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1995
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THE
QUICK AND THE DEAD
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STARRING:SHARON
STONE,GENE HACKMAN,RUSSELL CROWE,LEONARDO DICAPRIO,PAT
HINGLE,ROBERTS BLOSSOM,KEITH DAVID,LANCE HENRIKSEN, TOBIN BELL,GARY
SINISE
WRITTEN
BY SIMON MOORE
PRODUCED
BY JOSHUA DOHEN,PATRICK MARKEY & ALLEN SHAPIRO
DIRECTED
BY SAM RAIMI
GENRE:WESTERN/ACTION
RATED:AUSTRALIA:MA/UK:15/USA:R
RUNNING
TIME:107 MIN
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Sharon
Stone stars as Ellen "The Lady", a female gunslinger who
enters a quick draw competition where the last person standing wins
$123,000 in prize money. Haunted by the death of her father (Gary
Sinise) which she witnessed as a young girl, Ellen enters the competition
with the sole purpose to revenge her father's death by murdering her
killer, the sadistic outlaw John Herod (Gene Hackman).
A tense action packed western very much inspired by Sergio Leone,
The Quick and the Dead suffers from a case of style over substance,
but as long as a director such as Sam Raimi is calling the shots than
an entertaining time will be had as he uses every trick under his
sleeve to create a movie full of dazzling imagery and inventive camera
techniques (zooming in at weird angels seems to be a favorite).
Sharon Stone plays Ellen with equal doses of anger and fear but comes
across a little too uptight. I would have loved to have seen her play
"The Lady" with much more authority and attitude much like
Sigourney Weaver did in Aliens, yet what we are left
with is a performance who is just way to serious for a film like this.
Gene Hackman is a treat. Playing the personification of evil, Hackman
shines in a role we have seen him do before (his Oscar winning performance
in Unforgiven
ringing a lot of bells). Russell Crowe too is very good as former
gunslinger turned priest Cort, as is Leonardo DiCaprio as "The
Kid", the cocky son of Herod who wants nothing more than his
fathers respect.
An eccentric cast of characters played by the likes of Lance Henriksen,
Keith David and Tobi Bell play some of the competitors in the quick
draw competition which is shot in tense, violent detail as only Sam
Raimi could. An original yet flawed take on the western that is best
not to be taken to seriously. |
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