'Basic Instinct 2' is too basic

[Holly]

MARCH 31
By JAY BOBBIN

If it's taken 14 years to mount a movie sequel, it had better deliver the goods.

“Basic Instinct 2” both does and doesn't, and how you feel about that will depend on what you're looking for it to deliver. If all you want is the sight of Sharon Stone again handling an ice pick expertly and turning mere men into putty, the second round will do the trick. If you're looking for something that equals the elegant style of the first film, fuhgeddaboudit.

As much as it was a star-making vehicle for Stone, the first “Basic Instinct” had a lot else going for it. Despite its moments of overt violence, Paul Verhoeven directed it with a certain visual grace, and an equally lush score by veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith also helped greatly. “Basic Instinct 2” is strictly a by-the-numbers exercise, even though the story transplants the evidently lethal Catherine Tramell (Stone) to London.

After a rousing opening that lands a car in the Thames River, “Basic Instinct 2” rapidly settles into the basics, with Tramell playing her familiar head games with more males who are usually reduced to stuttering fools in her seductive presence. Of course, there is one who cannot be so easily swayed, thus becoming her chief target: a police psychiatrist played by British actor David Morrissey. In quizzing her about a new wave of murders, he's no Michael Douglas, and that's a problem; not only is it hard to buy him as Tramell's equal, you're actually looking at your watch, trying to gauge when she'll leave her tire tracks all over him.

You're also waiting for “Basic Instinct 2” to rival the classic, much-spoofed interrogation scene from the original movie. That sequence is so iconic, anything less will seem like another parody. The sequel tries it several times, and every one of them is laugh-inducing. In a way, it's not the picture's fault, since a similar scene is so unavoidable that you absolutely expect it. On the other hand, it can't be excused for falling straight into the most obvious trap “Basic Instinct 2” could encounter.

Stone vamps it up just as she's expected to, and she lands right on the line of caricature. Again, that's only partially her fault: In this case very specifically, she needs filmmakers who know when to tell her to draw back a bit, and they just aren't present. Thus, we get the perfect stereotype of what Daryl Hall and John Oates immortalized in song as a “man-eater.”

That “Basic Instinct 2” didn't come to be sooner can be attributed to a string of lawsuits and a parade of male co-stars who didn't work out for one reason or another. That it finally has arrived isn't much reason for celebrating, unless you've really been aching for the past decade-and-a-half to see Sharon Stone turn more men into human yo-yos.

If you have, don't waste a second diving in. If you haven't, don't waste a second on this movie. Rent or buy the tons-better original on DVD instead.

(Rated R)

[isiahthomas]

I was thinking about seeing this but i'm gonna wait for it to come to video. Sharon Stone wants to do a 3rd Basic Instinct from what i've heard and she wants to direct it. Nobody is interested in seeing a 3rd Basic Instinct hahahahahahahahahaha. You see what the recent sequel did at the box office LOL. I do wanna see Sharon naked though in the sequel. From the reviews i've read about it, it says she gets naked in the movie. Her body is hot.

[isiahthomas]

Unrated version of Basic Instinct 2 comes out tomorrow on video. I will be renting it.

[SBTB Geek]

I was planning on renting it, but the local entertainment reporter just bashed the hell out of it, and she's usually so quiet, polite, it's so hard for her to give a bad review.

This must be terrible.

[isiahthomas]

I never listen to what movie critics say. I wanna see the movie because i wanna see if Sharon Stone gets naked LOL. She's a very sexy woman.