If the original Basic Instinct was trash expensively perfumed and impeccably wrapped (or, as some great mind once put it, a gilded turd), what are we to make of this ridiculous and utterly unnecessary sequel?
Toxic waste with good lighting? Soft-core porn with delusions of grandeur? A chance for Sharon Stone to snag a paycheck while showing off the latest advances in cosmetic surgery?
Basic Instinct 2 is all of that, and less. Stone reprises her role as sexed-up seductress Catherine Tramell, an icy, egomaniacal blonde who takes erotic pleasure in manipulating men, and who also may or may not be a serial killer. This time out, Tramell has relocated to London, where she finds herself again under suspicion when everyone around her starts turning up dead. None of it makes much sense, the movie tosses around red herrings like rice at a wedding, and Stone's character passes the time by making lewd comments and playing head games with a handsome young psychiatrist (David Morrisey, coming off here very much like a bargain basement Liam Neeson).
Despite the classy English accents (and Charlotte Rampling slumming around on the sidelines), BI2 is an even dopier outing than the original, with Stone's character drained of any vestiges of mystery or nuance. Desperately wanting to be lurid, the movie puts all sorts of outrageous come-ons in Stone's mouth and spends a lot of time prowling around the contours of the actress's body, but it all feels pretty lame.
Surgical enhancements aside, Stone is just too long in the tooth to pull off this sex goddess thing (she seems poised to enter the Shelley Winters phase of her career), and the film's attempts at generating an erotic charge feel gutless and way too calculated to work either as cheap thrills or even as camp. We don't expect or receive much by way of a satisfying narrative here, but the movie doesn't even succeed in the areas where it should — as pure, mindless titillation. Stars Sharon Stone, David Morrissey, David Thewlis and Charlotte Rampling. Lance Goldenberg
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 4, 2006.