:
Seth Arnett,
Seth Arnett,
Michael Douglas,
more...
:
Paul Verhoeven,
Paul Verhoeven
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: Live/Artisan
: Erotica
: 128 min.
: English
: English, Spanish, French
see additional details...
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This cold, stylish erotic-thriller grossed over $100 million at the box-office despite vigorous protests at its depiction of gays and women. The shocking opening sequence features a graphic sexual encounter involving a rock-star bound with a white Hermes scarf by an unidentified blond woman. Despite the fact that the scene ends with a bloody icepick murder (horrifyingly realized by makeup artist Rob Bottin), Hermes scarves quickly sold out at stores nationwide. This seeming paradox is at the heart of the film's appeal, as it mixes perverse sexuality and erotic bloodshed in a manner common to European thrillers (director Paul Verhoeven had done it himself in 1979's marvelous De Vierde Man) but mostly taboo in America. The plot concerns Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a successful bisexual mystery writer who may also be a ruthless murderer. Everyone close to Catherine dies, and troubled policeman Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) must find out why. In the process, Nick becomes sexually involved with both Catherine and police psychiatrist Beth Gardner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), while the bodies begin piling up and Catherine turns the cat-and-mouse game around on Nick. Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas -- who was paid $3 million for the script -- keep the tension ratcheted up throughout, even during the frequent sex scenes, which carry a violent edge reminiscent of the Italian thrillers of Dario Argento. The film's most notorious scene, a police interrogation in which Catherine makes drooling idiots out of her captors by revealing that she is not wearing underwear, became a cultural touchstone and was widely imitated and parodied. Sharon Stone, meanwhile, was embarrassed to the point that she claimed Verhoeven had aimed lights on strategic locations without her knowledge. George Dzundza and Dorothy Malone co-star, and an unrated video director's cut contains 42 seconds of additional footage. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
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| never great as it wants to be..but never as bad as some people want it to be
by psychodrama311
May 29, 2003 - 1:26 PM PDT
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1 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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| with a mix of sex/drugs/alcohol and a scary as hell ice pick. this testerone charged film (yes even the women in this movie are full of it) blends some of the most graphic sex scenes (this side of the atlantic) with hard charged dialogue and a plot that is mostly thrown to the side. you can tell that the screenwriter was trying to make a classic film noir here..but he didn't really succeed.. but sharon stone is very classic and as everyone knows.. she really never recovered after this movie.. she continued to play the sex star until your run in "casino".. but she is brilliant here.. as is michael douglas. definitely a movie you have to see.. to have your own opinion about. |
| Catherine Did It!
by DPOWERS
February 5, 2003 - 11:40 AM PST
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4 out of 12 members found this review helpful
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intense glam noir that replaces glances and sharp words with date rape, groping-as-backstabbing, a hundred and one neuroses, and a phallus symbol so powerful they had to include one in the box with the DVD so you could play with it yourself. get it? isn't that a clever joke? you don't think so? too bad, you've got another two hours of movie ahead of you that can't stop chuckling over it.
to their credit, the writer-director team does try explore and make explicit the power relationships on which "thrillers" are based. sharon stone's dragon slut is pretty good. but the whole thing comes off as a couple of super-rich white guys trying to tell regular people where (and how) to get off.
by the end of the movie, when breakups and misunderstandings have been turned into bloody killings, which you have been lead to think of as orgasms, the sheen of "meta" has worn off and the lot of them, including the writer and the director, look like stupid f**ing a**holes.
don't see this movie. smoke a cigarette instead. that's really what this is about, the mock horrible consequences of giving up drinking and smoking, so listen to their advice, get out there and smoke and drink and "f*ck"!
also entertaining: try matching wits with their san francisco geography! is the seacliff neighborhood really in the marin headlands? is it possible that a really big house could be at "154 divisadero"? where the hell are they?
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 5.31)
626 Votes
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| A complete-as-I-can-make-it list of movies shot in and around SF (with LOTS of help from www.norcalmovies.com) and the Bay Area. I'll try to put comments and info about the movies and rate the ones I've seen. Please email me with any errors or add. info. |
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