{"id":12219,"date":"2025-06-25T19:41:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T23:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12219"},"modified":"2025-06-25T19:41:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T23:41:18","slug":"jade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/06\/25\/jade\/","title":{"rendered":"Jade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Jade<\/strong> (1995)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Suspense-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes (Director\u2019s Cut)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong sexual content, nudity, violence, bloody images, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: William Friedkin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Joe Eszterhas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: James Horner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Andrzej Bartkowiak\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 13, 1995 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino, Chazz Palminteri, Richard Crenna, Michael Biehn, Donna Murphy, Ken King, Holt McCallany, David Hunt, Angie Everhart, Kevin Tighe, Victor Wong, Robin Thomas, Jay Jacobus, Victoria Smith, Darryl Chan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $9.8M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0With the sexual thriller Jade<\/strong>, I\u2019m once again faced with a bad movie that\u2019s gotten better with age. It\u2019s a mess from start to finish with its muddled plot, poor acting and complete lack of coherence. This is especially disappointing when you consider the people behind it. It\u2019s co-produced by Robert Evans (The Godfather, Chinatown), written by Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Showgirls) and directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist and To Live and Die in L.A.). What in the hell went wrong? Pretty much everything you can think of. It\u2019s a bad movie and yet I like it. Why? You know why; because bad movies from back then are better than a lot of today\u2019s mediocre ones. That\u2019s my take anyway.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I saw Jade<\/strong> at a prerelease screening in Oct. \u201995. Although it hadn\u2019t yet opened to the public, the word was already out that it was a stinker. I\u2019m shocked the studio still decided to screen it for audiences and critics. The only part I liked was the car chase through San Francisco. Friedkin knows how to effectively stage one of those. It doesn\u2019t quite measure up to the ones in The French Connection or To Live and Die in L.A., but it livens up an otherwise limp suspense-thriller.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What I didn\u2019t know at the time was Jade<\/strong> was severely cut by the studio in order to avoid an NC-17. In all, they cut 15 minutes including the more sexually explicit material. Eszterhas must have been used to this by now. I found all this out when I saw the longer Director\u2019s Cut on cable in \u201997. Although still not a good movie, it\u2019s the better of the two versions. It not only includes all the excised sexual scenes, it has additional scenes that clarify the story a little more. It also has a slightly different ending. This version wasn\u2019t available on DVD or Blu-Ray until recently. Well, it\u2019s about time!<\/p>\n

\u00a0David Caruso (NYPD Blue) stars as David Corelli, a San Francisco ADA investigating the bloody murder of a prominent businessman. It\u2019s not your ordinary crime scene. The victim, an art collector, was killed with a ceremonial axe. Also, he was found wearing a fertility mask (masks, a recurring motif). Yeah, this one\u2019s pretty f***ed up.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Corelli comes to find out it\u2019s connected to a mysterious prostitute named Jade. She\u2019s a kinky one, this Jade. She\u2019ll do anything her clients desire. She\u2019s part of a blackmail scheme that the deceased was running. He would tape her having sex with rich, powerful men at his beach house then threaten to expose their deeds unless they pay him off. Among them is the governor (Crenna, First Blood), a corrupt creep who will do anything to keep the public from finding out about his sexual proclivities. Nobody seems to know who Jade is, not that it matters since somebody starts killing off anybody who might possibly know her identity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The primary suspect in the murder is Trina Gavin (Fiorentino, The Last Seduction), a clinical psychologist and former lover of Corelli\u2019s. Her fingerprints were found on the weapon. What we\u2019re looking at here is a textbook case of conflict of interest. In addition to their past relationship, Trina is (unhappily) married to Corelli\u2019s best friend, sleazebag defense lawyer Matt Gavin (Palminteri, A Bronx Tale). When questioned, she has an answer for everything. She\u2019s as cool as a cucumber. Her husband, not so much. He\u2019s offended that Corelli would suspect her for such a heinous crime.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, somebody wants Corelli off the case. At one point, he nearly buys the farm after the brakes on his car are cut. His boss (Tighe, Road House), who doesn\u2019t like him very much, tries to order him off the case to avail. No, Corelli is going to see this through no matter what. He\u2019s determined to find the killer before he\/she strikes again.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jade<\/strong> is just one of the many erotic thrillers that came along in the wake of the success of Basic Instinct. It joins such illustrious titles as Body of Evidence (1993), Sliver (1993) and Color of Night (1994). It ended up being a career ender for Eszterhas who, up until this point, was being paid millions of dollars for his scripts. He reportedly received $2.5M for Jade<\/strong>. After it and Showgirls bombed (within a month of each other), he was no longer in demand. Only two more of his screenplays- Telling Lies in America and An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, both 1997- got made into movies before his luck ran completely out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although Friedkin cites Jade<\/strong> as his favorite of all the films he made (SAY WHAT?!), it\u2019s not exactly a feather in his cap. He did what he could with it, even rewriting most of the script, a point of contention between him and Eszterhas. It still turned out to be an incomprehensible mess with more red herrings than a literary fish market. The pacing is wonky and style definitely outweighs substance. It has a great car chase though. After a potential witness is killed in a hit and run, Corelli goes after the unseen driver in his car. They speed up and down the hills of San Francisco before hitting something of a roadblock, a parade in Chinatown. It slows down both drivers as they attempt to navigate their way through floats and throngs of people. It finally ends with one of the cars going into the bay. BTW, we never find out who\u2019s driving the other car.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Between NYPD Blue and CSI: Miami, Caruso tried to be a movie star. He had acted in feature films before- most notably, An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), First Blood (1982), King of New York (1990), Hudson Hawk (1991) and Mad Dog and Glory (1993)- but he never played the lead. He left NYPD Blue in its second season to pursue success on the big screen. He starred in two films in \u201995, Kiss of Death and Jade<\/strong>, neither of which was well received. He floundered for a few years before finding success on TV again with CSI: Miami. His performance in Jade<\/strong> is both flat and laughable. Not once does he project authority or personality. He doesn\u2019t command the movie; he lets the convoluted plot guide him along to destination unknown.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Palminteri, a fairly ubiquitous actor in the mid 90s with roles in Bullets Over Broadway (1994), The Usual Suspects (1995), Diabolique (1996), Faithful (1996) and Mulholland Falls (1996), nibbles at the scenery playing a caricature combo, sleazy defense attorney and possessive husband. It\u2019s not one of his better performances. He appears to be on autopilot playing a character that may as well have a big flashing neon sign above his head reading \u201cGUILTY!\u201d Of what, I won\u2019t say. That Palminteri isn\u2019t given much to do in the film is a big red flag. He never makes any attempt to hide his character\u2019s true vile (and violent) nature.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Fiorentino is the only intriguing character in Jade<\/strong> even though she\u2019s basically playing the same character as Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Trina is a well-respected figure in her field, but she has a dark kinky side that she hides from the world, Matt in particular. Her extracurricular activities stem from her unhappy marriage to a controlling husband. She cries when she has sex with him. She only finds fulfillment in her secret life where she\u2019s the dominant. In the role, Fiorentino does a good job. She\u2019s naturally talented and seductive. The only thing she can\u2019t do is generate any chemistry with either of the male leads.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The cast also includes Michael Biehn (The Terminator) and Donna Murphy (Star Trek: Insurrection) as detectives on the case, Holt McCallany (Blue Bloods) as the governor\u2019s aide and model Angie Everhart (Bordello of Blood) as a prostitute who might have valuable information. It\u2019s not too bad of a supporting cast.<\/p>\n

\u00a0James Horner\u2019s score for Jade<\/strong> is half-assed and forgettable. He reportedly didn\u2019t really want to do it, but went ahead at Friedkin\u2019s insistence (and a $3M paycheck). His lack of interest shows. What stands out instead is the haunting \u201cThe Mystic\u2019s Dream\u201d by Celtic fusion singer Loreena McKennitt. It\u2019s used to great effect.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jade<\/strong> is almost as laughable as Showgirls. It\u2019s often unintentionally funny with its dopey dialogue and nonsensical storyline mixing sex, power, political corruption, murder and some BS about \u201chysterical blindness\u201d. It really drops the ball when it comes to the big reveal- i.e. the identity of the killer. Friedkin treats it as an afterthought. After the obligatory false ending, a certain character just comes out and admits it. Big deal. Who didn\u2019t see it coming anyway? Jade<\/strong> is absolutely bad, but it\u2019s the fun kind of bad, the kind where you roll your eyes and chuckle as it goes through the motions as a sexy suspense-thriller. I like it.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jade (1995)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Suspense-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes (Director\u2019s Cut)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong sexual content, nudity, violence, bloody images, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: William Friedkin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Joe Eszterhas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: James Horner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Andrzej Bartkowiak\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 13, 1995 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino, Chazz Palminteri, Richard Crenna, Michael Biehn, Donna Murphy, Ken King, Holt McCallany, David Hunt, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures","category-suspense-thrillers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jade-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12219"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12263,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12219\/revisions\/12263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}