Don’t forget that she was in “Above the Law.” 
IIRC, right after BI, she started showing her age. Face took a hit. Thingies looked fairly saggy. She did retain some Primo, Primo legs.
Not bad for almost 50.
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Yeah, no, YMMV, but nuh uh. Bacall never played a really bad person. She played goodgirls who *played *bad, for fun; but she never played the heartless sociopath that was the true femme fatale. One of the best of whom I forgot: Ann Savage.
The first paragraph of the NYTimes review reflects, pretty much, my expectations of Basic Instinct 2, which I have had zero desire to see since both Paul Verhoeven and David Cronenberg did NOT end up directing it:
*
It should come as no surprise that “Basic Instinct 2,” the long-gestating follow-up to Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 blip on the zeitgeist screen, is a disaster of the highest or perhaps lowest order. It is also no surprise that this joyless calculation, which was directed by Michael Caton-Jones and possesses neither the first film’s sleek wit nor its madness, is such a prime object lesson in the degradation that can face Hollywood actresses, especially those over 40. Acting always involves a degree of self-abasement, but just watching trash like this is degrading.*. . . but then the last couple paragraphs of the same review makes me curious:
*The last few decades have been calamitous for American film actresses (of any age), who have been increasingly marginalized by the very industry they helped build. It would be wrong to put all the blame for Ms. Stone’s appearance and performance in “Basic Instinct 2” on the industry; greed and vanity surely played a part, as did behind-the-scenes wrangling. (Among the directors once expected to take the reins was David Cronenberg.) . . .
. . . The camp pleasures fleetingly promised by the crazy opener and the first few minutes of Ms. Stone’s vamping soon give way to boredom and time to contemplate, yet once more, just how brutal it is to be an actress in Hollywood. Last year, Ms. Stone delivered a gem of a performance in Jim Jarmusch’s “Broken Flowers,” reconfirming that her work in films like “Casino” was not an aberration. She was luminous and touching in Mr. Jarmusch’s film partly because the role called for her to act her age, and she happily complied.*The reviewer, Manohla Dargis, suggests that *BI2 *is an interesting essay on age and the Hollywood actress. Intriguing.
She was good at playing good playing bad, though.
How’s Kathleen (Body Heat) Turner grab you? Often, I hope.
Yeah, Turner’s role was more in the true fatale tradition, but I think Verhoeven’s brilliant use of her, um, privates as a kind of totem that hangs over the film raises her to an entirely unique level of fatale: she is a goddess of destruction; she’s beyond human; she’s Kali and Vagina dentata. I know I’m repeating myself here, but I can’t watch *BI *without flashing on those sub-Freudian, archetypal concepts. Trammel isn’t just a woman; she’s the Fearsome Power of Female Rage Made Flesh. Way beyond any traditional femme fatale.
My all-time favourite Leonardo Di Caprio movie, because
Gene Hackman shoots him
“Shit, that was fast!”
And then there are her feet. Mmmm.
Um . . .
My favorite memory of Sharon is still her performance as Scarlett O’Hara in the big budget musical of “Gone With the Wind.”
“This… Civil War… aint gonna get… me dooooooooown!”
She’s a beautiful woman and a decent actress who’s made largely awful career choices.
I think she would have done well to star in a comedy- she CAN be hilarious (deliberately, I mean!).
Hm. I disagree. I’m more cynical than you, and I think her image as the tough blonde who used her, um, appeal, to play the Hollywood game, and win it, garnered a reaction that’s largely misogynist in nature. Men, as a species, expect to be in power, and they expect women to respect that imbalance. When someone like Sharon Stone comes along and uses her, um*, appeal *as kryptonite–“You can take a man for half his money/If he thinks he’ll see a taste of honey”–well, that upsets the apple cart.
Go see Broken Flowers and then try to convince me her career is over. Being in the most noted segment of a film that won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival (as well as a lot of other awards and nominations) is hardly the sign of a dead career.
If you haven’t seen this movie, you really don’t know what her current capabilities are.
I think she went batsh!t crazy somewhere around the time she filmed Albert Brooks’ The Muse, which, as far as I can tell, was only filmed so that the rather homely Brooks could spend time with her on the set.
She’s an archetype, that being the “Hot Chick with Crazy Eyes who Gets Naked Easily.” Some version of her has always existed in western culture.
Did anybody see her on The Daily Show last night? It looks like she’s caught a severe case of retarded.
Man, I just don’t get it. I thought BI was a crap movie, and her performance left me thinking of her as, at best, the classy Elizabeth Berkeley. It would pretty much take Berkeley to screw up the part they gave S.S. in Casino, given her supporting cast, and besides that, what I’ve seen Stone in hasn’t impressed me one bit. Never saw Quick&Dead, though I doubt it would change my mind.
It’s the Beaver Shot, plus the right kind of looks to back it up. Totally.
I don’t hold any special brief for Ms Stone. However, could those of you happily chuckling about her ‘going crazy’ at a certain point in recent years please bear in mind that this otherwise healthy and relatively young woman suffered a serious stroke that took her about a year to recover from? She was on a UK chat show a few weeks ago and discussed this with great dignity and no self-pity at all, even though it could have killed her and was definitely a major reason why her career stalled for a little while.
Not to get too pious or anything, and yeah, I can enjoy a pile-on as much as the next Doper, but sheesh, a little sensitivity goes a long way.
MiGawsh, I did not know that! I don’t know how I missed it, but what a frightening thing to have to deal with.
Piffle. It doesn’t say that. Thanks for posting the link.
Don’t turn this into Verhoeven meets homeopathy.
If she’d made largely awful career choices, this thread would never have been started because you’d never have heard of her.
I don’t know about that. A lot of talented people have stayed famous despite making a lot of very bad career moves.
I mean, Sylvester Stallone has made LOADS of horrible movies, movies that practically nobody saw. And yet, we’ve all heard of him.
That doesn’t mean “Stop or My Mom Will Shoot” and “Rhinestone” were good career choices.