Sliver (Unrated Edition)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anne Betancourt, Jim Beaver, Sharon Stone, Tom Berenger, William BaldwinBrand: Paramount
Cinematographer: Laszlo Kovacs
Cinematographer: Vilmos Zsigmond
Cinematographer: Michael Benson
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
DVD Release Date: 2006-03-28
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of Sliver (Unrated Edition)
Movie Review: You like to watch--but don't watch this
Summary: 2 Stars
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
-----
Carly Norris: Get a life.
=================
Summary of Sliver (Unrated Edition)
Young publishing executive Carly (Stone) takes an apartment in an exclusive "sliver" building in New York, only to learn that the previous tenant, who bore a great resemblance to Carly, died in a mysterious fall from the apartment balcony. When other tenants of the building begin to die likewise mysteriously, Carly begins to suspect that a killer may be inhabiting the building and that it may be either Zeke (Baldwin), the voyeuristic building owner with whom she's become involved romantically, or Jack (Berenger), a mystery writer with a suspicious quality.After her success with Basic Instinct, Sharon Stone opted for familiar territory with this campfest that purports to be a sexualized thriller about voyeurism but in reality is more of an excuse to get Stone and costar William Baldwin out of their clothes. Rear Window it ain't. Stone plays it drab and quiet as a successful career woman on the rebound from a bad marriage who moves into a mysterious Manhattan high-rise. Once there, she discovers that she has a few admirers: a hunky and enigmatic neighbor (Baldwin), a popular writer of crime novels (Tom Berenger), and someone who seems to enjoy watching her every move on the building-wide surveillance system. And is one of them the serial killer who's stalking the comely female tenants? Scripted by the erstwhile Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct and Jagged Edge), Sliver follows the standard Eszterhas plot line of a protagonist suspecting that his or her lover may or may not be a vicious killer, the tension mounting as clue upon clue is discovered. Unlike both Instinct or Edge, though, Sliver delivers little suspense, thanks in part to a reshot ending that changed the original identity of the killer in the Ira Levin novel and confounded students of rational thought. However, if you're looking for an unintentionally funny thriller with loads of extraneous nudity, Sliver is an enjoyably huge hunk of cheese. --Mark Englehart
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