Now I saw this in the cinema in 1995 and had somehow managed to completely forget all about it - until I saw it again just last week and realised why. It's not that it is awful, it's just that it is so very derivative and very, very dependant on Gene Hackman ("Herod") who walks a fine line between menace and ham in a none too convincing fashion. He is running a to-the-death gun slinging competition - almost like one of the chivalric jousts of old - with the winner having to face him in the final shoot-out for an huge poke. Sharon Stone ("Ellen") arrives in his dingy town just at the start of the process determined to avenge her father's killer; Russell Crowe is "Cort", a preacher who also has a pretty violent past and "the Kid" (Leonardo di Caprio) who has the clear belief that his youth and skill make him all but immortal are all coaxed, cajoled and threatened into participating in this game of death. Sam Raimi has all the ingredients of a great little western adventure, but the cast don't work well together at all. Stone is well past her potent best and the usual guy-with-a-grudge theme is now so hackneyed as to render this little better than a series of gunfights with characters about whom I could not care less. The cinematography and some of the photographic styles are interesting, though - the film has a classy look to it and Alan Silvestri creates some tension with his slightly untypical (for a western) score; but the whole is nowhere near the sum of the parts leaving us with something that now, more than ever, just looks like it's been made for telly.

One would think that with a star-studded cast like this, you'd have an incredible movie. Sadly, one would be wrong. In the case of _The Quick and The Dead_ (which, incidentally, is NOT based on the Louis L'Amour western novel of the same title) the whole is **not** greater than the sum of its parts. It's almost like they took too many A-listers and tried in vain to cram them into the same movie and it just doesn't work. There's no story really at all, here: It's a quick-draw tournament (single elimination, of course!) with a bunch of hardcase gunslingers pairing off against each other. Thus, you have endless moments of super-closeup shots of eyes, hats, twitching trigger fingers, hair blowing in the breeze, slow-motion strides through dusty streets...and not much else. Each of these star actors could have been phenomenal in a standalone role, but thrown into a blender together like this…it didn't work. Tobin Bell (later to become instantly recognizable as "Jigsaw") played his part beautifully. Gene Hackman played his part wonderfully (no surprise there, of course). Lance Heinricksen played his part to a hilt. Even Keith David pulled off a great performance. A very young Leonardo di Caprio played his part every bit as wonderfully....Unfortunately, it was all undermined by the horrid performances of one Sharon Stone. Which just goes to show why Tobin Bell, Gene Hackman, Lance Heinricksen, and Keith David went on to become recognizable names in a number of films, including several Oscar-winning performances...and Sharon Stone went on to because a face on a finger as "Captain SlotoStar", reminding mobile-phone players that "Fun is in your hands..." This movie was every bit as predictable, as lame, and as boring as you can imagine a movie to be. No story, no suspense, no build-up, and not much of anything else. I had watched this years ago, and wanted to see it again simply because I remembered it being a Gene Hackman "western", and thought I remembered it being much, much better. Boy was I wrong. This piece of work stunk like that bloated horse carcass I happened to stumble across in a Texas field one hot July afternoon. Do yourself a favor and skip this one. You know what's going to happen; you know WHY it's going to happen, and you know WHEN it's going to happen. If there is any redeeming quality about this piece of fly-infested carp, I missed it. And I have zero intention of ever going back to try and search for it. What a rotten stinker.

Nice try from Raimi, but ultimately it creeps just above average.

The Western is a tough genre to tackle in the modern age, more so when it's post Dances With Wolves and Unforgiven's masterclasses 101. But tackling both these challenges is nothing to the one which director Sam Raimi asks of the audience in his stab at the genre.

A female gunslinger is here played by a Hollywood beauty, Sharon Stone, but she isn't right for the lead role. She obviously looks gorgeous and she broods and pouts better than most of her modern day peers, but she lacks a menacing streak, a bit of believable nastiness that just might have lifted the film to better heights. We understand and expect the vulnerability she shows, but to succeed here in the testosterone fuelled town of Redemption, she's going to have to convince as a tough gal. And Stone just isn't up to the task.

The film does have good points to enjoy though, very much so. The story, although gimmicky, works well as an entertaining popcorn munching tale, while the cast list reads like a whose who of solid and quality thespers, (Gene Hackman wandering in from Unforgiven to play Little Bill's ghost, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DeCaprio, Keith David, Pat Hingle & Lance Henriksen). Also into the plus column is the always impressive cinematography from Dante Spinotti, and there is no denying Sam Raimi's keen eye for detail, with his zooming shots a real treat during the shoot out sequences - his Spaghetti Western leanings further enhanced by Alan Silvestri's pasta influenced score.

Yet in spite of this bravado attempt, and acknowledging that the makers have tried something different, The Quick & The Dead isn't quite quick enough on the draw to outlive the leading lady misstep. 6/10