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 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).

Sharon Stone plays Ellen with equal doses of anger and fear but comes across a little too uptight. It would have been great to have Stone 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 too 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 father’s 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 too seriously.