Product Description

NOTORIOUS CRIME NOVELIST CATHERINE TRAMNELL IS BACK & SHE'S CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGIST DR MICHAEL GLASS' DEADLIEST CHALLENGE.WITH PROFESSIONAL BOUNDARIES BLURRED BY OBSESSION, DR GLASS ISLURED INTO A MURDEROUS WEB OF LIES & DECEIT & BEGINS A TORRID AFFAIR WITH TRAMELL THAT TAKES HIM TO THE POINT OF NO RETURN.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32833 in DVD
• Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
• Released on: 2006-07-11
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 116 minutes

Amazon.com
Despite its inevitable fate as a critically reviled box-office flop, Basic Instinct 2 sure has a funny way of holding your attention. It's not just Sharon Stone's trash-talk and occasional nudity that keeps you watching, but also the way she gamely earns every cent of her $14 million paycheck, vamping like a real pro in her second outing as mystery novelist and alleged serial killer Catherine Tramell. Now living in London, Catherine sets her lethal sights on Michael Glass (David Morrissey), the control-freak psychiatrist assigned to evaluate her as a risk-addicted suspect in the "accidental" killing of a star soccer player. Turns out Catherine's just getting started (or is she?), and that's bad news for Glass's ex-wife, a tabloid journalist, and the Scotland Yard detective (David Thewlis) who's desperate to put Catherine in jail. With plenty of sex, murder and salacious dialogue, BI2 is certainly never boring, especially with the morbid fascination of seeing the once formidable Stone torpedo her career in a sequel that took 14 years (and countless drafts of screenplays and at least one high-profile lawsuit) to bring to the screen. She's still impressively hot at age 47, prompting critic Roger Ebert to observe, "the Catherine Tramell role cannot be played well, but Sharon Stone can play it badly better than any other actress alive." So, while this ill-fated sequel falls just short of being a guilty pleasure (if only because Morrissey is no match for Michael Douglas in the 1992 original), it's enjoyably absurd and slickly produced, and the hot-tub scene is guaranteed to wear out the freeze-frame function on a lot of DVD players. For some viewers, that's reason enough for multiple viewings.--Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
Sharon Stone, in a reprise of her role as the allegedly murderous pulp novelist Catherine Tramell, slithers across the screen with perfectly smooth skin and a dead look in her eyes as she sinks her talons into the life of the maddeningly inert British psychiatrist Dr. Michael Glass (David Morrissey). The director, Michael Caton-Jones, leaches any possible excitement from this bafflingly staid thriller set in London, and even the tawdry attempts to liven it up with sex and violence fail to stir.
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Neither Uncut NOR extended! Total Deception!
I can't beleive I'm the first to mention this! There are a few "good" (wink-wink) scenes which have been removed from this DVD version! A lesbian scene and part of Stone's hot tub scene are gone. It' seems clear that the makers of this film are depserately trying to lose as much money as possible. Although perhaps this DVD is selling well for them since they've went to the extent of flat out lieing to the consumer about it's content. Studio DVD labels make me laugh with their "Unrated-Uncut" sellpoint that always amounts to almost nothing interesting.. but this is unusual since the DVD is actually MISSING scenes. Tragic.

Good, Raunchy Fun!
Basic Instinct 2 is fine, campy fun. People who see this and take it too seriously simply just won't get it. This film is about the most menacing, conniving and manipulating vixen every put forth. Everyone who gets involved with her either dies or gets taken through the ringer. She uses sex as a weapon, and she's always one step ahead of everyone.

Sure, Sharon is trying a bit too hard in this film--the excessive hair-flipping is a bit much--but this is totally understandable. The first film was her best performance ever, plus it was the film that put her on the map. In the first film she had a unique, charming quality where should go from the sweetest, condescending seductress to the most evil woman around in the same sentence. Here, we find a much more hardened Catherine Tramell. Is this how Sharon's acting has evolved, or is this how Catherine has evolved as a person 14 years after the original? You be the judge. Regardless, Stone at age 47 is flat-out still hot.

The biggest flaw I see in this film--like the first film--is a less-than-sexy, whatever leading man. Sure Michael Douglas is a fine actor, but come on, they could've picked someone much sexier. The same goes for this film, Clive Owen would have been an excellent choice, or even Pierce Brosnan. David Morrissey just doesn't cut it.

I also feel shorted because--after seeing the uncut promo reel--there's been a ton of things cut out of the R-rated version. For example, in the reel Sharon is seen with yet another girlfriend hanging out with her in her stunning London flat; what happened to her? They are also shown in a threesome. So, to get the R-rating they had to cut the entire character out? This is why I long for the uncut, unrated version. The film seemed a bit short and rushed in parts, probably because 20 minutes or so were cut out.

Overall, I feel the film is fun and entertaining to the end, despite its short-comings. Sharon Stone was forced to carry the film on her own and she does a pretty good job considering, despite critics going to town on the film--they would've no matter who was in it and how good it was. It simply existed so they have to slam it; however, that's what they get for waiting 14 years to make the sequel.

3 1/2 Stars: You Always Hurt The One You Love

Catherine Tramell is the perfect role for Sharon Stone who, though not a great actress is certainly a screen "personality" : someone that commands your attention. You simply cannot take your eyes off of her perennially, it seems, gorgeous face and body.
In her other roles, other than arguably in "Casino," there is a falseness in Stone's approach as if there is a scrim between her and us...her technique "shows" and she is simply not effective.
But in both "Basic Instincts," Stone has found the role of a lifetime: one in which everything about her persona, her acting abilities and her charisma come together and form a cogent performance. And believe me, Stone's Catherine Tramell is a chew-the-scenery, gut-splitting, batten-down-the-hatches p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-n-c-e.
"Basic Instinct 2" is much better than it has any right to be: the screenplay, is pretty good, David Morrissey as Dr. Andrew Glass: Catherine's foil, plaything, Psychiatrist, though at first kind of a stick in the mud...ends up being an interesting, edgy character. The sublime Charlotte Rampling is also on hand to add weight and substance to the proceedings as Glass' mentor. But the real acting honors go to David Thewlis as a slimy, maybe-lying-maybe not lying, conniving, profanity spouting detective Roy Washburn. Thewlis chews through all the plot machinations and screenplay inconsistencies with his sterling acting chops.
"Basic Instinct 2" is ultimately an effective entertainment though not quite on the level of a so-bad-it's good, way, way over-the-top movie like "Showgirls." If anything "B.I. 2" is too safe, too perfect looking for it's own good.