`Quigley': Rambo In Leather Chaps Misses The Mark

X 1/2 ``Quigley Down Under,'' with Tom Selleck, Laura San Giacomo, Alan Rickman. Directed by Simon Wincer, from a script by John Hill. Alderwood, Aurora, Crossroads, Everett Mall, Kent, Kirkland Parkplace, Renton Village, Seatac Mall, Varsity. ``PG-13'' - Parental guidance advised, due to violence, nudity.

One awe-stricken viewer, after seeing the sneak preview of this Tom Selleck vehicle last weekend, called it ``a good old-fashioned Western.'' But the note of disbelief in his voice suggested that by ``old-fashioned'' he may have meant ``arthritic.''

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.

Sharpshooter Matthew Quigley (Selleck) is an American hired by Australian ranch owner Elliott Marston (Alan Rickman) to control the dingo population on Marston Waters ranch. While he's at it, Quigley's supposed to decimate the local Aborigines as well.

Quigley's not too happy with this job description and soon falls out with Marston, who kicks him off the ranch - at which point, ``Quigley Down Under'' becomes a vigilante movie, with Selleck (a 19th-century Rambo in leather chaps) blowing away every colonial Australian in sight.

Tagging along with him is an American prostitute, Crazy Cora (Laura San Giacomo), who keeps calling Quigley ``Roy'' - a clue as to why she went crazy. As the two struggle through the dusty Outback, they witness racial atrocities and start to fall in love.

There's a solid backbone of story here, and the look and feel of the picture is appropriately gritty. Unfortunately, director Simon Wincer (``Lonesome Dove'') is saddled with John Hill's script, in which cardboard characters are the name of the game.

The evil Australians are all slobbering goons. Quigley, their exterminator, is a bland but vengeful angel, intent on racking up a body count. Only Rickman - the memorable bearded villain of ``Die Hard'' - is able to lend his lines a withering conviction.

Giacomo (``sex, lies, and videotape'') does what she can with Crazy Cora - but Cora's hallucinations are as schematic as they come. Hill employs a reenact-your-trauma-and-everything-turns-out-OK school of psychotherapy in order to achieve his happy ending.

The exploration of the Aborigines' world is cursory at best, although it allows for the film's few eerie, startling moments. See Nicolas Roeg's ``Walkabout'' for a film that takes you deeper into the Outback.

In short, see just about anything but ``Quigley Down Under,'' which - unlike the recent boom in gangster films - doesn't add a thing to its genre.