Film review - Basic Instinct 2 (18) (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Film review - Basic Instinct 2 (18)

8:55am Thursday 30th March 2006

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SEX sells, as the original Basic Instinct proved only too well in 1992, grossing more than 350 million dollars.

Paul Verhoeven's glossy erotic thriller, penned by Joe Eszterhas, was exploitative and lurid, lead actress Sharon Stone famously claimed that the director tricked her into removing her underwear for the infamous interrogation scene.

With the exception of an Oscar nominated turn in Martin Scorsese's Casino and a lovely supporting performance in The Mighty, Stone lost her way on the road to stardom in a series of instantly forgettable pictures.

Inevitably, the 48-year-old actress attempts to propel her star back into the ascendancy by reprising her role as sexually voracious, best-selling crime novelist Catherine Tramell.

Basic Instinct 2 follows the template of the original film, bump for grind, contriving an overblown murder mystery with lashings of kinky sex and nudity, plus a couple of hairpin twists. She slinks through every frame, huskily trotting out the salty double entendres and shedding her figure-hugging apparel with alarming regularity.

There's a distinct lack of eroticism in the sequel, which shifts the action from San Francisco to London, where Tramell finds herself under investigation for the murder of a Premiership football star, played by Stan Collymore.

Scotland Yard detective David Thewlis invites brilliant psychiatrist David Morrissey to evaluate the bisexual novelist. The more time the medic spends with his sexy patient, the deeper he is drawn into her deadly game of deceit, desire and betrayal.

Meanwhile he has to fend off the unwanted intrusion of journalist Hugh Dancy, who is currently dating the doctor's ex-wife, Indira Varma. The reporter is asking uncomfortable questions about the psychiatrist's past, while pursuing Tramell for an exclusive interview.

Ignoring advice, Morrissey succumbs to his urges, allowing Stone to probe the darkest recesses of his sexual desire. And probe she most certainly does.

After an amusing and preposterous opening sequence, featuring a spot of impromptu automobile sex, Basic Instinct 2 settles into a rhythm (so to speak), strutting from frenetic bonking to bloodshed. Sadly Stone and Morrissey share no palpable screen chemistry.

Surely Sharon is getting on a bit for this kind of stuff now?

Basic Instinct 2 (18): thriller, directed by Michael Caton-Jones. Running time: 113 minutes.

Gazette rating: ***

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