Basic Instinct 2

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 2006 / 116 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: July 11, 2006

When Basic Instinct was released in 1992, it made quite a stir. Based on a compelling screenplay by Joe Eszterhas and skillfully directed by Paul Verhoeven, it told the tale of a psychosexual predator wrapped in a lovely package. By film’s end, as Michael Douglas’ Detective Nick Curran and Sharon Stone’s Catherine Tramell are satisfying their lust, Verhoeven playfully offers a reveal that would seem to seal Nick’s inevitable fate. The male viewer was torn between jealousy and pity.

Stone conveyed a little bitterness and consistently claimed that she had been tricked into quite another reveal by Verhoeven’s low camera angle during the interrogation scene. (Stone’s an intelligent and experienced screen actress; I never understood how she could have missed the obvious risk of the pantiless leg cross in front of a camera that had to be no more than twenty inches off the floor.) And whenever she was asked about the film’s extensive nudity or simulated sex, she would simply not discuss it, suggesting that the questioner “. . . just rent the video.” Stone did try to leverage her visibility (no pun intended) into more serious roles. Those efforts had decidedly mixed results.

One Oscar nomination (Casino), three Golden Globe nominations (Basic Instinct, The Mighty, The Muse) and one win (Casino), and five Razzies (Sliver, Intersection/The Specialist, Diabolique/The Last Dance, Gloria, and Catwoman) later, the inevitable financial(?) pull of Catherine Tramell sent Stone to the gym to prepare to bare all once again as everyone’s favorite psychopath. During the fourteen-year interval between Basic Instinct and its sequel, there were periodic rumors about script development and attached actors and directors. And by the time the 47-year Stone agreed to reprise Catherine Tramell, it may have been too little to late. The sequel, drubbed by reviewers, did not find an audience. Basic Instinct earned over $117 million at the box office; this sequel didn’t manage $30 million.

The fault is not with the production values, nor is it with Stone’s performance. She projects a wonderfully evil manipulator who can still use sex as a weapon of mass destruction. I can, however, fault her judgment in accepting a screenplay of monumental irrationality. Leora Barish and Henry Bean tried their best to create a plot that attempts to keep the viewer off balance with red herrings and alternative possibilities. Alas, they failed to capture the complexities and subtleties of the original.

Basic Instinct’s Catherine may have been a manipulative psychopath, but she was a psychopath who could still feel. When death comes unexpectedly to someone close to her, she is genuinely moved. Basic Instinct 2’s Catherine is purely one note: endlessly, unceasingly manipulative. And not in a nice way. Basic Instinct’s dialog was sharp and intelligent. The seductions believable. The killings finessed to mislead the police and the audience enough to raise reasonable doubt. The red herrings were credible. Basic Instinct 2’s dialog is over the top; I didn’t see the film in a motion picture theater, but I suspect that there were inappropriate giggles over some of the lines. The murders are ludicrous, both the means and how Catherine leaves behind enough evidence and clues to have herself put away for life.

The action has moved from California to London. Catherine is working on her next book, which means that sex and death will become as important tools as her word-processing software. The film opens at night with a wild ride through the streets of London at 110 miles per hour in an intriguing high performance sports car that I’m ashamed to admit I did not recognize. (A little research and I discovered that it’s a Stryker C8 Laviolette. A third of a million dollars will propel you to 60 MPH in less than 4.5 seconds, and if you keep your foot in it and the road will tolerate it, you’ll reach a top speed of 187 MPH.)

Catherine is behind the wheel. A British soccer star is sitting in the passenger seat, his hand between her legs. As she climaxes she cuts the wheel and the car smashes through an glassy obstacle and plummets into water. The car sinks and begins to fill with water. She releases her seatbelt and attempts to release his . . . unsuccessfully. She opens a window and floats slowly to safety, watching the car and its occupant sink below her.

So the screenwriters cut to the chase (another pun unintended). Sex and death. A suitable Basic Instinct dramatic overture. But it’s in the details . . . The airbags did not deploy. The electric windows operated while the car was submerged. The occupant’s seatbelt wouldn’t unlatch - a cliché. The implication and Scotland Yard’s accusation is that she killed her date. And the audience is expected to believe that she could have as well - after all, this is Catherine Tramell. So why did she bother with his seatbelt? And why on Earth did she use such a ridiculous method as driving an outrageously expensive car in to the water at high speed? The impact was no less likely to kill her. There are more details, but I won’t keep you. This is typical of Catherine’s risky behavior that bordered on a death wish. Perhaps the screenwriters were trying to drive home the point of her psychiatric evaluation: addicted to risk. But my point is that the plot constantly assaults with silliness that collapses the willing suspension of disbelief.

That “accident” provokes Scotland Yard and Detective Superintendent Roy Washburn (David Thewlis) in particular. During the investigation, Catherine is ordered by the court to undergo psychiatric evaluation. This introduces us to her next obsession and victim: Dr. Michael Glass (David Morrissey). In addition to helping the courts with his psychiatric services, he has a pricey practice in Swiss Re's London Headquarters 30 St Mary Axe, as phallic a building as the producers likely could find. (The architecture probably drives Prince Charles to distraction.)

This begins the game of cat and mouse, of manipulation and seduction, of nasty mind games and sexual predation. Glass has problems of his won; he certainly didn’t need Catherine in his life. He feels responsible for a murder committed by a patient. It tainted his relationship with his wife, Denise (Indira Varma), from whom he’s now divorced. That incident could destroy his career. He covets a prestigious seat at a prestigious school, but is threatened by a reporter who believes he can show the doctor’s lying when he denied foreknowledge of his patient’s intent. He’s nervous about his interview with Dr. Jakob Gerst (Heathcote Williams), the man who holds the ultimate influence about the appointment. He should have listened to his friend and mentor, Dr. Milena Gardosh (Charlotte Rampling), when she warned him to distance himself from Catherine.

I’ll not reveal additional plotlines or details. If you haven’t seen the film and you’re curious, you may enjoy Stone’s audacious performance, and I certainly wouldn’t want to spoil the twists the screenwriters have prepared for you. I will mention that having watched the unrated version of Basic Instinct 2 (only two minutes longer than the theatrical cut), I found it a bit tame compared to the unrated version of Basic Instinct. The violence, nudity, and simulated sex have been downplayed in favor of emphasizing mystery and manipulation.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in anamorphic video. This is a typical Sony transfer. It’s nicely sharp with better than average small object detail and finely grained textures. The color rendition is excellent, from natural skin tones to more vivid colors. Black levels are satisfyingly deep and shadow detail in the many night scenes is quite fine as well. But the transfer is marred by modest edge halos that, fortunately, are of sufficiently low amplitude as to not get in the way. I don’t recall any macroblocking or mosquito noise. I enjoyed the film’s capturing London locations with fine cinematography. It’s one of my favorite cities and it’s changed a bit since I was last there.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is effective. The surrounds are used for discrete effects (like pans of the car during the opening sequence), enveloping effects (like the music and crowds in a nightclub), and environmental effects (like subtle street noises). Exceptionally deep bass isn’t present, although gunshots have a nice impact. The sound design could have been better. The opening sequence’s sports car should have sounded more visceral, and when it went through a tunnel, the surrounds should have come alive with reverberant effects. Composer John Murphy borrows liberally from Jerry Goldsmith’s evocative score, but there is only one Jerry Goldsmith. The orchestra is presented with reasonable persuasiveness. The dialog is distortion-free throughout.

The alternate language is in French Dolby Digital 5.1. Optional subtitles are in French and English, for which Closed Captions are also included.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The disc opens with some trailers that may be accessed with many others in the trailers feature within the supplements, so skip them and move on.

The commentary by director Michael Caton-Jones demonstrates his commitment to the project and how seriously he tried to make the sequel as entertaining as the original. He begins with how he was introduced to the material and then delves into predicable topics: moving the location from New York to London, wanting to show a side of London tourists don’t often get to see, sets versus location shots, the risks and challenge of making a sequel to a highly successful film, casting, cinematography, editing, the sex scenes, the score, the plotlines, and the nature of the characters. He chats about a few anecdotes from the set and explains that the orgy scene was populated with British porn actors to avoid having to be subtle as he set up his shots that day. He’s an articulate and bright man, who directed such well-received films as Doc Hollywood, Rob Roy, and The Jackal. Sometimes, the best of intentions don’t quite work out.

The Between the Sheets: A Look Inside Basic Instinct 2 featurette (11:08) is a cut above EPK material. I enjoyed the behind the scenes sequences both on location and in the tank to film the opening sequence. The producer, director, and principal players have some interesting things to say. Everyone had their hearts in the right place. If only they had a better script.

There are ten Deleted Scenes and a weak Alternate Ending (17:14, aggregate) available with optional director commentary. Among them, I found a lovely scene called Catherine Arrives Drenched (4:57). It’s an office session in which the perceptive and clever Catherine offers a thumbnail analysis of Michael; it’s a strong moment. Director Michael Caton-Jones explains the cuts for reasons we’d expect, pace and to make the theatrical running time. He mentions the rationale behind the trimming choices, and they are perfectly reasonable, with one exception. I would have liked to see Catherine Arrives Drenched restored to the film in the unrated DVD edition; it would have helped made Michael’s obsession ever so slightly more credible.

The extensive trailer collection includes Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2:17), Marie Antoinette (1:46 - a Kirstin Dunst vehicle whose trailer has a remarkably anachronistic background song utterly inappropriate for a queen who is destined to lose her head), Friends With Money (1:40), Art School Confidential (1:44), Silent Hill (2:32), Freedomland (2:32), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (1:55), Hollow Man 2 (1:44), I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (1:37), Cirque Du Soleil: Lovesick (1:33), The Boondocks (0:28), Blue Velvet (1:19), Wild At Heart (1:56), and speaking of nudity, Showgirls (0:32).

The 116-minute film is organized into twenty-eight chapters.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.

Final Thoughts

I found Basic Instinct genuinely erotic. I found Basic Instinct 2 merely to be nasty. In the original film, Catherine may have been a psychosexual killer, but she wasn’t as mean spirited as she is in the sequel. The transfer is pretty good, as is the audio track, and the generous supplements have quality. A fine ensemble cast, great production values, an intriguing concept, and a failed script. What a pity. But don’t feel guilty if your curiosity compels you to pick up a copy. After all, it’s readily available for under $15 dollars.