GLORIA was bashed from here to Hoboken and back when it came in & flamed out in the winter of 1999. Critics who were fans of the 1980 original (written & directed by John Cassavetes, starring Gena Rowlands) ripped it for the temerity to even try a remake, and the bitchy brigade that loves to snipe from the shadows weren’t inclined to ever give the new leading lady, Sharon Stone, any semblance of a fair shake. At $30,000,000 costing over seven times as much as the earlier escapade, it grossed even less—$4,167,000 domestic (155th place–ouch!) and a piddly $800,000 abroad. Stone isn’t bad at all, in fact she’s feisty, funny and fittingly furious, and this version has much better casting in most of the other roles than the Cassavetes flick. Blame for being less than the sum of its parts rests mainly on an ace director who made one of his occasional flubs, Sidney Lumet.

“Sean, if you were any dumber, I’d have to water you.”

Released from three years in prison down in Florida, standup broad ‘Gloria Swenson’ (Stone, 40 and fine) heads back to New York City to sever ties with cheesy gangland boyfriend ‘Kevin’ (Jeremy Northam makes a charisma-zip adversary) who left her stewing in stir and ripped off her savings, even though she took the fall to protect him. Pissed and desperate, Gloroa grabs guns and ready cash from Kevin and his crew, and holds them at bay long enough to split into the sprawl of the city. In tow with her is a seven-year old kid, ‘Nicky Nunez’, whose family had been wiped out by Kevin’s crew over an incriminating disc held by the boy’s accountant father.

The screenplay by actor-turned-writer/director Steve Antin adds some backstory padding and goes into effing overkill with the profanity department. Untried newby Jean-Luke Figueroa, 6, is no budding Pacino but at least he’s not as molar-grating as the woeful child foisted into the first movie. In his final feature film, George C. Scott appears as Kevin’s boss and Gloria’s bygone flame. Seventy and looking unwell, Scott passed away eight months after the show came out. Lumet adds brief cameos from dish-it-out vets Cathy Moriarty and Bonnie Bedelia. In the other small parts there is good work from Bobby Cannavale, Mike Starr (always welcome), Barry McEvoy, Tony DiBenedetto, Sarita Choudhury and Miriam Colon.

But Lumet repeatedly keeps the camera at such a cold remove that the actors are at an emotional disadvantage, and apart from an okay car chase the few action sequences lack tension and flair. He has A-grade talent doing C+ work, in the wan music score from Howard Shore and the dull cinematography from David Watkin. Though latent disguised sexism from reviewers and open hostility from the mean cheerleaders contingent had poster target Stone drawing all the flack (she did have a bad habit of picking the wrong scripts) the ultimate responsibility for this being a not terrible but resolutely mediocre remake rested with a hazy screenplay and oddly lazy direction. 108 minutes.