probably sounds from that gimmicky description. It’s certainly Reine’s most visually appealing and dynamically shot film (perhaps a little too much so, but the light and shadow are amazing), but although Danny Trejo is ideal, co-stars Mickey Rourke and Anthony Michael Hall bring nothing to the party, dragging the film down considerably. Rourke is really bizarre in this, but not in any compelling way. He looks bored and sounds dubbed, and the character is far more interesting than the way in which Rourke half-heartedly plays him. If ever a role was made for Billy Drago, this is it. Such a shame that Mickey Rourke ain’t no Billy Drago. Hall just hasn’t got the acting chops here to play a memorably nasty villain, he’s bland and boring. What a weak opposite number for the intimidating (if 60ish, bordering on 70ish) Trejo. I’d have cast Michael Madsen or Tom Sizemore in the part, personally. Or even William Fichtner if Reine could afford him (likely not). I’m not normally a Dina Meyer fan, but playing a gun-totin’ western woman, she’s well-cast here.

 

Is this any good? Nope, not really, but it looks fantastic and Danny Trejo is perfect. With a better supporting cast this could’ve been Reine’s best film to date. As is, it’s a bit empty inside. Oh well. At least it’s watchable, and the B-director has brought his A-game.

 

Rating: C+