Jade (1995)

Powerful

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

There is too much gratuitous sex.There is too much gratuitous sex.The climax, shot in half light, is confusing since four or five cops, DA's, killers, suspects, are wrestling around. Who's fighting with whom?Someone said it was a "Mess." In truth, it wasn't that good.The film was short on story. Friedkin like cars chases. "Jade" has 3. Uh, maybe 2. Uh, maybe 1. If you see this film, you'll quickly understand why I'm unclear about the chases. At least I know this: About 20% of the running time deals with cars in trouble and David Caruso violently swinging the steering wheel, yelling in fear, screaming in anger. Or is it the other way around?Of course, the sound editor used the stock horn sound, the one that echoes as it fades.I gave this a 1 because they don't allow negative numbers.In summary: "Jade" stinks.

This is a decent erotic thriller/mystery brought down by predictability, cliché and some rather bad writing. The film does have an impressive pedigree, having been directed by William Friedkin, and starring Chazz Palminteri, Linda Fiorentino as well as a pre-CSI: Miami David Caruso. All of the actors do a serviceable job, but they have to deliver some of the hammiest dialogue I've ever heard. The script is devoid of any real surprises or thrills, and so it relies on an over-insistent score. It's like it's shouting "Look at me! Take me seriously!", except it's impossible to take anything in this movie seriously. The most impressive part of the movie is the intro (before the score has become overbearing), which features some creepy music and surrealistic camera-work. It's too bad that they overuse the style throughout the film, though. Another bright spot was a well-filmed (but ridiculous) car chase through San Francisco, but it wears out its welcome once they hit Chinatown and the movie almost literally comes to a halt. So, there's also some issues with pacing, particularly in that sequence. However, the biggest problem with this movie is the script, penned by Joe Eszterhaz (who also wrote BASIC INSTINCT and SHOWGIRLS). Not only is the story relatively unengaging, but it's rather misogynistic towards its female characters, and the voyeuristic camera-work doesn't help in that regard either. At best, it's a rather bland erotic thriller with some decent performances, but it could be worth a late-night watch if you're into this sort of thing.

Jade has a pretty straight forward story with a murder and a love triangle between the three main characters. Because of the love triangle, it creates a conflict of interest between the two male characters. The plot sounds interesting enough. However, the way the final product was executed did not deliver an exhilarating or satisfactory story, conclusion, or thriller. Although, the unrated version, which is 12 mints longer, does assist in creating additional development for some of the characters.The film does inhabit i think some of Friedkin's finest work. An example would be the car chases sequence, which is in fact one of the most spectacular and thrilling chases ever filmed. I think it's his best to date. Cinematography for the film is beautiful and very noir like in the night scenes. Although he did a decent job with directing the leading characters, only Chazz Palminteri came across as really inhabiting his character. To me the problem with the film is that the story probably got lost in the editing or through rewrites.The bluray for this film, by Lionsgate, is one of the worst transfers I've ever seen. I wish paramount would put out both version of the film on a bluray. The theatrical version is not impressive at all but the unrated cut does a better job.

When the assistant district attorney of San Francisco investigates the mysterious death of an important millionaire he discovers that the first suspect in this case is a friend of his who is married to an important lawyer.Now it is difficult for him to distinguish between what is reality and what should be reality....Yes there are many similarities to this, Basic Instinct, and even Body of Evidence, but is that really a bad thing? This was the nineties, a decade of excess, style and of course, trying to be as controversial as possible. So why shouldn't Friedkin jump on the boat.Watching it sixteen years on, and the film is still pretty stylish and has very good production values, it's a shame that the film was crucified by the critics and public alike in initial release, because it has some really good set pieces, and probably one of the best car chases ever committed to film.There are a few plot holes here and there, and yes, the directors cut, ties up a few loose ends, but with the performances alone, and the grand scale of it all, Jade is a film worth watching, even if you know the killer at the end is going to be someone silly and rich.