Review for Young Guns

Introduction
Ah, the joys of buying a Blu-ray player finally, browsing eBay and picking up cheap Blu-rays to replace DVDs that I already own, and in most cases, movies that I also owned on VHS.

I saw Young Guns at the cinema back in the day and really enjoyed it and have watched it a few times since then, although probably not for about six or seven years.

The film features some of the 80's brat pack, many of whom have had long and successful careers, and includes Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Philips. Young Guns tells the story of Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War in New Mexico (1877/78). Following the murder of cattle rancher John Tunstall (Terrence Stamp), Billy and his fellow regulators are deputised to bring the men responsible for the murder to justice, however Billy deals out his own justice and the group become outlaws.

Video
I'd already sold my DVD copy of Young Guns on eBay by the time I got round to watching this Blu-ray, however I would be surprised if there was much difference between the two in terms of picture quality. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with the picture as such, it's a little grainy in places in comparison to current digitally shot movies, and in some scenes there is a little flicker evident, I'd hazard a guess that there hasn't been much, if any, remastering done since the last DVD release.

Visually, the film contains what you would expect from a Western, gunfights, horses, ramshackle towns, wide open vistas etc and is well shot and looks authentic. To put it another way, the film doesn't look 22 years old.

Sound
I was looking forward to the DTS HD Master Audio 6.1 soundtrack on Young Guns, I remember the movie for having some good music, and gunfights are always a good way of giving the sound system a workout. The sound however turned out to be rather disappointing.

Firstly, there is very limited use of the rear channels, in fact after a while I paused the movie and turned the test-tone on to make sure that the cat hadn't been round the back of my amplifier and pulled the speaker cables out. It almost sounds like a Dolby Pro-Logic release, with very a low level and lo-fi rear channel. Secondly, there is no power in the LFE channel. The opening sequence of Young Guns, with building music and tempo would lend itself to a powerful LFE channel, but it is weak and I got up to check that the subwoofer was actually turned on. Taking the opening sequence of Top Gun as a comparison, it's like the difference between CD and a self-recorded compact cassette. Finally, whilst some of the music is very good, one sequence I remember during a horseback chase, hasn't aged at all well, and in fact dates the movie considerable.

The dialogue is generally clear, although on a couple of occasions was a bit quiet.

Extras
The extras are not especially exciting, the "Real Billy the Kid Documentary" is dull and trivia tracks are just tedious, if I want movie trivia, I'll read IMDB.

Overall
Overall, Young Guns is still pretty enjoyable, but I was disappointed with this Blu-ray, primarily because the sound offers no improvement over the DVD release and is the weakest Blu-ray sound that I have heard so far. The picture is fine, but again, no improvement over the DVD either. Add this to the dull extras and my recommendation to people who own the DVD is keep it - don't bother to upgrade. Similarly, given that the DVD is available for a couple of pounds online, buy it instead of paying over the odds for this mediocre release.