This film will draw in a lot of people looking for a sexy murder-mystery thriller. Instead, Basic Instinct 2 delivers a very poor imitation of the original from 14 years ago.
Set in London, author Catherine Tramell survives her car crashing into the water, but her male companion dies in the process, apparently drugged earlier that evening to be slow, sluggish and have his lungs fail. In order to figure out if she's a danger to herself or the public, the court appoints a psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Glass (David Morrissey) to evaluate her. Soon after, people around him begin to drop like flies. There are signs that point to Tramell as the killer but the victims also appear to be people the psychiatrist could have killed, for his own personal reasons.
You know the film is about to fall apart when the psychiatrist declares that he doesn't socialize with his patients. Surprise, surprise, guess who breaks his own rule not too long after? Is there anyone, man or woman, who can resist her? Apparently, not.
Sharon Stone (47) was actually really good as the rich, playgirl author, who never seems to be living in the real world. She appears to be somewhat loopy and carefree, never serious for even a second, confident that she is the ruler of her existence. She gets what she wants and people are magnetically seduced by her. Still, we don't get to know her character very much. We don't get inside her head except when we find out in court what Dr. Glass believes about her personality flaws. She's also given some pretty stupid dialogue.
David Morrissey isn't as watchable as Michael Douglas, cop Nick Curran, from the first film. The electricity between them just isn't there. I wonder how much better it could have been with Clive Owen instead, whose screen presence is much stronger. He isn't helped, however, by the film's weakly executed story.
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Article comments
1 - HB
Trniman's review although mostly accurate, is way too kind! This is by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my entire life. I can not help but feel sorry for Sharon Stone and what appears to be the beginning of the end of her big screen career. The script, a cheap imitation of the first, with zero suspense, must have been rushed to complete, perhaps during a bathroom break!
2 - Nik
I hear Stone hardly even gets naked, which, not to be too crude, was really 90% of the appeal of the first one.
3 - Triniman
Something tells me the director's cut will be a big seller, for those looking for more of Ms. Stone naked.