Basic Instinct
Year of release : 1992
Run time : 2h8m
Genre : Erotic Thriller
Cast : Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Jeanne Tripplehorn
Director : Paul Verhoeven
The movie opens with a pretty long s3x scene, in which a blonde woman stabs a man to death with an ice pick while having s3x with him.
San Francisco detectives Nick Curran and his partner Gus Moran investigate the crime scene. They find out he was dating writer Catherine Tramell, who’s parents were very rich, and inherited a fortune after their accidental death.
After they talk to her, and she kindly asks them to leave, they find out she wrote a book about what just happened in real life.
Nick has been under scrutiny for 3 months, since he accidentally shot 2 tourists, as apparently at the time he used to drink and use drugs. He is seeing police psychologist, Elizabeth Garner, whom he used to date. On one of their mandatory sessions he tells Elizabeth he doesn’t even smoke anymore.
Looking some more into Tramell, Nick finds out she has a psychiatrist degree and the book she wrote is exactly about what just happened, a woman k1lling a rock star she dated, with an ice pick while having sex.
Talking to the police psychiatrist who brings in an even better one, the police find out they deal with an evil psychopath. The psychiatrist says either the writer did it, and uses the book as an alibi, or someone is trying to hurt the writer.
They bring her in to the police station for questioning. While at her place Nick peaks in on her putting her clothes on, and notices she doesn’t wear anything underneath her dress. At the police station she denies any involvement in the murder, and makes sure the police knows she doesn’t wear any underwear.
Nick takes her back home, and she keeps on flirting with him. This makes Nick change his behavior, almost ra@ping Elizabeth, and starting to smoke again.
Nick follows Catherine around, and sees she’s friends with a woman who k1lled her whole family, husband and kids! Catherine tells him she interviews her for her new book, about a detective who falls in love with the wrong woman. When seeing she has many old newspapers about him lying around, she confesses she uses him as inspiration for her book, him being the lead detective, Shooter.
Nick ends up starting an affair with her, making her girlfriend, whom she allows to watch her have s3x with men, jealous.
This affair takes its toll on him, as he starts drinking again too.
Investigating, Nick realizes her girlfriend, Roxy, is also a k1ller, and Catherine knows Elizabeth from school.
Telling this to Elizabeth, she understands Catherine is trying to use her as her scape goat. And she’s not wrong.
This is one of the best erotic thrillers I’ve ever watched, if not the best! If all erotic movies were like this!
One thing that bothered me was that it was obvious Catherine was a serial k1ller, as she had a long list of people dying in her life since she was young, in weird mysterious ways (accidents), from her parents to boyfriends. Not to mention, she surrounded herself with k1llers!
Another thing is, if you pay attention to the page of her book when she prints it, the same thing happens to Gus, in the elevator. How would she have known that if she didn’t plan it?
The two leading ladies (even Catherine’s girlfriend) were one more beautiful than the other.
I liked the places where they filmed, the landscapes, the houses, the set design, the clothes, everything was so beautiful.
I liked how the movie was shot, the lighting, the colors.
The acting was great from everyone involved. Sharon Stone is a sexy and confident femme fatale.
The soundtrack was good, eerie.
The visual effects were good.
The movie received positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, the audiences being more generous than the critics.
Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a B+.
The movie grossed 353 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 49 million, being the 4th highest grossing movie on the year 1992.
The movie has a 2006 sequel.
Many male actors refused to play Nick Curran. Michael Douglas allegedly accepted to play for 14 million dollars.
He also allegedly wanted Kim Basinger to play Catherine, but she refused. And so did actresses like Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Michelle Pfeiffer, Geena Davis, Kathleen Turner (who actually played in erotic thrillers before, and played with Douglas in a few movies) and Ellen Barkin.
Demi Moore was considered for the part of Catherine until Sharon Stone was chosen, who actually wanted the part.
Rating : It’s so money !