Movie Review: The Quick and the Dead (1995)

Sam Raimi brings his signature out-there style to the western genre, and it works surprisingly well.

His high-energy zooms are kind of a modern equivalent to the Leone closeups of the ’60s.

There’s nothing too complicated to the story here. Sharon Stone plays a stranger who wanders into a corrupt town that’s kind of run by Gene Hackman, and decides to participate in a yearly gunfight contest they have. Her motives are not clear until later, and it is most definitely revenge.

Where this movie succeeds (aside from the visual style) is its cast. Stone and Hackman are joined by Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lance Henriksen, and others. The cast is fantastic, and it even makes some kind of lousy drama kind of work. This movie doesn’t have the best script, and it would have been a lot better if it had a stronger one, but as it is, it’s definitely watchable.

Rating: 6/10