Sharon Stone plays the title character, a gun moll with a heart of gold who takes a seven-year-old boy under her wing when her mobster friends threaten to rub him out (after killing his entire family). This remake of John Cassavetes' l980 film should probably have been nipped in the bud; Stone is totally miscast in the title role. As for the other characters, they don't inspire much sympathy or even interest in the audience, not even the cute kid. Why do directors feel the need to do remakes of good movies? As problematic as Cassavetes' films tend to be, Sidney Lumet should have known better than to take this on. Sharon Stone fans may enjoy this film, but there are plenty of disappointing problems that tend to get in the way. --Jerry Renshaw, Amazon.com

Director Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead) tries gamely to recapture the exotic mysteries of spaghetti Westerns in this stylish but empty film, which stars Sharon Stone as a stranger who comes to the town of Redemption in time for an annual shooting contest. Her real motivations for being there are the stuff that might have found their way into a film by Sergio Leone--in fact, much of this film is a pastiche of Leone's greatest hits, including A Fistful of Dollars and Once upon a Time in America--but one can't quite believe Stone in the role. Gene Hackman gives a predictably solid performance as the town tyrant, and Leonardo DiCaprio is good as a lucky young gunslinger who gets to kiss the heroine. But not even the cast can help this failed project. Raimi brings a lot of razzle-dazzle to his camera work, but it doesn't make the film any more substantial. --Tom Keogh