"Sexy and Stylish"
Added 10/6/2009
Probably one of the biggest critical failures in the history of motion pictures, "Sliver" centers around a woman (played by Sharon Stone) who moves into a highrise apartment in downtown Manhattan when suddenly many tenants start to get murdered. The owner of the buliding (played by William Baldwin) experiments with voyeuism by videotaping the goings on in the tenant's apartments. The movie is pretty much forgotten today, but many do remember the film for the extreme amount of sex scenes between Stone and Baldwin as well as the amount of male nudity Baldwin shows; in the original cut of the film there was even a frontal shot of his body. The film is pretty empty on plot, but buy the film if you want to see the gorgeous body of William Baldwin; he is not shy in showing his assets. Despite the critical failure of the movie "Sliver" grossed over $166,000,000 at the boxoffice. The DVD has no bonus features but comes in widescreen. One critic did enjoy the film, however; David Sheehan from NBC says, "Don't miss it! Goes beyond "Basic Instinct"...super, sexy, super-stylish, super suspenseful."
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You like to watch--but don't watch this
Added 11/21/2008
As Carly Norris said: "You like to watch, watch this!"
But seriously, don't watch this, unless you are fascinated by train wrecks, and enjoy seeing a movie spin totally out of control. Joe Eszterhas has recently been born again, after a bout with throat cancer he has given up tobacco, booze, writing trashy but successful scripts, and instead he's taken up the cross. I wish him luck. So far, he has yet to sell any scripts, but he has written a few books. Looking over his oeuvre, there are some successes and some spectacular failures. I'll get to 'Sliver' in a minute, but first a brief recap:
'Flashdance' was rather ridiculous in premise, nevertheless, a huge success. 'Jagged Edge' I haven't seen, but from the afterbuzz I sense that it was a taut courtroom drama that may have been ridiculous in premise, but was no doubt entertaining. 'Music Box' may have been the rare Eszterhas film that was both serious, well received by critics and public alike. The story of a daughter who discovers that her father was a Nazi may have resonated for Eszterhas due to personal reasons. 'Basic Instinct' was very trashy, but it worked, even though you knew you were being manipulated, you liked it. Admit it, you did. A guilty pleasure--and Sharon Stone's interrogation scene? It made a big impact. If you have seen it, you remember it, and if you haven't seen it, you've heard about it. 'Showgirls' won several Razzies and is renowned for being one of the worst films of all time. It was supposed to be a box office bomb, but actually it is the highest grossing NC-17 film of all time, probably from DVD sales I would surmise. 'Jade' is notoriously bad. David Caruso quit a lucrative TV career to make this, and his film career went nowhere and he's back on the small screen. Finally, 'An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn' ended Eszterhas' screen writing career. It is ironic, because "Alan Smithee" is a name that directors use when they make a movie so bad that they don't want to have their name attached to it, and the film was about a director who made a bad film and didn't want his name attached to it, but his name actually was Alan Smithee, so he did not have that option. Further irony is piled on by the fact that "Alan Smithee" as a pseudonym was retired after this movie because the name became too well known, so it was no longer effective as a subterfuge when trying to duck responsibility for a project gone wrong. Like the film within a film, 'An Alan Smithee film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn' itself was also a disaster, and Eszterhas' career took a nosedive. No more multi million dollars for ideas he pitched at lunch or scribbled on a napkin.
Which brings us to 'Sliver,' another disaster. Nothing left but to dissect the cadaver. Based on a book by Ira Levin, who also wrote Rosemary's Baby, The Boys from Brazil, and The Stepford Wives, Ira was reluctant to sell the film rights because Hollywood always trampled on his dreams. The one exception was Rosemary's Baby, which was directed by Roman Polanski. Producer Robert Evans sent Ira a book by Polanski with the passages where he (Evans) had saved the project highlighted, and this convinced him to let Evans produce 'Sliver.' Unfortunately, Polanski was forced to leave the country, and though at first they planned to film a few exterior shots in New York and have Roman finish it up in Paris; it ended up being directed by Philip Noyce. Though he was no Polanski, Noyce was no hack, as proved by 'The Quiet American;' but he was unable to salvage 'Sliver.'
For a movie with such a titillating premise, 'Sliver' managed to extract all the juice. For a movie about high tech voyeurism, it sure managed to turn down the heat. Though 'Basic Instinct' was trashy, it was much more fun. In 'Instinct' there is a kind of cat and mouse, love/hate thing going with Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas. She is a murder suspect/novelist, and he is the cop investigating her. Talk about good cop, bad cop, he is a very bad cop. He shoots tourists, and has numerous bad habits. Stone plays him like a Stradivarius, pushing his buttons, making him dance to her tune, and all the while, he thinks he is in control. Total trash, but the audience, like Douglas, is also played like a Stradivarius. The Sharon Stone of 'Sliver' has no chemistry with either Tom Berenger or William Baldwin.
'Sliver' doesn't deliver on any of its promises, and it squanders its titillating premise. It also botches the ending, because focus groups found the first ending incomprehensible. Eszterhas wrote five new endings in three days, but the one they picked changed the killer and tried to make sense of the botched attempt, and failed again. It makes no sense. Don't want to spoil it by revealing the ending, but it would be hard to spoil it any more than the writer, director, producer, and actors have already. Neither Ira Levin, Joe Eszterhas, the critics, film audiences, nor Tom Berenger were pleased with the result. I tend to agree with them.
Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1998) (written by Joe Eszterhas)
Jade (1995) (written by Joe Eszterhas)
Showgirls (1995) (written by Joe Eszterhas)
Basic Instinct (1992) (written by Joe Eszterhas, and Sharon Stone was Catherine Tramell)
Music Box (1989) (written by Joe Eszterhas)
Jagged Edge (1985) (written by Joe Eszterhas)
Flashdance (1983) (screenplay by Joe Eszterhas)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) .... Tom Berenger was Gary, AKA Mr. Badbar
The Muse (1999) .... Sharon Stone was Sarah Little, the muse
Bulworth (1998) (uncredited) .... William Baldwin was Constance Bulworth's Lover
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Carly Norris: Get a life.
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Voyeurism - seen or be seen?
Added 11/2/2008
Which is more fun? Depends on you. Hard to decide? Check out both sides of the story. Always carry a camera.
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Stone... Hot. This movie... not.
Added 11/1/2008
Back in the day Sharon Stone was the hottest thing in Hollywood. She is still very pretty and hot in this movie but... this movie is a turd. Billy Baldwin is a horrible actor and this movie seems to want to show Baldwins naked butt and hide Stones completely. I like Tom Berenger but he doesn't do much with the crapfest that is this script. This movie stinks. Stone is hot but you don't see her being hot enough or at all.
Did I mention this movie stinks?
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What does Unrated Edition mean?
Added 7/14/2008
I have the "Unrated Edition" but I can't figure out what that is supposed to mean. There are no special features, no content that would merit a rating more restrictive than R. I don't get it.
I understand the ending is different from the book and apparently some of the famous plot holes would not be if the book's ending was used.
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basic ice pick
Added 10/4/2009
the ice pick at the end is not like the others. this movie is not like the others, esp not basic 2, which sucks the grand cahuula big time. beautiful scenery, beautiful people, beautiful writting, in a pervert-directed movie which makes everybody's list as best 10, or best 100, or best 1000, depending on what you are gathering together. sharon stone very gifted and very beautiful.
razor sharp film worth keeping and watching again time after time, like all the great ones, at least once every five years. evil women, men who are not whimps and therefore do not die of natural causes, and views into the very rich who are more fun to look at, and who live in better settings, often along the water.
it's too bad more women do not review this film, or films like it, because every man will own this movie one day, and perhaps only every third woman. but maybe not.
i was hoping rush limbaugh would play gus in basic instinct three, but after two, we all gave up.
i recommend this adventure to all who have realized an instinct or two sometime in the recent past...........
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The best version of BI released, but not a quantum leap
Added 8/14/2009
There are a plethora of reviews of the movie, but my review is a comparison of the BD vs DVD version. The BD version is by far, the best version released. The video can be described as being cleaner, but not the eye popping sharpness one sees in other BD releases compared to their similar DVD versions. I cannot be sure this is from a generally soft focus used by cinematography or sub-par digital mastering. Audio has superior imaging and dynamic range. Some detail revealed is far greater and somewhat of a let down such as Ms. Stone's makeup is excessive, she is far more attractive in her 'audition' reels shown on the BD extras.
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Here's the scoop on the UNRATED version and more
Added 8/14/2009
Well, after much exhaustive work and buying three different DVD's of this film at Amazon, four have been produced so far bye-the-way. As a reviewer said earlier the ASIN: B00005N919 on Amazon as 'Basic Instinct (Collector's Edition - Unrated) (1992)' is the version with the deleted scenes that the Director was forced to cut from the theatrical release back in 1992. I have added a couple of pictures of the copy (3rd and 4th customer pictures in the picture list by me) that I received from a seller under the product ASIN: B00005N919, of the DVD case front and back with notes added for explaination. By-the-way, there is no main picture on Amazon for this particular version of the DVD, only customer pictures and this is defineately the version to buy. This DVD did come with the 'Ice Pick' and is still called a Special Edition because of that Ice Pick (pen) included. I also bought another copy with ASIN: B000E5N684 and the Amazon title of 'Basic Instinct - Director's Cut (Ultimate Edition) (1992)' and that has a Sharon Stone interview (recently) added to it and is the last DVD copy (non blu-Ray) to be made. I watched this version also and because it says Director's Cut and Unrated on the lower bottom part of the DVD case, it does has the left out scenes that were deleted in the theatrical release also. The other one I bought ASIN: B00005N91B also came with the Ice Pick, but it only say's Special Edition on the DVD, this does not include the cut scenes in the theatrical release, but is a Special Edition because of the Ice Pick (pen). Another reviewer did talk about the extra scenes in the UNRATED versions and what they include, so I will not go into that, just see his review for that info. I hope this helps clarify the many different releases of this DVD that I have found so far here at Amazon.
Also for you that do not know what an ASIN is, here you go:
All items in the Amazon catalog are identified by 10-digit ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers). The ASIN search tool on their site is able to search for items by ASIN. Amazon assigns these Asin numbers it helps them to ship the correct item.
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