Once Upon a Time in Tombstone (2020) User Reviews

The acting is sooo bad you are expecting a comedy. But no, it is a race to the bottom

[VinceS2 · 1/10 · 15 April 2021]

Truly astonishing, dead-pan 'my turn to talk' style acting. Now I have a clue what producers and directors really do. Not let this happen!!! On the good side, you would struggle to pick a player for best (or worst!) actor, they are so evenly matched...

We (somehow?) watched 15 mins, then skipped through for 20 secs here and there, just in case. Should have saved the wear on the play button :). There may yet be an undiscovered gem, but we played a better movie instead of risking further mirth at what we had just beheld.

Not One Single Good Thing In This Movie

[hifrmny · 1/10 · 21 February 2021]

If anyone rates this movie higher than 1 or 2, they are being untruthful. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but the truth must be told......this movie is absolutely totally just BAD. I've never seen such 'wooden' actors. The script was BAD. The scene setups were ridiculous (the bar looked more like a child's lemonade stand.) AND it just never gets any better.

Acting, Casting, Costume Fail Extraordinaire

[jmatthewphipps · 1/10 · 19 February 2021]

This is one of the worst acted movies I've seen in a very long time. Every single actor is barely reading lines. The timing of delivery is that of the staccato of middle school stage play delivery. Then there is the poor costuming mixing straw hat styles that did not make their appearance until the 20th century. This deserves to be forgotten.

Amateur movie, bad cinematography, terrible acting

[lzphoto · 1/10 · 18 February 2021]

I always try to endure the whole film regardless that I had a feeling that it will be a bad movie so I will be fair reviewing it, but this time I barely made 10 minutes of the movie, is just that the film looks like made by film students that didn't care much about the grades that they will be getting, acting is just awful and everything else is not worth it to mention, just don't wast 10 minutes of your life that way i did

This aint Tarantinos Tombstone even if it is a Title he would have used

[michaelharrelson-258-453793 · 1/10 · 28 March 2021]

Seriously Bad acting- no sense of delivery. Or timing if you like amatuer films you might enjoy this . If you love westerns you might not.hard to find anything redeaming about this film did like the music in the sound track,to sum it up all Hat no cattle as they say in Texas-

This makes plan 9 from outer space look like a masterpiece.

[schroeber · 1/10 · 2 October 2021]

From the first scene this starts awfully and goes on a downward spiral. The director clearly just makes his films as a weekend hobby or something, but without a care as to the quality of the finished product. The film poster is the best thing about this movie. I've made films on my phone starring my dog that are better than this. To be expected to sit through 78 minutes of this is an insult.

Another bad recent Western

[steeragemate · 1/10 · 29 August 2021]

Camcorder cinematography, high school drama script, sad acting and sets that aren't anything like Tombstone or Southern Arizona.

Why are all these recent Western so awful? Same bad scripts, same bad acting, same historically incorrect sets. A waste of video.

What a complete joke!

[chuckmaymusic · 1/10 · 19 February 2023]

This 'movie' makes Plan 9 From Outer Space look like Gone With the Wind. It's hard to know where to begin but, there's this thing called the Internet and any 12 year old could have at least gotten a few facts right. This is the most documented gunfight in history and it would be easy to do at least a small amount of research. Almost every actor (and I use the term loosely) is 20 to 30 years older than the characters they portrayed. Every single thing from the script, sets, weapons to editing and direction appears to have been done by a child with his mom's old camcorder. I'd say it was a pitiful effort but, clearly there was no effort involved. Worst ever!

wtf was that?

[neuronetv · 2/10 · 5 July 2021]

Ok I give in.

I admit I've missed the point - if there is one.

There's no way a film could be this bad unless there was some underlying reason for its creation. And that reason eludes me right now.

It looks like it cost at least $100 to make.

It looks like it was filmed on a mobile phone.

The cast look like rejects off the street.

The dialogue was voice-overed.

I watched it with my girlfriend and she said it was like a school play.

Was it an exercise in making a film as cheap as possible?

Somebody please put me out of my misery.

BAD . . .NO . . . WORSE THAN BAD

[cheebcheeb · 1/10 · 10 September 2021]

I've gutted out many horse operas but this takes the cake . . . It's a stinker. The dialogue is bad but the actors delivery make the weak script unbearable . . . Akin to listening to fingernails clawing a chalkboard. No redeeming qualities at all.

I wish I could give zero stars

[wbxcq · 1/10 · 16 February 2023]

This 'movie' if you can call it that, is without a doubt the worst film ever made. The acting is middle school level, the audio is iPhone 5 level, the script is junior school level. The fact this is even on a pay per view site is utterly embarrassing. The old $2 westerns of the 50's and 60's blow this $500 budget film out of the water. Even calling it a film feels like I'm insulting every actual film maker in history. To the middle school class who made this film, good luck with the future. Find a new career option. Giving it one whole star is an absolute shocker. It barely rate a 1/4 star. Don't waste your time, your breath, your life, on even 2 minutes of this rubbish. I'd rather watch Superbowl commercials than this.

Many people did not tell me this was a bad movie

[markmelsh · 1/10 · 10 September 2023]

And that was because they fortunately never saw it or heard of it. Imagine the EGO involved in this failed waste of time. Plus, the whole idea of yet ANOTHER movie about Tombstone is overkill. SC has some nice beaches and people, but it also gave us Lindsey Graham and Nikki Haley and the inappropriate Southern accents you hear, that are out of place in the story of Tombstone except for Doc Holliday. This is a VERY slow-moving mess. It opens with some nice exterior shots of the Tombstone area but much of the movie are interior shots, adding to the intense boredom. The existence of this stinker proves that anybody can get a movie made with enough financing.

I love westerns but not this one

[husemanbill · 1/10 · 4 May 2021]

I do love western films, but this was so amateurish...... the acting was bad, the plot was horrible as was the filming. I gave it a one only because it did deserve something. Don't waste your time or money, not worth it.

Like Bad Westerns?

[michaelharrelson-258-453793 · 1/10 · 28 March 2021]

Other than the sound track not much to like,interesting faces but no Talent in the acting just Grown men playing cowboys and Lawdogs-wonder why they didnt film it at Gammons Gulch or Mezcal in Tucson? Az has great scenery and Locations and some pretty fair actors oh well.

Don't Waste Your Time

[jgumphress · 1/10 · 2 August 2021]

This is a B movie. The acting is lowest rate, audio sounds like it was filmed in someones garage, and filming is horrible.

Elementary School Level

[wendiou · 1/10 · 4 August 2021]

Elementary School Level Drama Class, at first I thought there must be something wrong with the audio in the beginning. Alas it was just that monotonous. No voice inflections, it is worse than high school plays. I also had hoped it was just a few actors and it was, a few actors that did not act like it was their first time. Also the sad backdrop with one building. They did OK Corral fight was in a fully vegatative area not dusty desert Corral.

THE worst acting EVER

[islandpapa · 15 August 2021]

This is a disgrace to the ART of REAL acting I was trained under James Best and Burt Reynolds. Thank God they're both gone and didn't see this. It would easily taken over in our classes as THE worst movie EVER.

Quite bad

[hwertz10 · 1/10 · 19 September 2023]

It really is quite bad.

The acting is wooden, in terms of inflection and in terms of pacing, there'll be these big weird pauses as people talk to each other. The writing is quite bad which adds to the stiltedness.

The audio is quite bad, there's this intense hiss that just fades in and out at random, including points where (even within the same scene) there'll be hiss and noise while someone is speaking, next time they talk there is none. It makes it seem like you were watching one of those movies where it was filmed in Italian and dubbed into English or something.

The camera work, it actually got to a scene where they were riding two horses (sorry if it's a spoiler that you'd have people riding horses in a western lol..) and they jiggled the camera around like it was on a 3rd horse, I seriously don't think I've ever had cinematography make me nauseous before but it did, luckily the scene ended before I got too green.

Just two examples...

The bar, the interior shots make it pretty clear it's a small space that probably has room for about a dozen people in it, but they play audio of what sounds like a bustling restaurant to try to give the impression it's a larger space. It's not very convincing. The people at this poker table and a couple people at this second table are about 10 feet apart (the camera pans from one to the other), literally seconds later they discuss the people at the poker table like they are supposed to be across the room.

They had a gunfight (is it a spoiler that a western has a gunfight? I'm going with no).... OK so there's no squibs or anything. Fine. But they'll cut to someone, cut back and one of them is clutching their arm like they're having an arm cramp or maybe a heart attack, I can only assume they were supposed to have been shot. One had what appeared to be red wine on his shirt (not blood red, no tears, rips, or holes in his shirt). They were standing about 20 feet apart just firing pistols randomly at each other, not really even taking cover or anything.

I'm no expert on Tombstone, but it is noteable that the main characters seemed to randomly vary between about 20 and 70 years old, like this guy that's at least 60 is like "Blah! I'm the new sheriff here!"

I'm trying to slog through treating it like a spaghetti western, but it's hard even at that.

A Senior Film Student's Failed Project?

[pranderson063095 · 1/10 · 12 March 2023]

This has to have been a required project. Worse acting, sets, directing, cinematography, and writing has never been made. It should be scrubbed from history. I have to write 600 words and can hardly figure how to come up with that many without repeating myself. How could anyone find the way to do so bad job of screenwriting directing and editing. Finding it on the streaming service we use, I laughed for about 3 scenarios. Camera angles? There were none. When Johnny Ringo pulls his small gun to kill the Cowboy who wants to quit he can barely do it. I doubt there was ever a second take on any scene.

A Bad Film but Somewhat Historically Accurate

[Uriah43 · 2/10 · 26 April 2023]

This film begins in 1881 in the town of Tombstone, Arizona which, according to the opening introduction on the screen, has seen a sudden influx of people due to silver being discovered nearby. Among those people is an assorted group of outlaws who, among other things, specialize in cattle rustling and call their specific gang "the Cowboys." Led by a notorious gunman named "Johnny Ringo" (Brad Owens) they essentially control the entire county due in large part because of bribes they pay to the man recently reelected to administer law-and-order named "Sheriff Behan" (Wade Fulmer). They do not, however, control the town of Tombstone which has their own town marshal by the name of "Wyatt Earp" (Paul Clayton). Additionally, Wyatt also has his two brothers "Virgil Earp" (W. Clay Lee) and "Morgan Earp" (Ronald Blanton) along with his good friend "Doc Holliday" (Charles Gabel) there to help him keep the peace. The problem, however, is that the Cowboys are much more numerous and some of them--in particular "Ike Clanton" (Jerry Chesser), "Billy Claiborne" (Russell Dobson) and the aforementioned Johnny Ringo--have no intention of abiding by the law. At least, not in Cochise County or in the city of Tombstone. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I honestly liked the way the story was presented in this film as it attempted to stay true to the actual historical events that took place during this particular time and place. Admittedly, it does deviate at the end, and that's a shame. But where the film really suffers is from the bad acting, awful sets, poor camera work and rather cheap equipment. In short, everything was bad. Having said that, although I was tempted to give this movie the lowest rating possible, I was somewhat pleased with the general historical accuracy and for that reason I have cut it a little slack.

And still not the worst on the subject!

[acutaboveentertainment · 1/10 · 24 July 2022]

I am writing a Broadway musical on the Tombstone story, so I am reading every book and watching every movie on the subject. Been to Tombstone, AZ twice already. With this film my expectations were not high, yet I was still profoundly disappointed. I guess Wyatt Earp Shot First remains as the worst on the subject! If this completely amateurish production can get made I have higher hopes about my musical data.