50
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinYoung Guns is best watched in the playful, none-too-serious spirit in which it was made. Though the film concentrates reverentially on its young stars, it also includes good performances from a few grown-ups, notably Terry O'Quinn as a lawyer and Jack Palance as the story's wild-eyed villain.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-TimesConsidering how tidy and self-aware most such Hollywood projects are, any movie that can give Phillips' Mexican-Indian a monologue in which he painfully recounts the massacre only he survived and then blithely rejoices in idiot gunfire is a movie you have to respect. [12 Aug 1988, p.35]
- 70Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonLos Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonTo say Young Guns is one of the best big Westerns of the '80s doesn't mean much: Westerns have been almost moribund since 1976. But it does hint at this movie's surprising vitality, bloody ebullience and violent impetuosity-qualities it shares with crazy little Billy. [12 Aug 1988, p.11]
- 63San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleYoung Guns is really a modern action movie in the revenge mode, disguised as a western. But with all its faults, it more or less works. Palance is a great heavy, Estevez makes an off-the-wall hero, and there's usually enough happening on screen to keep you interested. [12 Aug 1988, p.E3]
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineYOUNG GUNS is simply not a very good movie--western or otherwise. Fusco's script provides little character development and muddies the narrative with some unlikely supporting characters. Still, it proved to be popular enough to lead to a television spinoff and a sequel in 1990.
- 50Boston GlobeJay CarrBoston GlobeJay CarrFusco's script undercuts whatever freshness it may have brought to its view of Billy the Kid with a steady stream of howlers, most of which involve Kiefer Sutherland, as the sensitive member of the gang. [12 Aug 1988, p.24]
- 50Chicago TribuneDave KehrChicago TribuneDave KehrBilly's burning, self-destructive energy is about all Young Guns has going for it-the suicidal kicks James Dean found in chickie races are here transposed to six-gun shoot-outs, filmed in a slow-motion process that strives vainly to evoke Sam Peckinpah. [12 Aug 1988, p.H]
- 40Washington PostHal HinsonWashington PostHal HinsonThe movie is showy without having any noticeably coherent style. Indeed, it might have been possible to enjoy Young Guns as a larky spree if the photogenic stars didn't carry themselves with such a smug, self-congratulatory air. But they behave as if our adoration were their birthright.
- 40EmpireEmpireGood idea to cast the brat pack in a Western but this was badly realised and altogether a bit flat.
- 20Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumFull of odd notions and interludes, the movie never really comes together, but fitfully suggests a cross between Boys Town and Greaser's Palace.