Basic Instinct is a gimmicky thriller about a lesbian ice-pick killer on the rampage in San Francisco, although the plot is as illogical as the dizzying camera angles designed to keep the audience awake between sex mutilations.
Scenes, situations and camera angles are stolen from so many sources, and the film has so many red herrings and incoherent fake finales, that the cast appears to be making it up as they go along.
By the end of this overheated, over-produced melodrama, you are still not sure who the killer is, although practically the entire cast has been massacred, including most of the bisexuals and cops.
The chief suspect is a hot millionairess with double degrees in literature and psychology who writes pulp novels – The murder victims end up the same way in real life, so are the plots alibis? Or is an obsessed maniac framing the authoress by copying her ideas?
The tough blonde is played by Sharon Stone – a seductive Madonna clone with no inhibitions or underwear.
Stone became a sex symbol of the 1990s thanks to her cool portrayal of the predatory novelist who may or may not be a murderer, but who enjoys tormenting Michael Douglas all the same.
Douglas, as the chief detective assigned to the case, has his own problems with cocaine, alcohol, chain-smoking and bad dialogue, but no problem at all hopping into the sack with the glamorous killer or her girlfriends, one of whom happens to also be his own police psychiatrist.
Among the endless questions, a discerning viewer might perceptively raise is why so many lesbians are willing to go to bed with Michael Douglas in the first place . . .
Detective Nick Curran
Michael Douglas
Catherine Tramell
Sharon Stone
Gus
George Dzundza
Dr Beth Garner
Jeanne Tripplehorn
Lieutenant Walker
Denis Arndt
Roxy
Leilani Sarelle
Andrews
Bruce A Young
Captain Talcott
Chelcie Ross
Hazel Dobkins
Dorothy Malone
John Correli
Wayne Knight
Lieutenant Nilsen
Daniel Von Bargen
Dr Lamott
Stephen Tobolowsky
Harrigan
Benjamin Mouton
Director
Paul Verhoeven
