The Quick and the Dead

The horror world of fandom sure got their blood splattered panties in a collective bunch back in the day when it was announced Sam Raimi was going to make a western movie....one starring Sharon Stone no less. I suppose none of us need have bothered and in retrospect it is easy to see just how much the spaghetti westerns influenced Raimi's work. THE QUICK AND THE DEAD is excellent genre fun if you can get past Stone's character. I myself had no problem with her though I'm well aware many did. Hell, I had no problem with Leonardo DiCaprio's self assured boyish gun-slinging obnoxious twit role either. Doesn't matter if you do because the work from Russell Crowe and Gene Hackman is so strong they could have casted a legion of chimps for support cast and thier performances are so good it could carry the whole damn thing. Fortunately this is not the case. It is a genre homage through and through with an interesting twist. Lance Henriksen has a great bit role and look for Gary Sinise in a very interesting cameo to say the least. It isn't UNFORGIVEN but it certainly does the job.