Jade (1995)

William Friedkin's erotic thriller has been battered by critics and audiences alike down the years, and despite being someone who is a huge fan of the sub-genre (especially when it's penned by Joe Eszterhas as this is) I was advised by many who have seen Jade to give it a wide berth. So naturally I bought it from ebay and sat down to watch it this weekend. Not only was Jade a critical flop, its box office figures were disastrous, leading to it being considered one of the worst films of 1995 and easily one of, if not the worst, film of Friedkin's career. David Caruso is Assistant District Attorney David Corelli who is called to the murder scene of a prominent businessman called Medford, leading to the uncovering of a web of filth, blackmail and snuff, as you'd expect from an Esterhas script. What's interesting about Jade is that I'm convinced it wouldn't have got such a kicking had it been directed by Paul Verhoeven. Friedkin's back catalogue contains many gems and many successful swings in genre just like Verhoeven, but Verhoeven's success in producing perhaps the greatest erotic thriller in Basic Instinct just three years previously meant that Friedkin attempting something so similar so soon was always going to be a tricky sell. It also doesn't help that Jade frequently comes across as a poor man's Basic Instinct, right up to some rather nefarious looking expensive buildings overlooking a cliff face. Linda Fiorentino does her best as Trina Gavin, the ex-lover of Corelli who went on to marry one of his closest friends, Defense Attorney Matt Gavin and swiftly becomes a figure of high interest after a film of her bedding the Governer is found at Medford's private beach house. Fiorentino is short changed by the plot and in the end wasted especially after proving her chops in such a role in 1994's superb The Last Seduction. Jade is a long way from being terrible though; Friedkin provides us with a truly brilliant car chase sequence as is his wont, that adds some needed thrills to proceedings, and despite him admitting that the film was a failure his claim that Jade contains some of his best work isn't completely unfounded. Jade was nominated for two Golden Raspberries and lost in both categories to another Eszterhas penned film, Showgirls, which also just happened to be one of 1995's best films, completely misunderstood by pretty much everyone who watched it. Jade isn't even close to being in the same ball park as Showgirls, but neither is it the absolute turkey that plenty claim. 6.3/10