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Basic Instinct

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Basic Instinct (1992)

March. 20,1992
|
7.1
|
R
| Thriller Mystery
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Catherine, a novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite, becomes a prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally murdered -- a crime she had described in her latest story.

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Adeel Hail
1992/03/20

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

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Aiden Melton
1992/03/21

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

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Quiet Muffin
1992/03/22

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

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Cheryl
1992/03/23

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

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jonathanruano
1992/03/24

The main criticism levelled at Basic Instinct is that it does not work as a "who done it" movie, because the evidence suggests that either of the two characters committed the murders. But I never cared about the "who done it" aspect of this movie anyway. Basic Instinct is really about how the basic instincts of two people - Detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) and Catherine Trammel (Sharon Stone) - brought them closer together. Over the course of the movie, Detective Curran slowly realizes that he does not like staying off cigarettes, alcohol, and cocaine and being a good cop. Instead, he wants at a deeper level to break free of the shackles and release his basic instincts -- which include aggression, uncontrolled rage, wild lovemaking, and much more. There are a number of important events early on in the film, which indicate that Curran is headed in that direction. He is chided by Catherine Trammel to start drinking and smoking again. His aggressive, dominatrix lovemaking with Dr. Elizabeth Garner suggests that they are not a good match. Finally, Curran becomes the object of Trammel's seductive and complex mind games. The unfolding of this plot halfway into this movie is masterful. Sure the scene where Trammel reveals to the police officers that she is without panties is something of a climax. But even then, watching Detective Curran fall to pieces and revert back to his basic instincts is fascinating. But then the second half of the movie broke down for a number of reasons. At the half point, all the creativity and invention (which made the first half so enjoyable) had been exhausted and all that was left was a dumb-down and sleazy screenplay. Screenplay writer Joe Esterhaz ran out of good ideas and basically came up with a second and third act which sabotaged what could have been an elegant and highly intelligent psycho-drama. Lines like "f*** of the century," "that's her p***y talking," and "f*** like minks and raise rugrats" are really beneath the dignity of the intelligent actors uttering this dialogue. Equally disappointing is the unmotivated violence. I am not against very violent films in principle. But when the violence is unmotivated or lacking a convincing rationale, then it ruins the film. Why not come up with something more intellectually challenging for the actors and the audience, rather than just inserting a bunch of sleazy trash? Unfortunately, once Esterhaz' screenplay took this turn and then added all those silly "who done it" elements, Paul Verhoeven's excellent direction could not save this film from the trash heap. A pity really, because the director and screenwriter were really onto something with their premise.

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residentevil6901
1992/03/25

I was almost 19 when this came out and my friends and I were so excited to see it as we were looking forward to the great sex scenes it had. Of course we loved it and this has become a guilty pleasure movie for me ever since. I now love it for everything else besides the sex scenes. It's a great thriller with great acting from every one involved. Sharon Stone was perfect for this role and I really love the way Michael Douglas plays his part. Tripplehorn looked the best I've ever seen her in this and Denis Arndt is great as Lieutenant Walker.I've read a lot of arguing over the years as who the real killer ended up being with many people believing it was Catherine. The movie definitely leaves it open to interpreting it all on your own and it's like the bible where you can read a passage but get different meaning out of it. I always took it like Dr Garner was working with Catherine or Dr Garner was working alone and Catherine was just going along with it. The whole Ice Pick under the bed part at the end I felt was there to leave you guessing. I like it being Dr Garner as the killer.

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Anthony Iessi
1992/03/26

Basic Instinct is campy, schlock-cinema. I was embarrassed throughout the entire film. It's a film set in 1992, written like a cheap knockoff of an Edward G. Robinson 40's film noir, laced with f- bombs. If a throwback was the point, maybe they should've done a much better job. All this film had going for it, and precisely why it was a popular in the 90's was Sharon Stone's sex appeal. She's a beautiful woman, yes. She crossed her legs... OOOOOH HOW SCANDALOUS. Were people really this amused back then?

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sharky_55
1992/03/27

Everyone and the audience in Basic Instinct has seen a noir, or a Hitchcock. That is, except for our lead detective protagonist, who walks right into danger's arms and willingly embraces it. The first half and hour or so of the film is full of furious winking at the viewer. We have to play along with what seems like parody. Stone's reveal is with a knowing smirk on her face, as if she knows what everyone knows, that she will curl him around her fingers and get him to do whatever she wants. She might as well have a big, blinking sign floating above her head reading 'FEMME FATALE'. There is a bespectacled therapist ripped straight out of The Big Sleep, and who isn't fooling anyone; she immediately takes the glasses off, and is revealed to be another sexy conquest of Nick's after they air their dirty laundry out in the open. Catherine's massive inherited mansion seems to be eternally lit with shadowy rays of light bouncing off the pool - a perfect noir storm. She opens the door in revealing clothing and then proceeds to flaunt her naked body anyway in full sight of the detectives. No wait, that's not obvious enough. Later on she tells Nick a couple of key facts: one, she's not wearing any underwear, two, he'll pick up the drink and cigarette again, three, she's very good at lying, and four, she's going to kill him. Nick's partner, a bumbling, heavyset oaf, is oblivious to the searing sexual tension in the car. They're basically having sex from the first time they lay eyes on each other, and the dialogue is the foreplay. It's a wonder the actors can wrest with lines this heavy with a straight face. Every word is twisted, double edged, laced with the suggestion of "we're gonna bang". 'Sex' is actually only used seven times in the whole script, but with Verhoeven's penchant to linger on their sultry stares for a second or five too long, it seems like hundreds. Yet one could never accuse Verhoeven films of being straightforward - look to those who missed the point of Starship Troopers. This one's a little tricky. If you know Verhoeven you have to give him some benefit of the doubt. The first half of the film plays like a B-movie noir parody - not just once, but twice, Stone has an excuse to get out the ice pick and get stabby stabby. Haven't these people ever heard of an ice tray? The movie world is where a degree in psychology means you can pull a man's mind apart with ease - she knows Nick's whole history, his vices, his temptations. Beth, the actual shrink, sort of flails around helplessly. So Verhoeven shows that he knows the genre inside out, and that he's self aware. But the second half takes itself far too seriously. Having shown all its cards, it doesn't know how to conclude, so it just shoves the pair back under the covers. And after two hours of suggesting that there is more than meets the eye to this girl, it goes back on its word. Oh, she was serious when she announced out loud that she was going to kill him? I thought she was supposed to be the smart one.

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