Basic Instinct Movie
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Storyline
TAGLINES
A brutal murder. A brilliant killer. A cop who can't resist the danger.
Flesh seduces. Passion kills.
A former rockstar Johnny Boz is brutally killed during sex , and the case is assigned to the Detective Nick Curran of the SFPD . During the investigation , Nick meets Catherine Tramell , a crime novelist who was Boz's girlfriend when he died . Catherine proves to be a very clever and manipulative woman , and though Nick is more or less convinced that she murdered Boz , he is unable to find any evidence . Later , when Nilsen , Nick's rival in the police is killed , Nick suspects of Catherine's involvement in it . He then starts to play a dangerous lust-filled mind game with Catherine to nail her , but as their relationship progresses , the body count rises and contradicting evidences force Nick to start questioning his own suspicions about Catherine's guilt .
| Jeanne Tripplehorn | Dr. Beth Garner |
| Sharon Stone | Catherine Tramell |
| Michael Douglas | Det. Nick Curran |
| Stephen Tobolowsky | Dr. Lamott |
| George Dzundza | Gus Moran |
| Denis Arndt | Lt. Philip Walker |
| Leilani Sarelle | Roxy |
| Bruce A. Young | Andrews |
| Chelcie Ross | Capt. Talcott |
| Dorothy Malone | Hazel Dobkins |
| Wayne Knight | John Correli |
| Daniel von Bargen | Lt. Marty Nilsen |
| Benjamin Mouton | Harrigan |
| Jack McGee | Sheriff |
| Bill Cable | Johnny Boz |
| Paul Verhoeven |
6.80 out of 10 (34968 votes)
Visitor Reviews
An strong erotic thriller with suspense and plenty of black comedy.
posted on 18 Aug 2009An San Francisco police detective (Two Time Oscar-Winner:Michael Douglas) investigates the murder of a Ex-Rock Singer. The Suspect is an attractive, smart, bi-sexual novelist by the name of Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone). The Detective finds himself seduced "repeartedly" by her.Directed by Paul Verhoeven (Hallow Man, Showgirls, Starship Troopers) made an well done intense/erotic/suspense-thriller with an fine screenplay by Joe Eszterhas (Flashdance, Jade, Silver). Stone is the real highlight in this film. This film was also Oscar-Nominated for Best Film Editing and Best Original Score by Oscar-Winner:Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen, Planet of the Apes, Total Recall). This was one of the most successful films of 1992 and it becomes an controversial classic over the years.The original DVD has an good non-anamorphic Widescreen (2.20:1) transfer (Also in Pan & Scan) and an great, digitally remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound.The latest DVD from Artisan is digitally remastered in the picture quality and sound. The DVD also has two commentary tracks. Commentary One is by the director and cinematographer:Jan de Bont (The Haunted "1999", Speed, Twister). The second commentary track is by film critic:Camille Pigila. DVD also has behind the scenes featurettes, alternative scenes for T.V., hidden features and more. Do not miss this suspenseful, strong, guilty-pleasure film. Followed by a silly soap-opera sequel. Panavision. (****/*****).
Basic Instinct
posted on 12 Aug 2009Review in short: this movie is all about sex. The first hour we're watching Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone to start having sex and after one hour they have sex and after that to the end we're just watching them having sex all the time. Basic Instinct was really full of controversy in 1992 with some explicit sex scenes and disturbing images of animal behavior by the man and woman, but today this movie is getting really really old. Times are changing... overall I didn't like the movie, too much sex and nothing more than that; no crime, no drama, no emotions just pure sex.Empty story about how dangerous can sex be.
The most sexy/thriller movie of all-time. I must just say oh yeah about Sharon Stone and her many scenes.
posted on 09 Aug 2009It has almost been a decade since the release of Basic Instinct and still the movie community continues to be at a buzz about it. Occasionally Basic Instinct receives airings on cable. If you have seen this movie then you know it was responsible for making Sharon Stone who she is today. The scene when Sharon spreads her legs while being questioned is my favorite I just say oh yeah. The scenes of passion with Michael Douglas are so hot and steamy that you are kept well in suspense during the entire movie. Basic Instinct is certainly a movie that will go down in history for the sexy feelings it inspired. I have heard that in 2002 we all will be treated to Basic Instinct 2, I hope so it would make me and millions of others happy, I would love to once again see the sexy Sharon Stone this way.
Problematic but Intelligent thriller about the the relationship between audience and cinema
posted on 22 Jul 2009Basic Instinct was an entry into the neo-noir genre of the 90's (The Last Seduction, Fatal Attraction etc ) that tried to update 40's/50's American film noir as well as bringing in elements of Hitchcock's Vertigo. On this level Basic Instinct is a brilliant conveyor of noir themes that portrays an unstable detective out of control in an intricate unfathomable plot with a femme fatale, Hollywood mansions, dark shadowy rooms, smart cynical dialogue and smoking. It is also flawed on this level with its unnatural characterisation. However, the artificiality of the plot, genre, characterisations and the look creates a distance between the viewer and the film. When you take this into account along with the constant references to watching in the film, outlined below, the film moves to a different level. It is no longer about whether Catherine Tramell is the killer but is more about the spectatorial process of watching a (Hollywood) film.For example, Catherine Tramell(Sharon Stone) is a writer whose murder plots exactly follow the murders that occur in the film. Her coolness and openness about these killings gives her a sense of being in control of Nick Curran's(Michael Douglas) destiny. In this way, she is like cinema itself spinning a predetermined plot line that the audience represented by Douglas just follows.Throughout the film, the detective seems resigned to his lack of control, totally in awe of Catherine Tramell ready to go along with her. This is similar to the way the audience submits itself inside the cinema to the control that the screen exerts. However just as we do, Curran attempts to predetermine the plot with his own expectations. He tells Tramell that he has his own idea how it will end - "The cop survives" - The final question of "What do we do now, Nick?" is met with "F*** like minxes, raise rug rats, live happily ever after." another idealistic expectation of the cinema audience. However the ambiguous final shot reminds us that Douglas/the audience may not get the ending he wants - only cinema decides whether that ice pick under the bed will be used.Another parallel with the cinema experience is the way Nick Curran seems to identify with Tramell. At the start he is a recovered smoker and drinker and Tramell gets him to start again. Over the course of the film his attraction to Tramell's character makes him take on more and more of her traits - aggressive sexuality, risk taking, use of her dialogue and more and more leaps into fantasy. He is almost merging with her and this is reflected in his interrogation scene being shot identically to Tramell's earlier one. Again this development mirrors the way cinema audiences identify with the film narrative. The Hollywood ideal is that the viewer leaves his/her outside of the cinema in order to temporarily identify with the fantasy characters on screen.Another main aspect of the cinema experience touched on here is the voyeuristic process of watching itself. Curran is constantly in a spectatorial position. It is most obvious where he watches Tramell through a window that looks like a cinema screen itself. Another scene where he is trying to find out about Tramell on a computer sees him reprimanded by a colleague for "jacking off to the screen". This likens Douglas to an audience member watching the film in a similarly voyeuristic way. This is the reason why Hitchcock is such a strong influence on this film - these are classic Hitchcockian themes.My final comparison is the bi-directional aspect of cinema touched on in the film. The interrogation scene where Tramell manipulates the audience of detectives is the only time where Tramell has point of view, reminding us that cinema watches and manipulates us as well. Also the fact that throughout Tramell knows so much about Detective Curran's past is a similar device. Tramell uses what she knows about Curran to make her murder work, just as Hollywood exploits what it knows about our desires of movies in order to sell us their product. (And those desires may have been partly contrived by Hollywood).The female murderers (who look like old film stars) that Tramell hangs around with represent other archetypal Hollywood stories - maybe these could have been other films that Nick Curran watched before when he took up smoking before.Is it a coincidence that the words "cinema theatre" can be found in the name Catherine Tramell and the word "audience" can be found in "Detective Nick Curran" ? Probably.
Michael Douglas is the luckiest guy.
posted on 19 Jul 2009"Basic Instinct"'s biggest problem is the way it was criticized by the critics. Everybody thinks it's just some dumb sex thriller in which Sharon Stone has sex with Michael Douglas. Yes, there is a lot of sex in this movie but, that's not all there is to it. There is a good murder mystery at the same time. People are very prejudice when they haven't even seen it.
Well maybe you should let go of your prejudice and give "Basic Instinct" a try. The movie starts off fast. A famous retired rock-and-roll star called Johnny Boz is murdered and the principal suspect is his girlfriend, Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone). The detective investigating this case is Nick Curren (Michael Douglas) and his sidekick and at the same time best friend Gus (George Dzundza). Along the way, the two detectives discover a lot about Catherine and her past. For one thing, she inherited 110 million dollars when her parents were killed in a boating "accident". She is also a writer and appeared to have written a book about a retired rock-and-roll star who gets murdered by his girlfriend and is writing another one about a detective getting killed by his girlfriend and Douglas is the main character for this book. There is much more to the movie than what I have written in this summary but I figured that if you were going to watch the movie you wouldn't want to know too much. Michael Douglas gives a strong performance and Sharon Stone dominates the screen with dangerously seducing personality. After watching this, it isn't hard to believe she won those prizes at the Blockbuster entertainment awards for best actress as well as most desirable female of 1992.
I felt Basic Instinct was heart-gripping, suspenseful, and a seat tipper.
posted on 07 Jul 2009Basic Instinct kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen next. I don't recall ever seeing a movie which made me want to see it again and again as much as this one did. I still don't understand what actually transpired at the beginning, but that was the beauty of the film. Sharon Stone presented her role in such a way as to keep me wondering what the character was really planning or if she was planning anything at all.
Steamy, modern noir movie
posted on 04 Jul 2009Alot of people will tell you that film noir is dead. That they don't - nay, can't - make it anymore because films are made in color. Well, film noir still exists today. There are films that contain the elements of noir. Film noir isn't just defined by black & white, despite the fact that it means "dark film". Plenty of noir has been done in color: "Jade", also by "Basic" screenwriter Joe Ezsterhas; "Palmetto", a brilliant, horribly-underrated film that is to me THE definition of modern noir; and this film, "Basic Instinct". With this, it of course contains the femme fatale of Catherine Tremell, played like a sly snake expertly by Sharon Stone. Michael Douglas is the cop who gets in too far and ends up risking himself and his life for the woman he falls in love with, despite the fact that she's within all plausiblity guilty of the crimes he's investigating. But he already knows it. Come on! He has to. That's part of what excites him about Catherine - her daring. And she knows it, too. So one could say that "Basic Instinct" is a great example of subtlety between characters and showing how they feel each other out, like cat and mouse, waiting for the other to crack first. Instead the two take that energy and use it for great sex. The sex scenes in this film are wonderfully shot and very, very necessary. People say that all nudity is gratuitous. Alot of nudity is; but some isn't. Some nudity is used expertly. Here it is, as it is in "Jade". In "Jade" the nudity is undeniably a part of the film's plot and is needed to heighten the sense of panic felt by certain characters in the story. Here, in "Basic", it's used to create the intoxicating feel of falling absolutely in lust and desire over a predator, a spider, if you will, such as Catherine Tremell. "Basic Instinct" is a script that has been studied and talked about in film classes, and I have a copy of it and hope to discuss it in my future screenwriting classes I'll be taking. It's a great, clever, wicked script. And so is the film.
Sharon Stone burns up the screen in an otherwise routine erotic thriller.
posted on 10 Jun 2009(my comments are based on the unrated director's cut)This is one of those movies that is carried an awfully long way by the solid performances, and not by the script. This movie can be quite enjoyable until you really start analyzing the script and plot, and you realize that while this movie is a solid enough entry in the erotic-thriller genre, it doesn't transcend it by any means.What really makes the movie memorable is the absolutely smoldering performance by Sharon Stone. She took this role and ran with it, making a character that is unbelievably sexy and erotic, while at the same time very dangerous and manipulative. It's true that most people went to see this movie due to the infamous interrogation scene "crotch shot", but her performance as a whole is absolutely killer. The rest of the cast does a good job and really helps cover up some of the glaring plot holes and contrivances that pop up from time to time. But the real point of an erotic-thriller are the sex scenes and Basic Instinct has them in spades. While not especially erotic, they are very energetic and pretty explicit, especially since this movie is from a major studio. The director's cut in particular has some graphic shots that were cut out of the R-rated theatrical version (such as a scene in which Michael Douglas buries his face in Sharon Stone's crotch) and is the preferable choice to watch.While by no means a classic, it sets out what it aimed to do pretty well, and is a fantastic showcase for Sharon Stone who will never surpass this role."Basic Instinct" is unrated but contains explicit sexual content, abundant nudity, rape, graphic violence and strong language.rating:7 (though Sharon Stone gets a 10)
Audience manipulation at its zenith.
posted on 26 May 2009I don't understand why this film is so controversial. It's no more offensive than any other violent or sexual film. All it is is a solid dose of entertainment, nothing more. Gay groups protested this because it portrayed lesbians as diabolically evil, but every other character in the film is equally "offensive". The characters played by Michael Douglas and George Zsundza aren't exactly model cops. When I first saw the film on the day it opened, I knew that Sharon Stone would become a star. She commands every scene she's in, not just the interrogation scene or the sex scenes. Joe Eszterhas' screenplay keeps your interest throughout. It's not very credible, to be sure, but it keeps you guessing, and the characters aren't stupid like they were in JAGGED EDGE and JADE. The film is nicely shot by Jan De Bont, who photographed some of director Paul Verhoeven's Dutch films, and features a seductive score by Jerry Goldsmith. San Francisco locations are well-chosen. Try to see the uncut version.
Sexy!
posted on 20 May 2009Basic Instinct is another great film by director Paul Verhoeven (I thoroughly enjoyed his Total Recall which he made 2 years before this film and Robocop from 1987). He teams up again with Sharon Stone, who had a supporting part in the aforementioned Total Recall. This time Stone is the central character, properly cast as the sexy and risk addicted Catherine Tramell, who ends up seducing Michael Douglas' character Det. Nick Curran (also very properly cast). This sexy thriller, expertly written by Joe Eszterhas, also has many special scenes (especially the famous police interrogation scene where Stone "sits" in the chair - you know which scene I'm talking about!). And of special mention is the superb score by the late Jerry Goldsmith - this is one of his best scores (another great score is for Verhoeven's Total Recall). This is highly recommended - 8 out of 10.
Psycho-sexual eroticism . . . oh yeah, it's a mystery too!
posted on 17 May 2009Hey, what other reason is there to watch this movie than to see the infamous interrogation scene? And the sex scene (take your pick from the dozens in this movie - OK, I'm exaggerating a little, but not much). Frankly, the sex overshadows everything in this film, which is actually a good one. The acting is good, especially by Sharon Stone (gorgeous, gorgeous!). The screenplay works well until the end (the final scene doesn't fall into place and the person eventually named as the psycho-sexual murderer doesn't make sense). However, it is a glamorous, dangerously erotic thriller that is much better and more professional than the direct to video rehashes at the video store. Too bad Michael Douglas is addicted to this type of film, he really could have been a great actor! Sharon Stone on the other hand . ..
What A Film!
posted on 11 May 2009This is one of my favorite films, even though it has some problems.The film caused controversy with some of the gay crowd (who didn't like the negative press) and for the graphic sex (with bedroom violence). It became a box office winner, that made Sharon Stone a star, and yet was basically p****d on by the critics! The word is the film is better than your average B movie skin flick, only by the quality of the actors, and Verhoeven's ability. I feel the film is still not given the respect it's due. I first saw the R-rated version, which is very good, but now you can get the even better Unrated Director's Cut, which has even more graphic content! If you don't like erotic-thrillers, then don't see it. But anyone with taste will enjoy the thrill ride of events that take place in Basic Instinct. The script by Joe Eszterhas was highly thought of in Hollywood, and if not for the graphic nudity, a top star like Michelle Pfeiffer would have taken the role made famous by Sharon stone.Does the script go too far at times? Yes, but that's part of the films charm, and after all, the now 'classic film moment' of Sharon Stone's leg spread interrogation, likely would have been dropped in a conventional film. Still though, I wouldn't have minded seeing a few less people getting killed off, to keep even more suspense and realism. The score is also beautiful, and fans of Hitchcock's great "Vertigo" can appreciate the homage that Paul Verhoeven has included. The film has a lot of eye candy, but Jeanne Tripplehorn deserves special mention for her impressive supporting role (sadly she hasn't done much of note since). Michael Douglas does a solid job also, but I can't help wondering if a better actor like Clint Eastwood could have brought more to the table. The dialogue is not up to the level of "Pulp Fiction", but it's still interesting and fun. I highly recommend this film for fans of adult mystery.
Passable thriller
posted on 08 May 2009Basic Instinct is a passable film. It works both as a very well crafted thriller about a murder investigation and also as a sensitive study about human despair and loneliness. The cast is top notch. Douglas is adequate and sexy as the Detective and Sharon Stone does an excellent supporting job. Douglas is very well known for his legendary roles in Wall Street and Jewel of the nile, but in my humble opinion as this detective, he delivers one of his finest and most underrated performances.Overall, the setting in san Francisco and the 'who done it' scenario provide a brief respite in our very violent world - the real world.I hope Hollywood makes films that touch on humanity and not so much on the endless thriller we've seen again and again.
Great thriller
posted on 02 May 2009Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Total Recall) signed in 1992 one of the best thrillers in modern cinematic history. Basic Instinct is about a cop (Michael Douglas) on the verge of a nervous breakdown who has to deal with a very brutal case of murder. A rich man has been stabbed to death by a woman with an ice pick while they were having sex. Obviously the first suspect on the list appears to be the victim's girlfriend, a sex addict novelist brilliantly played by Sharon Stone. As soon as we meet her, we know we're dealing with a sociopath personality. She doesn't seem to feel anything about her lover's death. She looks extremely confident and she has a lot of sex appeal. In her last book, she described the same exact murder happening in similar circumstances. It seems obvious she killed him, or at least she knows what really happened. But is everything what it seems to be? Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone really shine and Verhoeven's direction is flawless. Unlike many erotic thrillers, the sex scenes haven't been thrown out there only to turn on the audience. There's great tension in all of them and they're all a very important part of the story and the character development. The movie couldn't do without them. It's also very nice to see a thriller that keeps being tense and unpredictable until the end. Obviously not for kids, Basic Instinct is for mature audience only because of its high sexual content and some very violent scenes. It somehow reminded me of 70s Italian films like Dario Argento's Deep Red, only with a more modern atmosphere. Highly recommended!
Finding the identity of a killer is always fascinating, no matter what you're watching...
posted on 20 Apr 2009Everyone who has seen the film, discover that the story runs into an intense sexual chess game between a San Francisco detective ('But you said you liked men to use their hands.') and a vivid writer ('No. I said I liked Johnny to use his hands.') Catherine (Sharon Stone) loves coke and Jack Daniel's... She is enigmatic ('How does it feel to kill someone?'), cool ('I like men who give me pleasure.'), frank ("What are you going to do? Charge me with smoking?") penetrating ("I've always had a fondness for white silk scarves"'), in complete command of herself... Her character holds men in her grip... To each uncrossing of legs, she masters every type of attraction...Catherine is a bisexual heiress, who teases, tempts and commands… She refuses to let us know that she's a true threat... She creates one of the classic Femme Fatale by leading us up to twist after twist, weaving outcomes of situations to her advantage...Nick (Michael Douglas) is the vice cop who drinks, and does a little cocaine… He accidentally shot two tourists in the line of duty... He is a troubled policeman who knows all about homicidal impulse... He is torn between two skilled women at psychology... One of the women is an evil manipulator... We can sense that Nick knows which one is the supposed killer... Nick insists he will be strong enough to take her down... The third intriguing character of Verhoeven's "Basic Instinct" is Roxy (Leilani Sarell). She is Catherine's lesbian lover... Roxy is the menacing blonde of the black Ferrari, who seems not to get jealous, but to get excited... We see her wearing pants and a jacket, and dancing with another woman... Roxy let Nick sees Catherine with two men, one of them is a big, body-built black guy...And there is another interesting character who deserves wide attention: the police psychologist who helps Catherine understand homicidal impulse... Dr. Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn) is a very good-looking, dark-haired woman, who has been involved in a love affair with a policeman... Basic Instinct's photography borrows a range of angles from Hitchcock... The score, by Jerry Goldsmith, is wonderful... The film is wildly considered a controversial and popular erotic thriller...
The very best film of all times!
posted on 17 Apr 2009Sharon Stone is in this film absolutely gorgeous - she acted this role as she would be in real life and I can't imagine any other actress to perform Catherine Tramell so well as she did. Also very, very good in this film is Michael Douglas, who performs a cop. Overall atmosphere at police station is very impressive.
That Woman Stone
posted on 05 Apr 2009When have mystery writers looked this alluring? Not in recent memory -- the lot of them are average looking, "handsome" women that are better with words than with their looks, and anyway, they're not in it for the sexiness inasmuch as for getting paid for typing tens of thousands of words compiled in paper and Times New Roman print.Paul Verhoeven is a boy with a lot of dreams. Looking into his movie BASIC INSTINCT, itself a remake of an earlier movie he directed DE VIERDE MAN which told the similar story where a blonde woman stalked and insinuated herself into a man's life with dubious intentions, you would think he was trying to splash his fantasies on the big screen.He succeeds. Here the blond is not Renee Soutendijk but Sharon Stone, and Stone looks, talks, and acts quite a bit like Kim Novak at the time she made VERTIGO. Stone is by far the best thing in the movie and would it that she'd been born twenty years earlier: Hitchcock would have had a field day with her. She's the ideal cool blonde for the Nineties, the woman that is sensual but can be cruel and detached and men just love her the more for it. She's a fantasy waiting to explode unto men's pants, and she is fully aware of her power. I don't think that there's ever been such an actress, and it's too bad she hasn't been allowed to shine in memorable roles: there's an old Hollywood about her, something that says she's above it all, inaccessible, glamorous even when unkempt, the stuff that makes female icons. In Catherine Tramell, whether she liked it or not, she found her best role to date, and even though she would go on to CASINO, her work there is uneven but devours her male co-stars anyway.As Catherine Tramell Stone throws herself into the role and makes it her own. She has one of the most memorable movie entrances as a dispassionate woman who could care less what the authorities thought of her -- that if you don't count the first scene, which evolves from an abstract mess to a ferociously coupling man and woman whose blond hair covers her face. She later takes full control of an interrogation scene, and from then on, the movie is basically hers and no one else's. Michael Douglas has little to do other than act angry, bewildered, be in danger, lose control, and show that he had to work his a** off -- literally -- to compete with Stone's rock-solid body. Stone, on the other hand, had that voice, that thing around her swirling like moths to a flame, that just ignited the screen around her. It's never really a mystery as to the whodunit, but Verhoeven is fulfilling a fantasy of his own and letting the audience in on his dirty little secret. All he wants to do is to tease, bring in two more young babes, and let the sparks fly.And fly they did. A good yarn despite the plot holes, sudden hairpin turns of the story, and its ultimate resolution, BASIC INSTINCT is erotic in a raw, aggressive way that sets it light years from the more cerebral works of eroticism. It's great fun, because nothing can spawn more enchantment than seeing a battle of the sexes with the odds in favor of the woman, and in this case, a woman who is in power, in full command of her body, her mind, and willing to go to inhuman extremes to get what she wants.
Traffic-Accident Theater Presents...
posted on 20 Jan 2009Millions of miles from being a cinematic masterpiece, and just as far from being unredeemable trash, "Basic Instinct" is a maddening--yet never dull--exercise in Hollywood futility and tastelessly hollow controversy-mongering. From the derivative, cliché-welcoming mind of Joe Eszterhas comes this overwrought Skinemax entry dressed up with Hollywood gloss, name actors, and a load of pop-psychology terminology (that fails to convey a brain under all the cop-thriller conventions). Yet with the creative force of Paul Verhoeven ("Robocop") at the helm, "Instinct" seems to at least have a shot at being transcendent of its shallow pulp roots; unfortunately, the motives of director and writer clash, resulting in a beautifully-designed film where potentially interesting sexual (and, by default, psychological) politics are turned into exploitative fodder for prurient titillation. Additionally, Eszterhas' script traffics in a barrage of out-of-place sophomoric humor that further cheapens any pretense at a serious tone. But there's just something about this multi-million dollar pile of excess: perhaps it's the investment of credible actors like Michael Douglas, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and yes--even Sharon Stone--in roles churned out of a dimestore detective novel; or maybe it's the extended sex scene midway through (the one sequence that succeeds in prurient titillation); it could be the dialog, which is so ridiculously contrived it makes Michael Bay's action potboilers look true-to-life by comparison. But it's probably just the sex scene...and the now-legendary shot of Stone uncrossing her legs during an equally unorthodox interrogation scene. In the end, "Basic Instinct" adds up (in the most contrived way possible)...but it doesn't add up to much.
As hot as it gets!!!!!!!
posted on 11 Jan 2009I've seen this movie often but every time I watch it I think it's getting'sexier. I could not explain why but this movie makes me sweat even if I don't see a picture of it! "B:I" mixes up gory murders with sado-masochistic sex-scenes which were never seen in cinema before. This was brave and even though I really hate Paul Verhoeven I had to say "Well Done Dude!" cause I was so impressed! But the best thing is - Sharon Stone: such a beautiful, sexy and desirable woman don't even live on mars (if there's any life out there - maybe we find out one day). Michael Douglas is a great actor honestly but this role is one of his least performances. But who could have made it better than he? The story is old-fashioned (I've seen it million times before ) and the surprisingly end was not helping out with that problem. Mr. Eszterhas should learn how to write a screenplay without the famous clishees about detectives and femme fatales. To the sequel crashing in 2006: it's gonna be impossible to top this sensual thriller even if Mrs. Stone has a body double for her bed scenes. But it will be interesting what Catherine Tramell is going to do now when Nicky's away. Whatever happens: this two hours of film history will last about 20 years till we all forget what we've seen
Not a very realistic premise, but a very entertaining and top-notch thriller.
posted on 21 Aug 2009What can I honestly say about Basic Instinct that has not already been said? The film opened with an enormous bang in 1992 – it was one of the most commercially successful films of the year, and it was surrounded by immense hype. It soon became of the defining films of the '90s, because of the grotesque sexuality and violence it so graphically portrayed. But once you get past that, it's a top-notch, highly entertaining thriller. It combines the stylish aspects of the classic Hitchcock production, Vertigo, a long-time favourite of mine, right from the San Francisco setting, to Sharon Stone wardrobe choices and her calculating, evil and cold persona (a substitute for Kim Novak in Vertigo).Everything about this movie is astounding, it even continues to evoke a "wow" factor today, well into the 2000s, and that goes to show much about its audacity and high-risk dares it took on, and subsequently conquered back in the early 1990s. Sure it's not a very realistic premise – but it's an amazing visual and artistic achievement that is pinned firmly into cinema history. It merits a well-deserved status as a modern classic, something you rarely come across today.Stone is marvelous as the sexy, devious and manipulative femme fatal heiress Catherine Tramell, who was unfairly under looked at the Oscars ceremony in 1993. Her presence is amazing; she steals the show from the first scene, right on to the very end, when it is revealed she was the perpetrator of the murders. She resembles one of the great temptresses of neo-noir, back in 1940s and 1950s cinema. Douglas is also at top-notch as the washed up and perhaps a little too vulnerable detective, prone to falling into Catherine's seductive, saucy charms – to her pure intentions. Supporting cast is also wonderful, featuring the screen talents of Jeanne Tripplethorn and George Duzanda among others. The direction by Verhoven (of the equally fantastic science fiction thriller Total Recall) is very inventive – he certainly knows a lot about the Hitchockien intrigue. He has all the plot twist of Hitchock, the visual style, its all there, but the copious sexuality was quite Hitchcock's vice in film.An excellently entertaining, elegantly composed and directed top-notch thriller, however it certainly is not for the faint hearted or immature. I may be a little young to watch it, but I'm mature and understanding when it comes to cinema. You where warned, now see it if you want a dazzling thrill ride.7.8/10