By Justin Kroll
For The State News
When "Basic Instinct" came out in '92, its use of graphic sex and shocking violence along with the perfect chemistry between its two stars turned the film into a blockbuster hit. It became such a hit that for years there was talk of a possible sequel.
After several script rewrites and numerous casting changes, the sequel was given the green light. The only problem is, no one asked if anyone really wanted a sequel.
In this new chapter, we have followed our villain, Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), to England as she plans to do research for her new book and play more mind games with helpless men, especially her psychiatrist Dr. Michael Glass (David Morrissey).
The film opens with Tramell wanted for murder after she drives her car off a bridge and into a river where her passenger ends up drowning. The detective in charge, Roy Washburn (David Thewlis), thinks she did it on purpose so he gets Glass to prove she is capable of staging this as an accident instead of a murder.
When Glass interviews her for the first time, the scene is so poorly acted and written that if Tramell is playing any mind games with Glass, it is so boring and dull that the audience loses any interest in the scene.
The case against Tramell is eventually thrown out and she goes free but she takes Glass on as her own psychiatrist because she believes she has some "emotional" problems. As soon as Glass takes her on, not only does his personality change, but he soon becomes a murder suspect when several murders can be linked to him.
If any of this is sounding familiar, it's because it is almost the same story line and plot used in the original. The twists that occur in this film are even the same and the only thing missing is the graphic sex and violence.
The graphic violence and sex that set the original apart from other erotic thrillers is so toned down that the film just becomes some boring, predictable thriller. A "Basic Instinct" movie without a lot of sex and violence is like a "Star Wars" movie without a light saber fight or a "Rocky" movie without a boxing match. It just doesn't work.
Also, the audience doesn't feel the same type of steamy chemistry between Morrissey and Stone it experienced with Michael Douglas and Stone in the original.
The film takes up too much time worrying about the mind games Stone is playing instead of taking the time to make sure these characters are interesting to the audience. Audiences won't even be interested in this sequel to begin with.
