Dead Again in Tombstone (2017)

_Dead in Tombstone_ is not a movie I ever expected to see a sequel to. And this movie is not at all the direction I would have guessed at said sequel taking. But _Dead Again in Tombstone_ is a thing that happened, so I guess I was _dead wrong_. It's not quite as good as the original (and the original was not exactly a five star affair itself) . But _Dead Again_ does prove watchable, especially in the hit-and-miss field of today's Westerns, mostly thanks to the feud between Danny Trejo and a surprisingly bearable Jake Busey. It might lean a little too hard into the "mythology" angle when compared to its predecessor, but all told, _Dead Again in Tombstone's_ existence may have come as a surprise, but not an unpleasant one.

_Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._

The first movie, Dead in Tombstone, was fairly okay. Not great but okay. This movie, the second instalment, was a bit of a disappointment though. The general idea is a good one. At least it is one I would generally have liked. However, it is really poorly implemented.

Danny is supposed to be the devil’s servant imbued with supernatural powers and supposed to kick some serious ass. You know, a bit like Ghost Rider in the old west. Unfortunately he is nothing but. Most of the time he is roaming around sulking and trying to patch things up with his daughter.

He is really not showing much in terms of terrifying presence or supernatural powers. Whenever he springs into action he is just blundering in shooting at everything that moves and usually he gets shot up and “dies” in the process. Afterwards he get’s revived and the process starts all over again.

Towards the end of the movie we finally get some supernatural action but it is really too late to save it and not really that impressive to begin with.

On the whole the script is pretty bland and unconvincing. It is more suitable for a TV-show episode than a feature movie.

Really a shame. I generally like Danny Trejo when he is playing badass.

**The sequel died in Tombstone.**

If the first film already seemed quite cheap and didn't bet so much on quality, this film is even worse and more miserable. They are both niche films, oriented to satisfy a certain part of the public that looks for raw action films, and not that elegant and classic cinema that almost everyone likes. However, I don't know if this was even able to satisfy the audience for which it was intended.

The problems start with the script, miserably written, and the poor and slick conception of the characters. After abandoning the service of the Devil, Guerrero (in essence he is a recycling of the Ghost Rider, minus the flames and bones) remains immortal and doing justice around. But in this film he'll have to go further and effectively protect a mysterious evil relic that's endlessly sought after by Jackson Boomer, a former Confederate colonel who's hell-bent on unleashing absolute evil upon the land, and who won't hesitate to threaten Guerrero's daughter to get it.

In addition to the endless errors of anachrony, capable of making the mind of an American history teacher boil with indignation, the film falls into successive clichés that make it dull and a little absurd. Furthermore, the action is so intense that the film feels like a gigantic video game, and we never feel any real emotion. If the main character seems purposeless, now that he is doggedly protecting a relic without any sense or religious basis, the villain is even worse: I had already noticed in some films that it is interesting to give the villain the uniform of the Confederates (“The Hateful Eight”, for example), but has everyone already forgotten that in wars, and in armies, good and bad men fight on both sides of the barricade?

Danny Trejo doesn't add anything here that he didn't do better in the first film. He's not a bad action actor, but he's a ham in the sentimental scenes, especially when he tries to play with Elysia Rotaru, who plays the hero's sexy and not-too-defenseless daughter. Jake Busey isn't particularly good either, and never poses a real threat no matter how hard he tries, and Elizabeth Lavender is sidelined for most of the film.

As with its predecessor, it bets everything on cheap and permanent action, almost turning into a rock movie or a video game, given the amount of auditory and visual noise, and the poor quality of what is presented to us. It's a rather unfortunate film that would have done better had it never been released.