Review of Basic Instinct 2 (2006) by Frankie P — 17 Dec 2010

Apparently "basic instint2" is far from its ancestor, a legend built by the trio of michael douglas, paul verhoeven and of course sharon stone. but in a way, it is slightly underrated. most people overlook one thing: it is a campy parody of the original basic instinct despite campiness is not what ambitious sharon stone expects from her cinematic comeback.

The story goes like this: catherine trammel (stone) is the criminal novelist who lives on verge of adrenal stimulations of blood-thirsty promiscuity. now she is accused of intentionally drowning a black sportsman inside the car while they're having sex. to rinse off her suspicious spot, she's got to consult a psychiatrist for her mental diagnosis. but now she is entrapping her psychiatrist into a snare of murders and jealousy. spoiler: she maliciously drives him into schizod insanity.

First of all, none of the characters in "basic instint 2" are realistic in flesh and blood, the most contrived charater is undoubtedly stone's catherine trammel who could survive from a high-speed automobile crash while she is having orgasm with a stoned black sportsman. and her mere comment to the police interrogation would be "oh! i'm so traumatized that i'm afraid I can't cum!" which is also an outrageous one-liner with the almighty witch attitude. second of all, the psychiatrist played by david morrissey is wimpish and easy to manipulate. let's put it this way, morrissey is no volcanically masculine michael douglas (when he was young) to emulate a burgeoning fresh-faced sharon stone (again, when she was young!) what's the fun to watch a gender guerilla when you're already aware who's gonna win? in the original, you cannot help but wonder if the dubious hard-boiled copper could tame this snobbish tramp in the end, and their sex looks thrilling with titilating animosity. but now morrissey's psychiatrist is a masturbator who peeks at trammel's picture while he's having intercourse. laughable? I guess so.

It is a dreadfully tiresome caricature of feminism, and it also reflects men's misogynism toward the self-conceited blonde who is mannishly castrative, destined to scatter doom upon men. and her victim is also the grotesque of such fatal attractions, broadcasting the cliche that the evil blonde woman is not to be trusted.

In the original, stone flashes her crotch for a second while her hair is combed behind with lofty poise under a white robe, lighting off a cigarette. that is a stylistically cool image of dominatrix. undeniably verhoeven chooses style over substance, but at least it's a sheer icy-cold style with higher class. now in its inferior sequel, stone's wardrobe seems like being inspired by samatha in "sex and the city", the urbanite sex-hungry tigress looks with the sluttish bang despite stone still remains physically attractive in her middle age. but the sexuality is rendered tastelessly blatant without a bit of subtlety that you could sense while she opens her crotch (again!) behind the chair, uttering crass lines like I know you wanna do me, and I may wanna do you, too.

Eventually "basic instinct 2" also exploits the frequently devised plot gimmick in contemporary cinema when scriptors run out of ideas to write: schizophreniac. ignore its obivious flaws and appreciate them as the camp, "basic instinct 2" would be an entertaining trash novel you read to kill time in the airport, a classic CAMP.