Release Date: March 31, 2006
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexuality, nudity, violence, language and some drug content
Directed by: Michael Caton-Jones
Starring: Sharon Stone, David Morrissey, Charlotte Rampling, David Thewlis, Stan Collymore, Andre Schneider
Plot:
After re-locating from San Francisco to London, best-selling crime novelist Catherine Trammell once again finds herself on the wrong side of the law. Dr. Michael Glass, a respected London criminal psychiatrist, is brought in by Scotland Yard detective Roy Washburn to perform a psychiatrist profile and evaluation of Tramell following the mysterious death of a top sports star. Physically drawn to Tramell and mentally intrigued by her, Glass, against the advice of his mentor, Dr. Milena Gardosh, is quickly sucked into her web of lies and seduction. The professional boundaries between Glass and Tramell are obliterated when she uncovers his basic instincts. A deadly battle of wits ensues, climaxing as Glass faces a choice that will change both their lives forever.
Review:
Who would have guessed it, some fourteen years later, Sharon Stone returns as Novelist Catherine Tramell. When the original Basic Instinct was released, it was a hit. It featured a thirty four year old Sharon Stone revealing her body and engaging in multiple sex scenes. Now, a forty eight year old Sharon Stone still looks good, but delivers a laughable and ultimately bland performance. Not just Stone, but the rest of the cast delivers performances that would be acceptable in teenage horror films, but not here.
Not surprisingly, Michael Douglas is not in this film and good for him. He just stepped away from a major disaster. Instead, in his position is actor David Morrissey who plays a psychiatrist by the name of Dr. Michael Glass. David Morrissey is incredibly dull in this film and his performance almost seems like he didn't even want to get involved with this project.
Basic Instinct 2 begins with a man that was involved in sex with Tramell and then of course is killed. Glass is then set to interrogate Tramell in his office and the seductive game by Tramell begins. The dialogue that comes out of both of their mouths is terrible. At times, its irrelevant to the story and does not roll along smoothly. This is a terribly written film where some of the dialogue is even out of place or unintentionally laughable. The honors of the script goes to Leora Barish and Henry Bean.
Both of the co-writers for Basic Instinct 2 have no memorable scripts in the past and heres another to add to their collection. This film, however, is not forgettable, because its a disaster in what should be professionals in writing and acting. Even attaching Michael Caton-Jones as the director one would imagine that Basic Instinct 2 could be average or even a passable film, but it is far below that and Jones here could not hold very little interest even if he tried. This film goes up and down as far as pacing until it hits its abysmal and completely unnecessary conclusion.
Twists and turns are fine when they are done to be believable and accurate. With the twist in Basic Instinct 2, it takes away everything that made up the character Tramell and it makes the film look worse than it initially could have been. This film doesn't know what it wanted to be, its silly, never involving and its one of the examples of what not to do with filmmaking. Everything we see in the first two thirds of Basic Instinct 2 does not tie up with its final third.
Basic Instinct 2 is so horrible, it makes the original look like a masterpiece. While I found the original to be average, it was still interesting and a decently written film. This is not whats to say about the utter disaster in the sequel. There is bad acting, bad writing, bad directing and one of the worst conclusions that I have seen in a long time. Basic Instinct 2 is never smart or thrilling like it should have been. This is a film that should be avoided at all costs and one has to also wonder, why didn't this just go straight to video?
