BARGAIN BIN REVIEW
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Reviewing the movies
no one else will touch.
no one else will touch.
BASIC INSTINCT
(1992, 127 Minutes, Rated R)
Where the "B" is for Beav-- uh, "Ice Pick."
Let's go back to an innocent time... A time when, before the Mensa claims and the lizard biting and
Catwoman, Sharon Stone wasn't a punchline. Sharon Stone was a star on the rise, having just
been featured in Total Recall with the Governator, King Solomon's Mines with Sir Richard
Chamberlain and -- the ultimate career move -- co-starred with Steven Seagal. So when the latest
Joe Eszterhas script came around and every other actress in Hollywood turned down the role of
Catherine Tramell cuz they wouldn't get buck naked, the producers knew where to turn.
Of course, there is more to this movie than graphic sex and a certain leg-crossing scene – you just
don’t remember it that way. In case you were too glazed over from all the sex scenes to
remember, here’s the jist: Bad-boy cop Michael Douglas is investigating bad-girl novelist Sharon
Stone, whose lover was just murdered in the exact same manner as she described in her latest
novel. She crosses her legs, he smokes cigarettes, people have graphic sex and/or die, and the
whole is-she or isn’t-she cat-and-mouse game runs not just through the entire film but through the
end credits.
It's almost too bad all anyone thinks about are the sex scenes, cuz Basic Instinct is actually very
well done. Stone is quite good in it -- yes, even in the scenes where she keeps her clothes on --
and easily goes toe-to-toe with the venerable Michael Douglas. Director Paul “RoboCop”
Verhoeven plays the entire film as a naughty ode to Hitchcock, along the way making Stone into
Kim Novak 2.0. And how Jerry Goldsmith didn't win an Oscar for his score is beyond me.
I can't recommend this movie enough if you're looking for a top-notch thriller. Or if you just want to
check out that scene...
(1992, 127 Minutes, Rated R)
Where the "B" is for Beav-- uh, "Ice Pick."
Let's go back to an innocent time... A time when, before the Mensa claims and the lizard biting and
Catwoman, Sharon Stone wasn't a punchline. Sharon Stone was a star on the rise, having just
been featured in Total Recall with the Governator, King Solomon's Mines with Sir Richard
Chamberlain and -- the ultimate career move -- co-starred with Steven Seagal. So when the latest
Joe Eszterhas script came around and every other actress in Hollywood turned down the role of
Catherine Tramell cuz they wouldn't get buck naked, the producers knew where to turn.
Of course, there is more to this movie than graphic sex and a certain leg-crossing scene – you just
don’t remember it that way. In case you were too glazed over from all the sex scenes to
remember, here’s the jist: Bad-boy cop Michael Douglas is investigating bad-girl novelist Sharon
Stone, whose lover was just murdered in the exact same manner as she described in her latest
novel. She crosses her legs, he smokes cigarettes, people have graphic sex and/or die, and the
whole is-she or isn’t-she cat-and-mouse game runs not just through the entire film but through the
end credits.
It's almost too bad all anyone thinks about are the sex scenes, cuz Basic Instinct is actually very
well done. Stone is quite good in it -- yes, even in the scenes where she keeps her clothes on --
and easily goes toe-to-toe with the venerable Michael Douglas. Director Paul “RoboCop”
Verhoeven plays the entire film as a naughty ode to Hitchcock, along the way making Stone into
Kim Novak 2.0. And how Jerry Goldsmith didn't win an Oscar for his score is beyond me.
I can't recommend this movie enough if you're looking for a top-notch thriller. Or if you just want to
check out that scene...
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