With shootin', stabbin', cattle slaughter, and a super helicopter wipe-out, this cheerfully calamitous modern oater scrambles up all those formula bad guys and good folks--from the tough lady-ranch-owner to the handsome drifter to rustlers to lawmen. Plus: a homicidal maniac slicing up hookers and a detective who hums, grunts, and shoots darts. Prime heroine is pretty little Julie Carlyle, who's been married for 16 years to super-cop Carl, who likes beer and girlie mags. So rock-music-lover Julie is made to feel like an outsider in Wyoming (she's an orphan from California)--especially by Carl's mother Francesca, the power behind the old ranching-family spread and the leader of the rancher battle against Sun-land Coal (who'll do just about anything--shooting animals, poisoning wells--to get at the land to strip-mine). Furthermore, while Francesca goes after Sunland's staff with airborne attacks, there are some less imaginative rub-outs: a nameless, faceless psycho kills two prostitutes. And Julie continues to drift away from Carl--in the direction of guitarist Chris, whose group is playing a gig nearby. There's an affair; after a shootout, Carl is left to Julie's best friend Grace, a heart-o'-gold waitress; Francesca and Sunland get theirs in different ways; the killer is finally obliterated; and Julie, once she's recovered from a gunshot, is off on a motorcycle to California, alive and free. AH the old familiar places--from the fly-buzzing diner to the sign riddled with bullet holes that says ""Welcome to Wyoming""--in a loud, messy saga that's easy to mosey into.