Avis Metacritic

Quigley Down Under is an exquisitely crafted, rousing western made in Oz.

Aussie director Wincer handles the action convincingly, and Rickman's splendidly snide villain is a real treat.

Quigley Down Under is a handsome film, well-acted, and it's a shame the filmmakers didn't spend a little more energy on making it smarter and more original.

What's missing in Quigley Down Under is precisely what is missing in its star. Selleck is a skilled light comedian -- he's at his best delivering a wry put-down to a British officer -- and he handles John Hill's bantering dialogue deftly. But for all his burly authority, Selleck lacks dynamism on screen. There's no danger in him, nothing unresolved or mysterious. He's likable, but something of a lug.

This film falls down in it's attempts to do everything at once, so that a potentially horrific scenario is often played out to comic effect. It doesn't quite work and the film manages to undermine itself.

The director, Simon Wincer, makes Quigley Down Under an unapologetic homage to the formula western at its most pokey, complete with Wagon Train-style score. All things considered, this could be a lot worse.

A film with an intriguing premise and likable performances but not much excitement. [13 Oct 1990, p.F13]

There must be dozens of film buffs out there with an unsatisfied hankering for Cinemascope Westerns. It's too bad, then, that Quigley Down Under fits the label, but doesn't deliver the goods.

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.

Vapid, cutesy, knockabout Western.