Saturday, April 23, 2022

Presumed Innocent (1990)







Prosecutor Rusty Sabich investigates the death of his colleague Carolyn Polhemus.  After his affair with her is revealed, he finds himself on trial.  The charges are eventually dismissed.  At home, Rusty finds the murder weapon in the basement, where his wife Barbara reveals she killed Carolyn.  Rusty takes it to the grave and Carolyn's murder remains unsolved as Rusty couldn't bare his son growing up with out a mother.

Presumed Innocent was based on the 1987 novel by Scott Turow.  A studio bidding war took place a year before Presumed Innocent was published.  The film was a critical and commercial success.  Bonnie Bedelia, best known as Holly Genrero McClaine from Die Hard (1988) and Die Hard 2 (1990) (which was released three weeks before Presumed Innocent), gives a chilling performance as Harrison Ford's emotionally unbalanced wife.  


Presumed Innocent was filmed in Newark and Allendale, NJ and Tarrytown and New York, NY


Location: The Sabich House
Address: 125 E Orchard Street, Allendale, NJ











Location: The Elementary School
Address: 100 Brookside Avenue, Allendale, NJ

Brookside Middle School













Location: The Courthouse
Address: 1 Bowling Green, New York, NY







This was also The Museum of Modern Art in Ghostbusters 2 (1989).



Location: The Polhemus House
Address: 293 Benedict Avenue, Tarrytown, NY


The Hackley School







Locations Visited: December 2020



Saturday, April 16, 2022

American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2018)






Fashion designer Gianni Versace, or Versayce if you're a certain Vegas stripper, was gunned down outside his Miami home on July 15, 1997 by Andrew Cunanan.  Versace was his fifth victim over a number of months.  Cunanan's crime spree spread from Minneapolis to Illinois to New Jersey to Miami before he took his own life on a houseboat.  He claimed to have met Versace at a San Fransisco club in 1990, but his family believe they hadn't met.   

Glee's Darren Criss showed some range in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace and rightfully earned him an Emmy Award.  It was produced by FX's go-to guy Ryan Murphy, who can tell a noncoherent like no other.  The mini-series received positive reviews but was also criticized for fictionalizing and sensationalizing certain events.


American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace was filmed in Miami Beach, FL, New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA


Location: Gianni Versace's House
Address: 1116 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, FL





























Location: The News Cafe
Address: 800 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, FL





















Location: Normandy Plaza
Address: 7436 Ocean Terrace, Miami Beach, FL

Ocean Surf Hotel








Location: Versace Store
Address: 647 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY














Locations Visited: December 2020, March 2021



Saturday, April 9, 2022

Sliver (1993)






Carly Norris moves into an exclusive Manhattan skyscraper with a sordid past.  She bares a striking resemblance to a woman who fell to her death.  To boot, some pervert is watching all the tenants in the building from a high tech man cave.  Carly quickly uncrosses her legs for Zeke, who turns out to own the building and is revealed to be a major voyeur.  It turns out tenant Jack Landsford was the one who pushed Naomi Singer off a balcony in a crime of passion.  After disposing of him with a gun, Carly shoots up Zeke's surveillance room before telling him to get a life.

Sexpot Sharon Stone follows up Basic Instinct with this basic turd.  I could buy her working for Masters and Johnson, but Simon & Schuster?  Battles with the MPAA called for reshoots, which caused the killer's identity to change.  The film almost recouped its budget with the US gross with the movie performing a bit better overseas.  There is one success story - reggae pop band UB40 saw the biggest hit of their career with a cover of Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling In Love With You.  It spent seven weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and was inescapable during the summer of 1993.  


Sliver was filmed in New York, NY


Location: The Sliver Building 
Address: 211 Madison Avenue, New York, NY

In the movie, the building's address is 113 E 38th Street, which is at Park Avenue.  In reality, it is located on Madison Avenue between 35th & 36th Street, known as Morgan Court.  At the very beginning of the film, Carly is seen entering the building at 30 E 37th Street between Madison and Park.  That building has since been torn down.  Because of Covid, I was not able to get access past the entrance of Morgan Court to the courtyard or where you can get a shot of the balconies, so no matching shots unfortunately...























Location: Carly Jogs
Address: Central Park - Reservoir Bridge, W 94th Street, New York, NY







Location: The Electronics Store
Address: 429 5th Avenue, New York, NY











Locations Visited: December 2020