MOVIE NIGHT TRAFFIC LIGHT

Michael Caton-Jones (The Jackal, City By The Sea)

Moritz Borman (Alexander), Mario Kassar (Terminators, Basic Instinct), Joel Michaels (Terminator 3), Andrew Vajna (Terminator 3)

Leora Barish (Desperately Seeking Susan), Henry Bean (The Believer)

Sharon Stone – Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct, Total Recall, Casino)

David Morrissey – Dr. Michael Glass (Derailed)

David Thewlis – Roy Washburn (Kingdom of Heaven, Harry Potter and  the Prisoner of Azkaban)

If Hollywood had any instincts at all – basic or otherwise – they’d know better than to make a movie like Basic Instinct II.

As in the original movie, Sharon Stone plays a mystery novelist who is under suspicion of murder.  Also, just like in the first movie, she seduces anyone around her who she wants to manipulate.  This one takes place in London and begins when she is arrested after her car runs off the road and her passenger is killed.  Conveniently, while she is being investigated, others start dying and for some reason she is a suspect.  The audience is expected to try to figure out if she is guilty, or if the cop could be responsible or if her therapist is the killer.  By the time the audience is subjected to lame story twists, overacting by the characters and scene after scene of irrelevant sexual encounters, no one cares who the murderer really is.  In fact, the audience only cares about when the movie might end and when they can get out of the theatre. 

Basic Instinct II is more a bad remake than a sequel.  The story is really just a butchered version of the original with frequent, irritating references to the most notorious scenes from the 1992 classic.  The drab setting and dull characters introduced in this version only contribute to the disappointment.  And, though Sharon Stone is a beautiful and talented actress, she went tragically astray on this one.  She used everything that worked for her in the original . . . TIMES A MILLION, resulting in an overpowering, almost unbearable performance.  As one might expect, the movie’s definitely got the soft porn thing going.  But, thanks to the internet, we no longer have to suffer through the bad big-budget productions just to see a little porn!

On the Movie Night Traffic Light on a scale of GREEN meaning “Go – it’s a must see”, YELLOW meaning “Caution – it’s okay” and RED meaning “No - stop don’t do it."

We rate Basic Instinct 2 RED.  Stop – seriously, don’t do it!