Gloria

This remake of John Cassavetes' 1980 odd-couple chase thriller is an unremarkable balls-up, nothwithstanding the creditable names involved - Sharon Stone taking Gena Rowlands' lead, Sidney Lumet directing. The press notes finger screenwriter Steven Antin for the fall, but in fact the blame lies fairly evenly. It was presumably Antin's decision to turn Cassavetes' preference for action over motivation on its head, filling out Gloria's relationship with the gangsters on her tail, having her newly paroled after doing time for her no-account mobster boyfriend (Northam) - all of which, ironically, means her link-up with the orphaned kid (Figueroa) is more tenuous than before - while the present-tense drama trots along without ever breaking into a sweat. On the upside, Stone isn't embarrassed by her predecessor's blistering example; it's a streetsmart turn with nothing to connect to. And George C Scott shows us what we're missing as the (now) rascally mob boss, sly bon mots dripping from his tongue as if he'd had decent lines written just for himself.