Basic Instinct 2 (2006)

User Rating:

3.8/10   

Director:

Michael Caton-Jones

Writers (WGA):

Leora Barish (written by) &
Henry Bean (written by) ...

Release Date:

31 March 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Sometimes Obsession Can Be Murder

Plot:

Novelist Catherine Tramell is once again in trouble with the law, and Scotland Yard appoints psychiatrist Dr. Michael Glass to evaluate her. Though, like Detective Nick Curran before him, Glass is entranced by Tramell and lured into a seductive game.

Plot Keywords:

Psychiatrist | London | Speeding | Drugs | Sex

Awards:

4 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Stan Collymore	...	Kevin Franks
Sharon Stone	...	Catherine Tramell
Neil Maskell	...	Detective Ferguson
David Thewlis	...	Roy Washburn
Jan Chappell	...	Solicitor
David Morrissey	...	Michael Glass
Terence Harvey	...	Henry Rose
Hugh Dancy	...	Adam Towers
Ellen Thomas	...	Prosecutor
Mark Sangster	...	Court Reporter One
Tim Berrington	...	Court Reporter Two
Indira Varma	...	Denise Glass
Charlotte Rampling	...	Milena Gardosh
Heathcote Williams	...	Jakob Gerst
Flora Montgomery	...	Michelle Broadwin

Also Known As:

Basic Instinct - Neues Spiel für Catherine Tramell (Germany)
Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction (USA) (working title)
Instinto básico 2 - adicción al riesgo (Spain)
Risk Addiction (USA) (original script title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexuality, nudity, violence, language and some drug content.

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

Germany | UK | USA | Spain

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Finland:K-15 | Australia:MA | Ireland:18 | UK:18 | Germany:16 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Hong Kong:IIB (cut) | Argentina:16 | Hong Kong:III | Italy:T | New Zealand:R18 | India:A | South Korea:18 | Portugal:M/16 | France:-12 | Brazil:18 | Sweden:15 | Norway:15 | Hungary:18 | Singapore:R21 (cut) | USA:R (cut) (certificate #42004) | Iceland:16 | Singapore:M18 (video rating) (heavily cut) | Japan:R-18 | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Berwick Street, Soho, London, England, UK

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Paul Verhoeven considered directing the project for some time before moving on to Dutch-language projects when it first started production.

Goofs:

Continuity: In Dr. Glass' office, Catherine Tramell drops her cigarette on the floor by the door and steps on it to extinguish it. A few moments later when she leaves, the cigarette is gone.

Quotes:

Roy Washburn: What were you doing at 100 miles per hour?
Catherine Tramell: He was making me cum. And it was 110. We must've hit a pothole.
Roy Washburn: Kevin Franks died. You don't seem very worried.
Catherine Tramell: I'm devastated... I may never cum again

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The DiCaprio Code (2006)

Soundtrack:

Violin Concerto No. 5 - Tempo di Menuetto

Worse than any of us could have imagined.....

It's not like I have overwhelmingly fond memories of Verhoeven's original pants-down shocker - it always struck me as a glossy, well-made airport-novel-of-a-movie. Thrilling, sexy trash, but trash nonetheless. It was also a film that tapped into a certain sexual zeitgeist. After a decade of anti-sex AIDS-induced hysteria, a film about a wildly-sexual hotbod who thrill-kills to heighten her sexual pleasure was pretty enticing stuff. Basic Instinct 2 was always going to struggle to provide the same social relevance and immediacy, so the fact that it's desperate attempts at raunchiness are so lame can sort-of be overlooked. All it really had to provide was that thin veneer of titillation and a mildly engaging story and all would have been watchable. That it resoundingly fails on so many levels, and in such a way to be a career nadir for everyone involved, is really quite extraordinary to watch. Let's state the obvious for starters - Sharon Stone is too old for the part of sexual magnet Catherine Trammell. What was so photogenic thru Verhoeven's lens looks like mutton dressed as lamb in the hands of gun-for-hire Michael Caton-Jones, who's flat, drab colours and static camera render her undeniable beauty totally moot. I like Sharon Stone a lot, but if the first film launched her career, BI2 could kill it. She has no chemistry with stuffed-shirt David Morrissey - their only sex scene is embarrassing too watch. His dough-faced mamma's boy of a character made me yearn for the swaggering, orange-skin machismo of Michael Douglas. Supporting turns by David Thewlis and Charlotte Rampling waste these fine actors on talky exposition scenes and cliché-heavy posturing. And what of the much-touted sexual shenanigans? Poorly-lit, fleetingly-glimpsed, as utterly mainstream as an episode of Desperate Housewives - the European sensibilities that Verhoeven brought to the sexual content of the first film are sorely missed. Don't watch this film for carnal thrills - there are none and what there is is tragic. The film is, as a whole, convoluted to the point of utter confusion, boring and laughable. The last 40 minutes in particular, where you come to the realisation that the film is, in fact, not going to go anywhere of interest at all, are particularly gruelling and hilarious in equal measure. As a failed sequel, Basic Instinct 2 will come to occupy similar cinematic ground as Exorcist 2 The Heretic, Beyond The Poseidon Adventure and XXX2. As a vanity project, it rivals Battlefield Earth in its misconception. As a multi-million dollar piece of Hollywood film-making, it's a travesty that will be hard to top as the years worst.