Part burlesque of Sergio Leone's revisionist westerns, part throwback to the classics of the genre, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD tells the story of a woman who seeks veneance upon the man who destroyed her family. This jokey feminist twist on the revenge formula starts out tough and funny but becomes strangely insubstantial by the end.

Set in 1878 Arizona, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD follows four days in the life of Ellen (Sharon Stone), a mysterious but rugged stranger who travels to a remote town named Redemption. Ellen signs up to take part in the town's annual shooting tournament, during which the contestants duel each other to death. Ellen hopes to survive her preliminary matches so that she may challenge the town's best fighter, the feared despot John Herod (Gene Hackman). Ellen wants to kill Herod because he is responsible for a family tragedy that occured in her childhood. However, Ellen, who is not a crack shot, fears that she may not have the guts to carry out the deed when the time comes.

Ellen is not the only person who wishes to kill the tyrannical Herod. The entire town despises their leader, and secretly hires an assassin, Sgt Cantrell (Keith David), to eliminate him during the contest. After Herod kills Cantrell instead, Herod's son, the Kid (Leonardo DiCaprio), challenges his father. He also loses. Ellen must duel with Herod's ex-partner in crime, the gunfighter-turned-preacher Cort (Russell Crowe), before she may have her showdown with Herod himself. But Cort does not want to participate in the tournament and plots with Ellen to fake her death during their shootout. In the apocalyptic finale, the "dead" Ellen returns by blowing up the town with hidden explosives during Herod's duel against Cort. Finally, she also finds the courage to kill Herod and she leaves Redemption in Cort's capable hands.

For Sharon Stone, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD represents career retrenchment, After BASIC INSTINCT, Stone's "overnight" stardom was tarnished by both salacious press items and bad movie choices (eg Sliver, the specialist). By co-producing THE QUICK AND THE DEAD and surrounding herself with top talent, Stone assured that a reasonably respectable film would be made. She also cast herself against type, astutely modifying her "blonde bombshell" image. Stone, like the film, affects a tough exterior that hides a soft center. Ellen's weakness, in particular her inability to kill Herod on several occasions, sets her apart, in an insidiously sexist way, from the Man With No Name of the Sergio Leone films THE QUICK AND THE DEAD so laboriously emulates.

In addition to the Leone references, director Sam Raimi and writer Simon Moore play with a wide range of genre inconography, including Gene Hackman's nasty variation on his UNFORGIVEN role and quotes from JOHNNY GUITAR and THE LEFT-HANDED GUN (biblical allusions throughout the story are also heavy going). But the homage borders on Mel Brooks-style parody at times (as one gunfighter is shot through the head, his silhouette on the ground reveals sunlight gleaming through the bullet hole before he collapses). The self-conscious cleverness would work better, perhaps, if other scenes weren't played for high seriousness.

While THE QUICK AND THE DEAD ambles along with flashes of effective comedy, horror and melodrama, the scattershot approach never quite jells. Thanks mainly to the strong, poignant performances of Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio, the tricky but fun camerawork of Dante Spinotti, and the appropriately earthy production design of Patricia von Brandenstein, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD provides more than a few winning moments.

This movie review is from The TV Guide Entertainment Network