Movie Review by Neils Hesse
Starring: Sharon Stone, David Morrissey, Charlotte Rampling, David Thewlis
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
The psychological thriller BASIC INSTINCT 2 opens with a heart stopping sequence of a car cruising through the streets of London, leading to it crashing over a bridge, which is caused by the wandering hands of Kevin Franks (Stan Collymore) in the nether regions of the driver who loses control – one very tantalizing Catherine Trammell (Sharon Stone).
Yes the ice picking, leg crossing seductress returns in what initially seems to be a big and powerful way. But then the film slows down to almost B-movie standard as Catherine becomes intrigued by narcissistic criminal psychiatrist Dr Glass, portrayed by a very pumped up David Morrissey. Dr Glass and Catherine soon find themselves dancing a mental tango that is more foreplay than it is therapy and then… the bodies start to pile up. All the while the nosy and quite openly dodgy detective, DCI Roy Washburn (David Thewlis) is all over Ms Trammell’s case with an almost personal hatred.
So just who is Dr Glass to believe? Catherine with her mind-screwing ways, or bent detective Washburn or maybe even his own newly found basic instincts!
Director Michael Caton-Jones signed on after a number of others passed on it for varying reasons and after several years of starting and stopping and then scrapping the project all together and then finally rushed back into production for fear of a lawsuit, it reeks of a case of an intriguing story that still needed more development time.
David Morrissey shows plenty of leading man potential in that he looks the part but his character is simply too self important to make the audience feel anything but vague intrigue in him, so despite a good performance a poorly developed character overshadows all his efforts. Sharon Stone comes across far too intensely and while in the original she was a wolf in a sheepskin, she is now all predator. A mention must go to David Thewlis who is thoroughly entertaining with his accurate portrayal of how you would expect a bent detective to be.
So for fans of the original, this does not even come close, but is nevertheless very watchable and Sharon Stone still looks fantastic! If you who haven’t seen BASIC INSTINCT watch it first and you’ll see just how good BASIC INSTINCT 2 could have been!
