50
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80IGNIGNTombstone is incredibly entertaining. While not entirely original and not always well executed, it manages to keep your attention for the entire 130-minute duration. And let's face it, Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday is what really sets it apart.
- 75The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsTombstone remains a shamelessly entertaining movie, filled with lively turns from virtually every appropriate actor not working on the Costner version.
- 70VarietyEmanuel LevyVarietyEmanuel LevyTombstone is a tough-talking but soft-hearted tale that is entertaining in a sprawling, old-fashioned manner.
- 60Los Angeles TimesPeter RainerLos Angeles TimesPeter RainerA few stirring shoot-'em-ups help relieve the logjam of cliches. Director George P. (Rambo) Cosmatos does an OK job at the O.K. Corral. But even the good stuff goes on for too long.
- 60Time OutTime OutKilmer makes a surprisingly effective and effete Holliday, but Russell lacks the stature for Earp - Sam Elliott as his older brother Virgil suggests a better movie. There's a misguided romantic subplot and the ending rather sprawls, but mostly this is rootin', tootin' entertainment with lots of authentic facial hair.
- Highly stylized fashion-wise but awkwardly unfocused in its plotlines, it aims for the western iconography of Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone but never gets past its own directorial hurdles.
- 50The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenTombstone is a movie that wants to have it both ways. It wants to be at once traditional and morally ambiguous. The two visions don't quite harmonize.
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThough apparently conceived as a revisionist Western, Tombstone falls prey to the cliches of the genre, and its last third is a muddle.
- 40Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleAs much as these actors heroically struggle to focus the film, the director more successfully hacks it apart. But if you really love Westerns, despite its faults, it's got to be recommended for Kilmer's performance alone.