%$&# Like Minks,Raise a Few Rugrats,Live Happily Ever After., September 30, 2001

Sharon Stone became an overnight sensation portraying the rich, seductive & powerful Catherine Tramell, a role that seemed tailor made for the actress. But in fact director Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Starship Troopers) had to fight hard to prove to both Carolco Pictures and actor Michael Douglas that she was in fact the only person suited for the role. Having worked with Stone on his last picture, Total Recall (1990), Verhoeven knew that Stone had something special to give to the part and he finally got that message through to all those mentioned. I'd go so far to say that with the exception of her Oscar nominated performance in Martin Scorsese's Casino, Catherine Tramell is still Sharon Stone's best performance.

So what's the big deal between the R-rated & Unrated versions of Basic Instinct? Basically a little more violence and a little more sex. There's more stabs with the ice pick in the Unrated version (about 3 or 4), more shots of the victim actually being stabbed (courtesy of a man made puppet designed by Rob Bottin) and that's about it for the violence. The added sex has mainly to do with the first encounter between Michael Douglas's Nick Curran, and Sharon Stone's Catherine Tramell. The added scenes are hot & very well done, but overall, the result is still the same. The only other difference is the Unrated version includes an audio commentary with director Paul Verhoeven and director of photography Jan De Bont. This commentary is not available on the R-rated version. But both versions do include the 2nd commentary by Feminist critic, Camille Paglia, who praises the film as one of her all time favorite movies. Her commentary is quite informative and really gave me a lot of insight into the film that I never noticed before. Those of you who own the Special Edition Laserdisc that came out a few years back should be urged not to get rid of it. It's special features are quite different from those on these DVD versions. Even the Paul Verhoevan Commentary is different from the one on the DVD. Plus the DVD doesn't give you the option of viewing the final shot of the film with the alternate scoring conducted by Jerry Goldmith, although it is shown during the making of documentary. Still worth keeping.

I personally love how much the movie feels like an Alfred Hitchcock film. The dress Sharon wheres for the interrogation scene is very similar to the one Kim Novak wore in Vertigo. There are many references to Vertigo in the film, as well as The Birds, North By Northwest, Rear Window and a few others. This adds a lot of class to the picture that only enhances its creativeness. It may be a long time before another picture comes close to matching it.

Basic Instinct..destined to become a classic!

"I hate rugrats". - Sharon Stone as Catherine Tramell

Near the apex of the sex/slasher genre, June 25, 2004

By	Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews

It stars Michael Douglas (who, by the way, has eclipsed the Hollywood power, if not the screen presence, of his dad, Kurt Douglas) and Sharon Stone who, as usual, finds herself in a part that requires that she take off her clothes and spout hard-edged one-liners: she does both with a certain delight that makes us think she is having a good time.

He's a San Francisco homicide cop named Nick Curran with some questionable shootings hanging over his head, hence his nickname, "Shooter." She's a rich best-selling trash novelist named Catherine Tramell (pen name Catherine Wolfe) who likes kinky sex and other deviancies. It seems that her latest boyfriend (depicted in a blood-splattered opening scene) abruptly, shall we say, met his maker while in the arms of Venus, something predicted in Catherine's latest opus. We are made to believe that she could very well have been that Venus, although of course keeping us in the dark is part of the seduction.

Jeanne Tripplehorn plays Beth Garner, police Internal Affairs shrink who just happens to be Nick's latest main squeeze. It seems that Catherine and Beth had a one-time intimate liaison while undergrads at UC Berkeley. We are led to believe that she too might have done the killings.

So Nick has a choice, whom to believe about who's responsible for all the dead bodies, the blonde Catherine or the brunette Beth? Both seem a little wacko/sexy. He tries them both out, and we see a lot of skin and hear a lot of fast breathing, and are kept on the edge of our whoopee cushions until the very end--and after, actually, as though the purveyors were already counting on the sequel. I am reminded of a lyric from Elvis Costello's "Everyday I write the book": "Even in a world where everyone was equal/I'd still own the film rights and be working on the sequel."

In other words, what this film is about is money--money for the producers, director, actors, crew, etc. It's an extreme sexploitation thriller diabolically done with absurd plot twists and plenty of dead bodies and some diverting chase scenes (did I mention sex?); indeed I suspect that Basic Instinct will be recognized by future film historians as one of the primo examples of the sex/slasher genre, that is, as soft porn with a sick edge.

But wait, why did I watch this? Uh...Sharon Stone amuses me like a comedic actress, but she ain't exactly funny, is she?

Also it's interesting to notice that in these late eighties/early nineties sexploitation flicks it's the women who are the aggressors (I'm thinking also of Single White Female from the same year) while the men play a little tagalong. Michael Douglas is particularly adept at playing the sort of male who seems natural being dominated by Sharon Stone.

Bottom line: mass mind trash, but worth seeing for its ability to define the Hollywood mentality circa 1992.