Translated material
"Handsome Joe"
Yuri Gladilshchikov
Archive "Movies"
USA, black ball
Directed by Stephen Metcalf
Stars: Sharon Stone, Ian Holm and unknown to us (but seemingly known in America) Billy Connolly
Rental — "Paradise"
(Photo: Paradise )
Retreat. Once upon a time there was an actress Sharon Stone. She had long known to herself that she was a great actress, but for a long time she was forced to portray standard blond beauties who are standard companions to brutal shooters in category B action films. She was approaching thirty, but was still described as a "rising star in Hollywood." A typical film for Sharon Stone of the 80s - a hacky adaptation of the cult book of our childhood "King Solomon's Mines", made for pennies by the biggest swindlers of all swindler producers Menahem Golan and Goran Globus.
Then she starred in Basic Instinct and became a superstar. But it turned out that the politically correct world of the 90s hated her. Actually, he did not forgive both her and the director of “Instinct” Paul Verhoeven for one single scene - when during interrogation her heroine crosses her legs. The surest method of revenge was chosen: Stone was finally denied her acting talent, films with her participation - even innovative ones - began to be called failures, and people gradually stopped going to see her.
The clever thriller “Sliver” failed, the most luxurious postmodern western “The Quick and the Dead” was obstructed, and “Casino” did not receive the Oscar it deserved. And "The Last Dance"? This is a film on the same theme as “Sentenced to Death is Walking” with Sean Penn, only more honest, tougher, not snotty. Stone played a condemned woman. Result: “The Condemned” received Oscars and a bunch of other prizes, “The Last Dance” was declared utter rubbish by American critics.
It is clear that, while remaining a star in countries like Russia (and in Europe in general), Stone gradually ceased to interest serious producers. The fall could have been predicted. But so harsh? "Handsome Joe" is a typical B-movie. A comic action movie with two indispensable (for comic B-action movies) components: stupid mafia and primitive morality. Numerous Moscow fans of Sharon Stone, if they go to see this film, will be upset once and for all.
Having barely interrupted her career as a B-movie star, Sharon Stone is once again becoming a B-movie star. She has not even the first, but only the second most important role in “Joe”: the main role is played by an elderly goat unknown to the world audience. How did you agree? By the way, he looks creepy, although he changes wigs and dresses as the film progresses. So soon she will inevitably again reach Menachem Golan. Nightmare. Poor husband Bronstein.
In recent decades, there has been only one case of such a dramatic decline in a super career. Usually Hollywood stars remain stars forever. But the rule was broken by Burt Reynolds, who in the 70s was as fashionable and powerful as Schwarzenegger or Stallone. The cases of Mickey Rourke and Rutger Hauer are not so catastrophic: both of them were never superstars.
What exactly is “Handsome Joe” about, what are its disadvantages ( there are no advantages ) - I don’t even want to write.
September 29, 2000