The Quick and the Dead

Westerns are generally fun, and I enjoy films where characters get picked off one by one (even when, as is usually the case, it's pretty plain who's going to be left standing, and in what order the others will fall), which possibly goes some way to explaining my soft spot for The Quick and the Dead (this ain't the first time I've seen the film) and how I came to be watching it on tv tonight, despite the bane of commercial breaks. There's not much to it, but Sharon Stone carries off the lead role well, and Hackman, Crowe and DiCaprio (not a half bad cast, come to think of it) all get the job done in style. Alas, the scene where Ellen and Cort get it on was excised - I don't recall it as being particularly exciting, but for some reason, it's one of my strongest impressions of the film (probably because most of the rest of the running time is taken up by one gunfight after another). Also, the holes that get blown in people from time to time were a bit weird/distracting. Oh yeah, and there's no real building of tension or any proper pacing. Pfooie - it was still fun.