Sliver (1993)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Sliver is billed as an erotic thriller. It is erotic all right but there isn't much thrill in here. A young, good looking female moves into a tall building in NYC but it turns out there are a lot of skeletons hiding among the residents. Billy Baldwin is the male lead although this is Stone's film. Although the sex scenes are good there is no story to go with it. Upon looking at the wiki article I saw that the film was a financial disaster and I can see why. One needs a good foundation- a script of worth on which all the other features can stand. Sliver gets the erotic bits alright but fails to deliver a story. Still, worth a watch.

OK, so first let's get these out there: It's not a perfect movie. And it's not a really quotable movie. But for some reason, this movie stuck in my head for a long time after watching it (and not at all because of the sex scenes). The concept has basically never been used before or since (to my knowledge), and is strangely relevant even today 25 years later (geez, has it been that long?) what with the ongoing privacy concerns. I found that core concept (which I can't really discuss due to spoilers) compelling and unique. Billy "Duckface" Baldwin wasn't that impressive other than his physical presence (and that the gaming/computer nerd in me loved some of his 90's period-paraphernalia, such as a Sid Meier's Civilization poster, a Macintosh PowerBook Duo Dock, Nine Inch Nails and Megadeth posters, and a few hints that he was a gamer); Sharon Stone looked sexy and gorgeous as was probably expected (in one scene she's wearing a choker... so hot... which have finally come back into fashion today!). The thriller "whodunit" keeps-you-guessing plot worked for the most part. The movie certainly (in my opinion of course) didn't deserve the trashing it got.To me the star of the show here was the unique concept and the thoughtful questions it raises long after the credits roll. And the soundtrack (still one of my favorite movie soundtracks ever! Alternative 90's gold, I say!)I award this 90's underrated artifact an 8/10

Remember Joe Eszterhas? The writer who pretty much owned the theaters in the late 80's and early 90's with films like Flashdance, Basic Instinct, Jade and Showgirls? In addition to Sliver, at least two of the films above - Basic Instinct and Jade - could qualify as giallo-style films. When reviewed through the lens of 2018, his films seem puerile at worst and silly at best, gradually becoming goofier the sexier they claim to be.Directed by Phillip Noyce (Dead Calm, The Saint), based on a novel by Ira Levin (Rosemary's Baby, No Time for Sergeants, Deathtrap, The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil...man, did Ira have his finger on the pulse of pop culture or what?) and produced by Robert Evans (Ever wonder who owns the IOU on my writing style? Wonder no longer, baby. Also, watch The Kid Stays in the Picture to learn how the producer of The Godfather and Rosemary's Baby was often more interesting than the stars of his films), Sliver was originally rated NC 17 due to its sex scenes and some male frontal nudity. Also, there was an original ending - we'll get to it in a bit - that audiences hated.Carly Norris (Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct) is a book editor that never seems to go to her job. While she is there, she spends most of her time gossiping and bemoaning the fact that she never gets to have sex, despite being oh so fashionable and, you know, looking like Sharon Stone in 1993.Somehow, she gets to immediately move into the best New York apartment ever, as the previous tenant (Naomi Singer, who looks exactly like Carly, which is a giallo staple if I've ever heard of one) has recently fallen to her death from her balcony.Everyone in the building wants to get to know her, no one more than Zeke (William Baldwin, Flatliners). Within, oh let's say a day or two, they're having sex all over the place and talking about flying a plane into a volcano. He says that he designs "computer video games" and she's just happy to have a younger man interested in her, despite the fact that she has a six-figure clothing budget (giallo fashion alert) and, you know, looks like Sharon Stone in 1993.Carly also has another suitor, a writer named Jack (Tom Berenger, Major League) who is the most sexist character in the film, but certainly not in Eszterhaus' oeuvre. As more neighbors begin to die, she begins to distrust both Zeke and Jack.Oh yeah - there's also Vida Warren, who is a model, but also a hooker, and also has the worst cocaine snorting scene in the history of film, treating it as a child would Pixie Stix.At the close of the film, we learn that Jack killed Naomi, the original tenant because he was jealous of Zeke, who actually designed and owns the building. Zeke knew Jack killed her because of his network of security cameras, but he didn't want his secret getting out.Zeke invites Naomi to enjoy the cameras, but she eventually destroys his control room, telling him to get a life before she leaves both him and her home.Joe Eszterhas's original ending - where Zeke turns out to be the killer, revealed to a sympathetic Naomi as they fly over and perhaps into a volcano - was "incomprehensible to test audiences," which led to Eszterhas writing five different endings. The re-shot ending, where actors Tom Berenger and Polly Walker wear S&M fashions, had to be filmed with body doubles as the actors did not agree to this in their contracts. Eszterhas hates the film, particularly the new ending and final line.The sex scenes were a big deal when this came out. During the filming of them, Sharon Stone bit William Baldwin's tongue "with such force that he couldn't talk properly for days afterwards." This may be why neither actor would speak to one another by the end of the filming. What remains on the screen is coupling that is at best robotic and at worse, ridiculous. It's still not the worst sex scenes in an Eszterhaus film.Sliver is filled with that trademark Eszterhaus wit. Witness dialogue like Carly saying, "You've been spending too much time with your vibrator." Her friend's reply? "I certainly have - I've been getting a plastic yeast infection!" By wit, I mean copious amounts of the kind of sex talk that CEO's that have been removed thanks to modern thinking and the #MeToo movement would find humorous or normal.Oh yeah! Martin Landau is in this and utterly wasted! There's no reason for him to even be in this movie! He does absolutely nothing other than make you look at the screen and say, "Martin Landau is in this."The giallo themes that the film starts with - Carly being a dead ringer for a murdered woman, high fashion, the promise of kink - pretty much go nowhere. The film was a commercial, if not an artistic success. But it seems like there was so much promise that goes undelivered and the film begs for an Argento or even DePalma touch. Even a late in the movie knife murder reminds you that this film could be all masked faces and black leather gloves, but never goes all in.

SLIVERI remember watching this quite a lot in the 90s. I loved this film along with other thrillers of its time.The movie is about a woman who moves into a new apartment block. She starts to get a few people saying that she looks a lot like the woman who killed herself that used to live in her apartment. When she starts to make some new friends in the area, she discovers that there is more to this coincidence than she first thought.This is a typical Sharon Stone film of the 90s. It is full of sex and suspense. The story is quite good, and the mystery element to it is actually not that bad. There are times when I watched the film and thought I knew who the villain was, but as time goes on your mind changes about 5 times. When you watch the movie, you realise it could only be one of two people… but you really are not sure who it is until right at the end.I enjoyed the movie, but to be honest it was not as good as I remember it being. This happens a lot when you return to an old film that you have not seen in many years. It is a shame, but your opinion changes on movies, and with the rapid changes in the effects that Hollywood has made, it is not surprising that you all of a sudden think that the films are not as good. But I still enjoyed it. I thought it was entertaining and I had forgotten who the bad guy was anyway, so the film was still a surprise for me.The movie stars Sharon Stone, William Baldwin and Tom Berenger. Sharon does a great job. She had a very good career in the 90s but just seems to have dipped off of the radar. I believe she is making straight to TV movies now… it is a shame because she is a talented actress and she deserves to be on the big screen. In my opinion, the last great film I saw her in was Diabolique. William Baldwin did a good job at playing a creepy, slimy guy. He was just weird throughout the whole film. I know he was supposed to play the good looking but suspicions type, but he just came across as creepy. Tom Berenger should have had a bigger role really. He was good in the bits he was in, but to be honest he had a relatively small role.The drama and suspense in this film is the thing that carried it through. I wanted to know who did it… The ending was OK, but I thought they could have had a bigger ending. It just kind of felt it just ended. There was more that could have happened.I did like this movie, but it is not Sharons best.I will give this film 7 out of 10."You like to watch? Watch this!"For more reviews, please like my Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl