No review available.
The Quick and the Dead (1994)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:37
Fresh:21
Rotten:16
Average Rating:5.9/10
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Genre: Westerns
Synopsis: Sharon Stone stars as Ellen, a beautiful gunslinger with a cloudy past. She arrives in the town of Redemption with a bone to pick, namely with one John Herod (Gene Hackman, BONNIE AND CLYDE, THE... Sharon Stone stars as Ellen, a beautiful gunslinger with a cloudy past. She arrives in the town of Redemption with a bone to pick, namely with one John Herod (Gene Hackman, BONNIE AND CLYDE, THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS), with whom she shares a shady history. Ellen signs up for the annual quick-draw contest, which awards $230,000 to the winner, but her real motivation is revenge. Raimi incorporates beautiful photography and camerawork, and surprising new twists to the familiar spaghetti Western tropes, breathing new life into the genre. [More]
Starring: Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe
Starring: Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Lance Henriksen, Gary Sinise, Roberts Blossom, Kevin Conway, Pat Hingle
Director: Sam Raimi
Director: Sam Raimi
Get This Movie
Rent DVD
Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.
Buy DVD
Reviews for The Quick and the Dead
This film is wonderfully directed by Sam Raimi, who makes every shot pop up. From the gripping opening scene to the weird finale, every scene is full of Raimi's great visual style.
Even when the script for The Quick and the Dead runs out of surprises, which is very early, director Sam Raimi keeps the action fast and funny, though he falters when he strains for seriousness.
What Raimi can't find is a center. He hankers for us to giggle at the brutal archetypes he's parodying and to warm to them, too. It won't wash, pardner.
The whole film has tremendous visual style, and the frequent bursts of violence are delivered with a clever and often hilarious use of special effects.
Rarely dull, it is not noticeably compelling either, and as the derivative offshoot of a derivative genre, it inevitably runs out of energy well before any of its hotshots runs out of bullets.
As it is, the film's more off-the-wall tendencies -- and there are plenty -- just seem ill at ease, if not completely out of place.
Although Stone may be pleasing to some eyes, she's pretty small in the saddle here -- just an innocuous gender twist on the reluctant cowboy hero. And her story of hellbent revenge is about as compelling as a 30-second fragrance commercial.
Raimi's choice to give the film a comic book-like aura of mingled camp and grit makes for some fitfully energetic and entertaining moments, but it's not enough to overcome The Quick and the Dead's primary fault.
There should be a law that, if you're going to make a terribly clichéd film, then you at least have to do something original in it. The Quick and the Dead exemplifies this.
Sam Raimi's over-the-top homage/sendup of old westerns actually succeeds in making Sharon Stone a believable gunslinger.
It's a mess, and one that even the pickled cowboys behind me found yawningly tedious, and that's not something I ever thought I'd be saying about a Sam Raimi movie with the word “dead” in the title.
As preposterous as the plot was, there was never a line of Hackman dialogue that didn't sound as if he believed it. The same can't be said, alas, for Sharon Stone...
Without a real focus on Raimi's satirical sensibilities and acrobatic camera tricks, it's just a less-than-mediocre knock-off of Eastwood's oeuvre.
Perhaps another director could have gotten both tribute and parody to work together; in Raimi's hands, they instead cast doubt upon each other.
Latest News for The Quick and the Dead
June 29, 2007:
Crowe & Di Caprio to Team up for Ridley Scott's "Body of Lies"
Man, Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe must really like working together... More...
January 30, 2007:
Sam Raimi Has Been Discussing "Hobbit" Plans
At first it just seemed like a smart fanboy's best-case scenario: If Peter Jackson can't (or won't) direct "The Hobbit," then how about that Sam Raimi guy?!?!? Well,... More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 77% 77% | The Hangover |
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 24% 24% | G-Force |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 82% 82% | Paranormal Activity |
| 57% 57% | 9 |
| 44% 44% | Jennifer's Body |
| 58% 58% | A Perfect Getaway |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Around The Network
- The Quick and the Dead at Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh Links
Featured

Moviefone lists their top ten nude scenes from film in 2009.

Thomas Leupp offers us Hollywood.com's take on the best films of the year.

Last week, MSN gave us their top 09 films. Now see what their favorites of the decade are!

TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.

Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic



