The Forgotten Kurt Russell Movie With The Lowest Audience Score On Rotten Tomatoes

In a remarkable career spanning over 60 years, Kurt Russell has just about done it all. He's been a Disney child star, an action hero, a serious dramatic actor, an unabashedly silly comedic lead, and Elvis Presley. Though Russell was never a box office titan on par with contemporaries like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis, he is worshipped as a god by genre fandom for having played such iconic s***kickers as Snake Plissken in "Escape from New York," R.J. MacReady in "The Thing" and Jack Burton in "Big Trouble in Little China." Those last two were flops theatrically, but they've gone from being cult favorites to bona-fide mainstream classics. As a result, Russell, at the age of 73, might be more beloved now than he's ever been.

For Russell fanatics, there's a lively discussion to be had over what his best performance outside of that aforementioned holy trinity of John Carpenter movies might be. Is it his unethical salesman Rudy Russo in Robert Zemeckis' "Used Cars," U.S. Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks in "Miracle" or the scary-pathetic murderer Stuntman Mike in Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof?" There's a surprisingly vocal "Captain Ron" contingent out there, while some of us are absolutely certain he's never bettered his portrayal of corrupt cop Eldon Perry in Ron Shelton's "Dark Blue."

For those who can't help but go hunting for the nadir in every artist's career, there's probably an argument over whether Russell has ever given a truly bad performance. Having seen just about all of his movies, I'll head this discourse off at the pass and assure you the man is as dependable as Cary Grant. Russell's been in lousy movies, but he's never been lousy in them. As to which movie most egregiously squandered his greatness, I'm not sure there's worse out there than Paul W.S. Anderson's atrocious "Soldier." But if you check in with Rotten Tomatoes' users, they'll tell you it's a Western. Russell's been in quite a few of those, and I'm pretty sure it's one you wouldn't think of off the top of your head.

The Western in question is 1965's "Guns of Diablo." According to Rotten Tomatoes' audience score, it's Russell's worst feature with a 30% Popcornmeter rating. If you've never heard of it, it's possible you are familiar with the TV show that spawned it. "The Travels of Jaime McPheeters" represented Russell's breakthrough to child stardom, even though it only lasted one season on ABC. It was also a small-screen showcase for rising star Charles Bronson, who'd already popped in movies like "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape" (and who would later inspire John Carpenter's screenplay for "Escape from New York.")

In any event, "Guns of Diablo" didn't cause much of a stir when it hit theaters 60 years ago, and it hasn't grown in contemporary critics' estimation (Emmanuel Levy called it a "listless Western"). It's a standard-issue white-hat/black-hat business that'll probably leave you wishing you'd watched its stars in any one of their much better movies. But if you're a completist, it's available to stream on Tubi. Maybe you'll find something of merit that eluded the users of Rotten Tomatoes.