Quigley Down Under Reviews

Another failed attempt to make Tom Selleck a movie star, this is a handsomely mounted but vapid western that lumbers across the screen for two hours, providing little entertainment. Selleck is Matthew Quigley, a 19th century sharpshooter from Wyoming who is summoned to Australia by rancher Elliott Marston (Alan Rickman). Fresh off the boat, Quigley saves an American prostitute named Crazy Cora (Laura San Giacomo) from a group of ruffians who turn out to be employees of Marston. They take Quigley--and Cora--to Marston's ranch. When Quigley learns that he's been hired to kill aborigines, he throws Marston out a window, which prompts the rancher to order his men to drag Quigley and Cora out into the desert where they will be left to die. Of course, Quigley and Cora, with the help of some aborigines, survive the ordeal, and Quigley sets out to get revenge against the evil Marston. Coupling the thoroughly predictable story with the inept direction of Simon Wincer (THE LIGHTHORSEMEN), the film becomes a stultifying experience. Wincer has a nice flair for scenery and stages a few competent action sequences, but he exhibits no understanding of the western genre. Quigley is a completely one-dimensional character who is heroic to the point of absurdity. As played by Selleck, his only function seems to be to model some really neat-looking leather chaps. The film also flows uneasily between light comedy and violence. Then there is the strange handling of San Giacomo's character. The character's mental instability seems to have been included here only to add some sort of psychological depth to the film, but instead it merely leads to some bizarre and wholly unnecessary scenes. Much of the dialog has to be heard to be disbelieved. At one point, Selleck, watching a hungry baby eating, wryly observes, "That little feller's eatin' like his belly button's been rubbin' a blister on his backbone." Other than some lovely scenery, the only thing this film has going for it is a lively performance by Rickman, who plays a variation on the villain he so richly portrayed in DIE HARD. That, however, is not nearly enough to recommend this thoroughly contrived, confused, and ultimately tedious effort. (Violence, profanity, adult situations.)