Basic Instinct = Basic Plot

[img1]I'm not going to surprise anyone by saying that the sequel to Basic Instinct is not a very good movie. Boring when it's supposed to be tense and funny when it's supposed to be sexy, Basic Instinct 2 is not quite a waste of time, but I certainly wouldn't pay any money to see it.

The film picks up 14 years after the first movie. Novelist Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) has moved to London and we meet up with her in possibly the most absurd orgasm/vehicular homicide scene ever filmed. Tramell is investigated for the death of her companion by the police, and psychiatrist Dr. Michael Glass (David Morrissey) is brought in to evaluate her.

The expected plot twists ensue, one or two of which are moderately clever. But mostly the film is just pretty absurd, and unfortunately it's not quite absurd enough to become a cult classic. The original Basic Instinct (directed by Paul Verhoeven) was ridiculous too, but in a way that managed to exude tension and sexiness and also be truthful in its own way to its noir antecedents.

[img2]The main problem with this film is that it seems like the filmmakers couldn't decide on whether they were making a thriller or something a bit more campy. So they tried to do both, and without a director like Verhoeven they just couldn't pull it off. And this is just an observation, but Stone sounds a bit like Clint Eastwood when she's trying to be menacing, which frankly just ruins the effect.

All of this is not to say that there isn't some good stuff here. Some of the innuendo is really pretty hilarious, and Stone, who has been good at times in the past, is clearly having a great time reprising the role she made a classic in 1992. But the inconsistencies in tone and the simple lack of any real reason for this film to exist prove insurmountable in the end.

Reach Intermission reporter David Nordmark at [url='mailto:davidnordmark@thedaily.washington.edu']davidnordmark@thedaily.washington.edu[/url].