Joe Eszterhas' erotic thrillers are like cinematic junk food: not nutritious, but tasty. "Sliver" plays almost like a gender-reversed "Basic Instinct", but lightning doesn't strike twice: the sex scenes are unremarkable (except maybe for the fact that you see more nudity from William Baldwin than from Sharon Stone in them), and there is nowhere near the same tension (or action). On the other hand, Eszterhas' subplot about the ethics of voyeurism and about "real life" as the ultimate soap opera was prophetic in the pre-"Big Brother" era. Baldwin's poor acting is a detriment, but Stone is very good in a role far removed from Catherine Tremell; nice, funny little turn by Colleen Camp as her colleague. **1/2 out of 4.
Review of Sliver
