Gloria (1999) [HD]

Not so good remake
Movies which are remakes, such as Gloria, can make things difficult for yours truly. My first instinct is to compare them to the original. Then I realize that, more often than not, most of my readers haven't seen the original, unless it's famous, like Psycho or The Mummy. The situation is akin to that tag-line at the start of all movies on video these days. That's the one that tells you the movie has been formatted to fit this [TV] screen. What that means is that about a third of the movie image has been chopped off. Yet, if you didn't see the film in a theater, you don't miss what you never saw.

For the record, the original Gloria came out in 1980. It was a small independent film by John Cassevetes starring his wife, Gena Rowlands. I recall it's being a tight, first rate thriller about a gangster's girlfriend's one chance of doing good. The role was tailored for Rowlands, and her performance alone is well worth seeing the movie, if you can find it. My other memory of it is that it...

A different Sharon Stone!
Sharon Stone has proven that she is capable of handling any acting role! But it is up to us to go with what ever character type we like most. Here we see her as a caring woman after she gets cheated by her gang and rescues a child to whom she became a mother figure!

The element of suspense is there. The element of sweet unique drama is there and the satisfaction shall be there too if you can accept Stone in this new mold..

PS The point that we are not used to see Sharon Stone in such a role... doesn't mean we can't accept her out of the sexy manipulative character as in Basic Instinct or Diabolique!

I advise you to rent at least! It's worth it.

NOT AS GREAT AS I REMEMBERED
I remember seeing this movie when it first came out and thought it was great. Viewing it again, I can see it doesn't stand the test of time as well as I thought it would. Leggy Sharon Stone plays a mobster's girl who gets out of prison after 3 years, taking the rap for her boyfriend. Meanwhile members of this mob murder a Latino family who has crossed them, except for an asthmatic, unlikable, seven year old boy who left via the fire escape (Why the rest of the family didn't go, I don't know.) The mob catches the boy outside and takes him to "head quarters" an apartment that once belonged to Gloria.

Gloria shows up back at the apartment and the money promised to her for taking the rap isn't there. She leaves, and in an unlikely scene, takes the boy with her who grabs a floppy disc (remember those?) of all the mob connections. The mob hunts them down as she looks for a way for the two of them to survive because catching a plane out of there to buy time hasn't occurred to her...

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