Bad Movie Month takes a Sliver out of Sharon Stone

When it comes to cheesy sexed-up thrillers,nobody does it so well or so bad as Sharon Stone. The lady just seems to have the knack for being a red hot momma who gets mixed up in murder,as the kinky classic Basic Instinct showed all too much of.

Here,Stone re-teams with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas and at first glance,you might think "Oh,this could be interesting",especially after seeing that this movie is based on an Ira Levin novel.

Yep,the Ira Levin who gave us such quality film material as The Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby. However,in the hands of the guy who would later go on to create the infamous "Showgirls",things go wrong all too soon:





After the blonde from the opening credits gets done in,Stone's character is the next one to move into that roomy apartment,lucky girl! She plays Carly Norris,a newly single book editor,who is thrilled to be living at such a swanky address and to met two available( and apparently interested in dating lonely blondes) men;Jack(Tom Beringer)a pumped up pulp fiction writer and Zeke(William Baldwin),the young computer guy who owes the building and has this cute little habit of watching everyone in the entire building from all of the hidden cameras he has planted.



Zeke is not shy about his interest in Carly and no shame either,as he sends her a romantic gift of bra and panties and watches her at his hidden video lair while asking her out for a dinner date. Some guys go for that candy and flowers jazz,but not our boy Zeke-he wants to get right down to business!:



At dinner,Zeke insists upon Carly's displaying of his tokens of affection,much to the shock and delight of their fellow diners and wait staff(the old guy at the next table probably didn't need to take his Viagra that night!). Carly acts reluctant to play naughty but she's as convincing as as Madonna was as a missionary in Shanghai Surprise:





One of the major problems with this movie is that Carly is supposed to be this sexually repressed woman coming out of a bad marriage who gets her fires rekindled by a younger man with disposable income(that gives him plenty of time to work out at the gym) and kinky voyeur habits but Sharon Stone is not that good of an actress to pull that one off.

She is capable of giving a decent performance(as Casino demonstrated)but not even a member of the O.J. Simpson or Robert Blake jury can swallow that much baloney:





There is some murder mystery action,with Beringer glowering jealously around Carly and casting aspirations about how dangerous Zeke's sexual obsessions can be and some Scooby Doo hijinks,but it's mainly an excuse for Stone to have a boink fest with Baldwin. Carly eventually discovers Zeke's X-rated home video library and appears disgusted,altho it's hard to tell if it's his secret footage fetish or his lack of creativity that bothers her the most:





The original ending planned for Sliver did not go over well with preview audiences and wound up being re-shot. Eszterhas and company were going to have Stone and Baldwin plunge themselves into an active volcano via helicopter in Hawaii( not the way the book concluded the story,but since when did Hollywood folk ever worry about a little thing like that?).

What they did come up with wasn't very convincing,which actually went along with the rest of the plot nonsense in this film. Sliver might have been more memorable if they had gone with that wacky volcano bit(which isn't even available on the Unrated DVD)but then again,maybe not. Perhaps,it is best to let such oversexed sludge slink away to the land of failed flicks,where it belongs: