Review of Basic Instinct 2 (2006) by James S — 25 Dec 2010

Of all the movies that people weren't crying out for sequels to, Basic Instinct must be somewhere near the top of the list, especially in 2006 now that Sharon Stone could easily be somebody's Gran.

It's not even so much a sequel as a remake, swapping San Francisco for London and Michael Douglas's cop for David Morrissey's psycho-analyst. Stone reprises her role as the trashy novelist Catherine Tramell who may be a psycho killer or may just be really good in bed. This time it's Morrissey who gets to take her class of sex and death 101.

Like the original, the plot is pure pulp mystery only not quite as well thought out. However Morrissey is definitely no Michael Douglas and just seems, well, a little too British to be getting mixed up in all these sort of shenanigans. Stone is adequate in the role which made her career. She doesn't flash as much flesh in this movie, in fact, the sexual content of the film is considerably toned down from the original, presumably they were worried that Sharon may break a hip or something.

David Thewlis looks drunk throughout the whole film and a host of BBC drama regulars pop up here and there, being British and stiff. Joe Ezterhas at least wrote a commendable script for the original and had some great dialogue. Here we're left with tedious exchanges such as "Am I right?", "Would it bother you if I was?", "Would it bother you if I wasn't?". Everyone answers a question with another freakin question!!!

The whole film does border on the ludicrous but yet it doesn't make you want to immediately turn it off, there is at least enough intrigue to keep the audience interested until the end. The climax however is even more ambiguous than in the original. Did she do it?, did he do it?, did the other bloke do it? did Michael Douglas do it? Do we even care?