Kurt Russell's movie with the lowest audience score on Rotten Tomatoes

In a remarkable career spanning more than 60 years, Kurt Russell has done almost everything. He's been a Disney child star, an action hero, a serious dramatic actor, a decidedly silly comedy host, and Elvis Presley. Although Russell was never a box office titan on par with contemporaries like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, he is worshiped as a god by the genre fandom for his roles in Escape from New York, RJ MacReady in The Thing and Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China. The latter two were theatrical flops, but have gone from cult favorites to bona fide mainstream classics. As a result, Russell, at age 73, might be more likable now than ever.

Russell fanatics have a lively debate about what his best performance outside of the aforementioned holy trinity of John Carpenter films might be. Is it his unethical salesman Rudy Russo in Robert Zemecki's Used Cars. US Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks in “Miracle” or terrifyingly pathetic killer Stuntman Mike in Quentin Tarantino's “Death Proof?” There's a surprisingly vocal “Captain Ron” contingent, while some of us are pretty sure he never improved on his portrayal of corrupt cop Eldon Perry in Ron Shelton's Dark Blue.

For those who can't help but look for the lowest point of every artist's career, it's probably debatable whether Russell has ever given a truly bad performance. After seeing almost all of his movies, I'm going to take this discourse to the pass and declare that the man is as reliable as Cary Grant. Russell has been in bad movies, but he's never been badass. As for which movie wasted his greatness the most, I'm not sure there's any worse than Paul VS Anderson's atrocious Soldier. But if you check in with Rotten Tomatoes, they'll tell you it's a western. Russell has been in many of themand I'm pretty sure it's one you're not thinking of.

The western in question is 1965's “Weapons of Diablo.” According to Rotten Tomatoes audience scoreit's Russell's worst feature with a 30% Popcornmeter rating. If you've never heard of it, you probably have is known for the TV show that spawned it. “The Travels of Jaime McPheeters” represented Russell's breakthrough to child stardom, though it only lasted one season on ABC. It was also a small-screen showcase for rising star Charles Bronson, who had already appeared in films like The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape (and who would later inspire John Carpenter's screenplay for Escape from New York.)

In any case, “Guns of Diablo” didn't cause much of a stir when it hit theaters 60 years ago, and it hasn't grown in critical acclaim today (Emmanuel Levy called it “an unpleasant Western”). It's standard-issue white/black hat business that will probably make you wish you'd watched its stars in one of their much better films. But if you're done, it's available to stream on Tubi. Maybe you'll find something of value that eluded Rotten Tomatoes users.