At first we see a couple having rough passionate sex. The female slowly takes a white, silk scarf and ties her lover to the bed, as they both meet a climax; she grabs an ice pick and brutally stabs him twelve times….
Detective Nick Curran is a cop on the edge. Years ago he was part of a local blood bath which resulted in two tourists being shot dead. Now he is plagued by alcohol and drug addiction and is on the brink of losing his job. He is the man who has to find the killer, and all the clues are pointing one way, Catherine Tramell, the murder victim’s long time girlfriend, whom he was seen leaving a club with on the night of his death.
Catherine is a sexy blonde vixen, with a degree in psychology and two successful novels under her belt. You see all her stories are about death and all her fictional murders have a nasty habit of coming true. Will Catherine use her book as an alibi? After all what author would commit the very crime they made up? Or is someone trying to frame her for something that she didn’t do?
Nick is instantly attracted to Catherine the minute they meet. There is a recognizable spark and they drink each others worries and insecurities in. She shoves his addictions in his face and he is well prepared to play games with her. Our detective tries to keep away from the possible murderer but he can’t….
Roxie
is Catherine’s lover, she is beautiful and tough. She is filled with jealousy and anger when she sees Nick, but are her emotions strong enough for her to kill him? One of the most worrying things though is that Catherine seems to know everything about her new lover. She knows that his ex wife killed herself and all his past history. Where did she get all this information? Are some of his colleagues conspiring against him?
All the time Catherine is working on her new novel, about a rough detective who falls for the wrong girl and ends up in a grizzly confrontation in which he comes out of worse. Will this be another case of life imitating art, or is it just fiction? Nick quickly finds himself caught up in a web of past histories, stolen identities, passion, love, violence, sex and cruelty.
Who is the killer? Will Nick be able to escape this dreadful mind game unscathed? Will his passion for Catherine cloud his judgment? You will have to rent or buy Basic Instinct to find out won’t you.
Michael Douglas did the right thing by playing with his character’s aggressive side, I liked the way that he instantly could change from good to bad, which made the audience scared of him straight away which established a wonderful uneasiness. I am not always a massive fan of his, but I am starting to like his style more and more. I had the pleasure of seeing him in Wonderboys and thought his performance in that was wonderful, and this is a good one too. It is an intelligent performance with a lot of energy injected into it and quiet confidence.
The role of Catherine Tramell is the one that made Sharon Stone. She oozes irresistible evilness and sex appeal. She perfectly embodies her character and plays off Douglas well. She is brilliant, sexy and ruthless and watching her I always felt on the edge of my seat for fear that she could do anything at any moment. It is a good performance, but she slightly fails when the character needs a little bit more emotional depth. I enjoyed her slinky sex appeal and violent aggression, I think she truly made the role her own. Plus we can’t forget ‘That Scene’ in which I think she is very brave.
I think that most of Paul Verhoeven films are utterly ridiculous and I think he has little to no vision at the best of times. Hello Showgirls and Starship Troopers! But this is the best movie I have seen him direct, but that has nothing to do with him. He doesn’t put any heart into the film tries his hardest to stop any pace it has and just relies on sex scene’s to keep the viewers happy. Silly man who has made his name from making naffy movies.
I think this film is a lot of fun, you cant really beat it for a good flick to watch with friends, as you will be left guessing to whom the actual murder is and what motive they had. It is steamy enough to keep people watching and has a great sense of fun.
Joe Eszterhas is credited for the script. Which is sexy, stylish and hip, but not routed in reality and a bit silly. Not that I didn’t think it was clever, I just thought that he took the whole idea a little over the top and made an ending which was just screaming out for a sequel. It is fairly poignant, and has a good amount of twists. It also allows there to be tension, but I have to say I saw the ending coming a mile away and had told my partner what was going to happen from the middle of the film.
In terms of production values Basic Instinct is quite average. There are nice locations and houses and cars, but nothing new or particularly inspiring. Sharon Stone does look stunning all the way through the movie though and some of the club scene’s are effective.
Some people will be put off by the amount of sex and violence involved in Basic Instinct, I can honestly say though that it is pivotal to the plot and not gross or over done. As for the violence the beginning scene is quite shocking, but everything that follows is fairly tame. There is a lot of swearing as well. Overall I think that Basic Instinct is quite a clever little thriller, with great performances from the two leads and a fairly intelligent script. The direction let it down, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a cool film about sexual obsession, desire, violence and passion.
You Can Buy Basic Instinct Special Edition from
Play.com – DVD for 6.99 Tesco Entertainment 16.99 BLAH DVD 14.99
You Can Buy The Original From
Amazon.co.uk 5.97 ASIN: B0000649GH
Special Features: Audio Commentary, Making Of Documentary, Cleaning Up Basic Instinct And Comparison Of The TV Version To The Theatrical Version Featurette, Photo Gallery, Storyboard Comparisons, Theatrical Trailer
Thanks Everyone for reading and rating Best Wishes : ) Jay
Pictures of Basic Instinct (DVD)
Poisonous
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
I really enjoyed this when I watched it for the first time when I was about 15 and thought I was terribly grown up but, saw it lately and it seemed really ancient. Pip x
Feb 27th, 2005
very helpful by (100%):
