Review of The Quick and the Dead (1995) by Alex R — 30 Nov 2010
The first thing one must realize before watching The Quick And The Dead is that the era of the epic westerns is over. There are only two names that have perfected and mastered the genre, Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood.
Theres a few good Westerns since Leone's masterworks, but most of them fail to have the character and the brutality of the old school Westerns. Sam Raimi's The Quick And The Dead plays out more like an homage to Sergio Leone, with many references from his works.
Raimi crafts an amusing Western, but by no means is this film perfect. The plot could have used a bit more development and some characters are directly lifted from Leone's own films. For example, Sharon Stone's character is based on Harmonica from Once Upon A Time In The West, a man with no name setting his eyes on killing the man responsible for his brothers death.
Despite every cliche in the book, The book, The Quick And The Dead is an enjoyable little film. Not excellent, but definitely not bad. Sam Raimi tries too hard at mimicking the epic Westerns of the 60's.
The results are mixed, and the film ends up being average. Raimi's Western is cool but it's definitely not a Leone epic. Raimi tries too hard at crafting a good looking Western. The sets and characters are too clean for my taste.
Except for a few exceptions. For what its worth, the film will entertain you, but it won't blow you away. The story is quite intriguing, but it's something that we've all seen before. The Quick Of The Dead is a good film, but definitely not the best Western.
That honor befalls on Once Upon A Time In The West.
This review of The Quick and the Dead (1995) was written by Alex R on 30 Nov 2010.
The Quick and the Dead has generally received positive reviews.
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