On S List of Movie Reviews
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Sliver (1993)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
3/10, 2/20
3/10:
When the opening credits of Sliver rolled, I saw who the screenwriter was: Joe Eszterhas.
Now, whenever his name mentioned, it's advisable that you must take the film with a huge amount of grain of salt.
Anyway, Sliver is highly watchable but scores '10' in stupidity. Women will get plenty of William Baldwin,
and of course, men will get plenty of Sharon Stone. But neither of them can act. It's just sex, sex, and sex.
The saving grace is Tom Berenger who balances them out with his veteran presence.
The story, which held my interest for a while, gets sillier and sillier. I can't understand why Zeke Hawkins
(Baldwin) chose to reveal his highly litigious voyeurism to Carly Norris (Stone). What makes her so special, I
wonder? Zeke must have video evidence of the murders, so why didn't he tip off the police in a subtle way?
The ending is the worst because Zeke gets off the hook and will continue to be the biggest voyeur ever since
James Stewart's character in Rear Window. What is Carly's justification
for thinking it's all okay? Is it because Zeke is a good-looking guy?
All in all, Sliver has potential but is ultimately a dumb movie, no matter how many different ways
it's sliced.
2/20:
Joe Eszterhas is the best when it comes to penning screenplays of steamy, trashy potboilers.
First, he did it for Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct which literally
made her famous overnight, and now, they reteam for Sliver. Sharon Stone doesn't know how to be sexy
despite her perfectly tanned, Aryan look. She could've been a Nazi in another lifetime. All of it is displayed
here. Her character is in the nude and has many lovemaking sessions with Zeke (William Baldwin), yet there's no
sex appeal.
It's the crazy Zeke, who begins dating one of the residents in a matter of days, blurting out that he owns the
high-rise apartment building and dropping a bombshell that he has a camera secretly installed in every room of
the condos in his building. What the fuck must the voyeur addict be thinking? Imagine the avalanche of lawsuits.
Regardless, William Baldwin is a good-looking guy, but the more he appears on screen, the shallower his character
comes across. His acting has eroded over time, too. However, William Baldwin isn't bad with Sharon
Stone although they hated each other during the filming.
On the other hand, Tom Berenger does what he can do, but he's given the worst shaft of all time at the end because
there's no way his character would've killed Naomi Singer. If you're asking yourself, "Why didn't Zeke tell the
police about the video?", then you should imagine his explanation: "Well, um...I secretly record all condos
for my pleasure."
All in all, Sliver needs more refinement.