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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

"Basic Instinct" review


Basic Instinct (1992)

Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Writing credits Joe Eszterhas

Michael Douglas.... Det. Nick Curran
Sharon Stone.... Catherine Tramell
George Dzundza.... Gus Moran
Jeanne Tripplehorn.... Dr. Beth Garner

Catherine Tramell, (Sharon Stone), is dangerously feminine. The cops send Detective Curran, (Michael Douglas), to smooth out her rough edges. A body is found all hacked up. Seems Tramell was seeing the corpse. They weren't in love, it was just for sex. Douglas's spider sense starts tingling. Sexually active woman means trouble. Digging more into her background, it turns out that she likes other women too. This will not do. Douglas is on the case.

Have you ever seen a movie that was more afraid of a woman's sexuality than this one? Douglas's partner screams and yells at him not to give in to the power of her vagina. Douglas calmly tells him, "I'm not afraid of her." In the interrogation room, Stone flashes the cops with the awesome power between her legs. Only Douglas has the composure to snap out of it and go on with the questions. Everyone else is humble and speechless before her.

So it is on Douglas's shoulders to fight the good fight and tame the hot, blonde, sexually active WOMAN. It is the battle of the sexes wrapped up in a sleazy, mainstream thriller. Guess who wins?

It is to the filmmaker's credit that "Basic Instinct" is so good. The suspenseful music is fantastic and the sex is hot. We can thank this movie for the countless B-erotic thrillers that have come after it. I'm just not sure whether the filmmakers like women or loathe them. They must fear what they don't understand. Douglas had to vanquish their fears and win one for the guys.

SCORE 4 out of 4 hot Stone flashes

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i thought this was a well-written whodunnit, plus i loved the depravity between! i also think sharon's other lover "roxie" was a dish as well