One of Hollywood’s Grindhouse icons Danny Trejo stars in Dead in Tombstone a down and dirty stab at a spaghetti western now on Blu-ray combo pack. His string of violence continues from the recent Machete Kills and appearances in over 250 titles during his career. Action director Roel Reiné takes the reins on this thriller keeping it dark and dangerous. If you are a thrill seeker, like Grindhouse violence and are not offended by rudeness and brutality, then saddle up and get on over to your closest video store for Dead in Tombstone.
In the opening scene we find Red (Anthony Michael Hall) about to be hung for murder. But, the Blackwater Gang lead by his half brother Guerrero (Danny Tiejo) rides in to save the day. Later that afternoon Red tells Guerrero about a city that has struck gold and is an easy pay day for the gang. So along with Ramos, Washington, Baptiste, Barko and Snake they ride off to the city of Edendale.
They arrive and see the sleepy town bustling about in their daily rituals and ride to the saloon. Calathea (Dina Meyer) the wife of the Sheriff (Daniel Lapaine) sees the rugged gang ridding into town and informs the law about the situation. Knowing they have the upper hand and without regard to the law the gang robs the bank. Brazenly they go back to the saloon for a drink where Red decides to take control of the gang by shooting his brother. When Guerrero makes a deal with the devil (Mickey Rourke) all ‘hell’ breaks loose.
Grindhouse genre is one of my guilty pleasures and this spaghetti western had me glued to my home screen. Yes there’s some awesome action, a lot of shooting and even a few laughs for tension relief and that’s what makes this genre fun. Of course if you are not into bloody violence, horror or up in your face dialogue, then you may want to turn in early so your husband or other male adults can take over the TV.
The acting is what you would expect from a Danny Trejo film and under the direction of Roel Reiné (Black Ops, Death Race 2) the action thriller gets hot and heavy. Since Reine also serves as the Director of Photography he gets right up close to the action, has special cameras to circle scenes from above, loves a lot of explosions and knows how to get the tight shots that show all the emotion.
But, is Dead in Tombstone a good film? On par with Machete and Machete Kills, the film gives all the same wild and wooly action of those two films and then some. As far as technically, the cinematography, special effects and other elements are on an even keel. The story takes enough twists to make it look fresh, but then it does get a lot hokier than I would have liked with Mickey Rourke as the devil. But it’s part of the fun with his character giving Guerrero 24 hours to kill his gang.
The Blu-ray combo pack comes with a DVD disc and includes a digital download ultraviolet copy as well. The video quality is very good with 1080P Widescreen 1.78:1 played on my HD Television through my Blu-ray player. Actually even the DVD has very good Hi-Def and everything is clear and clean throughout the show. The colors are great and the sets are down and dirty old west.
The sound quality on both the Blu-ray DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DVD Dolby Digital 5.1 is very good and if you run it through an upgraded sound system, even better. The intense action music helps with the fight scenes and the dialogue is clear even though the gruff voice of Trijo may at times be hard to understand, but what is the rewind button for anyway.
The bonus features are very good and a treat. They are well made and interesting to watch and learn.
BONUS FEATURES:
- “Choose Version of Movie” here you can choose whether you would like the see the R rated theatrical version or the Unrated version.
- “Deleted Scenes” the deleted scenes can be watched individually and as a whole. I do recommend that you watch the one at the top of the list first before seeing the movie as it will give you more information on the opening hanging. DO NOT watch the others until you see the film.
- “Deleted Shots Montage” in this group you will see shots that were taken on the set most of which have boom mikes and camera men caught in the scenes. I found it a lot of fun as I have worked on sets of movies and it brought back memories.
- “The Making of Dead in Tombstone” I liked the way they did their behind the scenes here as it’s very constructive.
- “Horses, Guns & Explosions” This is the stunt tape that shows how they were preformed, the guns they used and how they put together the explosions. I liked the way they set up the one scene with Danny Trijo being shot by his men, it’s very cool.
- “Roel Reiné the Leader of The Gang” shows him doing double duty as a director and director of photography.
- “A Town Transformed” a featurette on the sets used in the film.
The movie, whether you choose rated or unrated contains violence, nudity, brutality, language and sexual situations. Be cautious when deciding to allow immature children see any part of the film as many scenes are scary and very inappropriate for adolescents.
Specifications and additional film information:
Cast: Danny Trejo, Anthony Michael Hall, Dina Meyer, and Mickey Rourke
Director: Roel Reiné
MPAA Rating: R for violence and language/ Unrated
Genre: Action, Thriller, Horror
Running Time: 1 hr 40 min
Video Release Date: October 22, 2013
Language: English
Format: Blu-ray, DVD Combo
Audio: BR- DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, DVD- Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: 1080P Widescreen 1.78:1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Number of Discs: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy
Distributed by: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
