FILMandMOVIEmaking.com

(DVD 2006)

3 stars***

Basic Instinct was a spine-chilling movie, with a masterful screenplay by Joe Eszterhas. It also had one of those strange endings: it kept the audience talking and thinking – just who did commit the murders and if it was Catherine Tramell, then why didn’t she get to spend her due time in the county jail. Planned open endings usually mean there’s more to follow. These days we’d call it a franchise; a licence to print pounds and dollars.

Unfortunately, without the same writer and director we had to wait fourteen years for the follow up. There was good news though; Sharon Stone was up for another outing. Which bring us to Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction. I thought the movie needed one more watch to see if it was as poor as the critics panned it.

The start of the movie has zero to do with the conclusion of part one so we know we’re on different ground here; London to be exact, but without those usual shots of red buses, red telephone boxes, the houses of parliament and Nelson in his square with his favourite birds.

Had Stan Collymore left for Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson’s guidance, he almost certainly would have missed the opportunity to have Sharon Stone take his middle finger, wet it and do what she does with it, but his football career would have gone into overdrive and he’d have been a national hero, not just the hero of Southend for his one season’s exploits and the year at Nottingham Forest where his team mates didn’t share the enthusiasm for his generous goal scoring antics. I digress. Perhaps Stan proves why drivers (Sharon Stone here) shouldn’t orgasm while driving a car at over one miles an hour.

Sharon Stone owns the part of the writer turned (maybe) murderer. She’s around mid to later forties in this performance, but has the body of a twenty year old – a hot twenty. She mixes both charm and possession of anyone she talks to. It’s unfortunate that the casting doesn’t work with David Morrissey. He’s a quality actor, but he just doesn’t gel with Sharon Stone.The main detective is another good actor, but his part doesn’t come together, either.

Leora Barish and Henry Bean have completed a mammoth task with this screenplay. It spends a lot of time being in the past, but just enough of a different story line to be in the future. The critics attacked the script for being too obvious, but the twist (or was it) at the end is movie magic. I don’t care how many clever people tell me they guessed it; I didn’t. Anyone that can write the line “Don’t take it so hard — even Oedipus didn’t see his mother coming” deserves recognition.

The DVD brings a few standard extras; the making of the movie where each actor or crew member tells you that everyone, darling, was brilliant. For some reason, some copies are released as a ‘cut’ version. Better to go rent or download the uncut verison; it’s not even soft porn so there’s no reason to panic.

The deleted scenes are a rare mixture. You can see why some have been deleted, but others would have fitted in well. Presumably they were cut to keep the timing down.

There’s a collection of other scenes cut from the movie that are all over the internet under the title of ‘Basic Instinct 2, promo’. I bet you’ve typed it already while reading further. They show some sex scenes that were cut from the final movie. You can see why; you don’t need Catherine Tramell having a bisexual/lesbian relationship in front of her potential target in every film and the office desk is for work related activities, sometimes.

Now if you’ve come back from your Goole search and watched the promo you’ll know why the scenes were cut; they simply didn’t fit. A new character would need incorporating into the screenplay much earlier.

The reason the movie was put down by so many was in comparison to the original. It wasn’t a patch on the previous brilliance, but on its own it stands out as a good thriller. Sharon Stone does exactly as she’s asked even if it comes across as too strong and all her lines have at least two meanings. She is high class. The screenplay is an excellent stand alone read. Forget the first movie and treat Risk Addiction by itself.

Rumour has it that there won’t be a Basic Instinct 3, but Sharon Stone would like keep the flow going by returning as director. Does that mean she’ll keep her clothes on?