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BASIC INSTINCT II: ½ STAR

basicinstinct2pic1Basic Instinct II is the kind of movie that gives sequels a bad name. Made a decade-and-a-half after the original burned up cinema screens with Sharon Stone’s memorable, if naughty leg crossing scene, this follow-up is way past its expiration date.

Sharon Stone is the only member of the original cast desperate enough to reprise her role in this shabby excuse for a movie. She plays Catherine Tramell, the murderous writer from the first film, now living in London, and once again under investigation for murder. She manipulates her state appointed psychiatrist into becoming her sex slave and sucks him into a world of lies and deception. Tramell is a vixen who controls people with her sexuality and when that fails, an ice pick.

Stone appears to have torn a page from the soap-opera textbook of come-hither acting. Her forced attempts at sexiness don’t come off well—the bedroom eyes have seen better days—and she has zero chemistry with her co-star and on-screen boy-toy David Morrisey.

Stone’s performance is ridiculous but she is not helped by a script that requires her to intone some of the dumbest dialogue in recent memory. “Some guys are into blondes,” she says with a straight face, “and some guys are into killers.”

Basic Instinct II lacks the trashy verve that director Paul Verhoeven brought to the original. His sense of European eroticism penetrates every frame of the 1992 film shattering the political correctness of the time and drawing people into an unapologetically brutal and lurid world. The original was dirty, controversial, wickedly funny and established Sharon Stone the “it” girl of the early nineties. The sequel is dull and should make Stone a favorite at this year’s Razzie Awards.

Simply put, Basic Instinct II basically stinks.


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