Review of Basic Instinct (1992) by Susan J — 17 Mar 2009

I didn't see this when it came out (since I was only 12) so I thought better 2009 than never... but this was the worst romantic comedy I've ever seen... I mean... I didn't laugh once! Where were the kooky relatives? The misunderstandings/miscommunications that lead to laughing and kissing people while covered in cake? Like... there wasn't even a cute dog or a horse or anything. If anything this was really a movie about two people suffering through a pretty high-conflict relationship... goin' THROUGH some stuff.

Ignoring that though, it was actually a pretty smart sort of noir-ish movie and the soundtrack (which was one million violins goin' to TOWN) was sort of intoxicating after awhile in its melodramatic consistency. And dare I say I really enjoyed how it was shot... the camera angles and all the fashion choices, even how they shot all the buildings so they made perfect isometric shapes. Maybe I'm being geeky/stupid but this movie looked GOOD. And the people in it looked PRETTY. It was sort of WELL DONE.

I'm not offended by how they portrayed a female sociopath, either - I actually think Sharon Stone did a good job. I believed she was an empty shell of a heartless wretch. Kudos! To call it misogynistic seems a smidgen bad-spirited... God made all sorts of psychos - let's celebrate them all equally, I say. I support equal screen time opportunities for all sociopaths regardless of gender or psychological weapon-of-choice... cause I'm enlightened like that.

As for all the sex... it's almost a shame that the naked scenes eclipsed the rest of the movie, since it had way more of a plot going for it than most movies these days...

But mostly it's just a shame two people can't fall in love and live happily ever after in this world. If they could have only had a rambunctious dog with a heart of gold to show them a reflection of themselves... maybe it would have ended differently.