Basic Instinct (Blu-ray)

     Lionsgate Basic Instinct (Blu-ray) Michael Douglas stars as Nick Curran, a tough but vulnerable detective. Sharon Stone costars as Catherine Tramell, a cold, calculating, and beautiful novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite. Catherine becomes a prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally murdered - a crime she had described in her latest novel. But would she be so obvious as to write about a crime she was going to commit? Or is she being set up bya jealous rival? Obsessed with cracking the case, Nick descends into San Francisco's forbidden underground where suspicions mount, bodies fall, and he finds within himself an instinct more basic than survival.      The take-no-prisoners sex thriller from 1992 now stands as a milestone in the career of screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, but in the hands of director Paul Verhoeven Basic Instinct is an undeniably stylish and provocative study of obsession. In the role that made her a star (and showed the audience a little more skin than she intended), Sharon Stone plays the cleverly manipulative novelist Catherine Tramell who snares San Francisco detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) with her insatiable sexual appetite during the investigation of her boyfriend's murder. Tramell is the prime suspect, but the plot twists and turns until Curran is trapped in a dangerous cycle of dead ends and unsolved murders, never sure if Tramell is committing the crimes or if it is some other, unknown suspect. With a plot that keeps viewers guessing, Basic Instinct is the work of a director who is clearly in his element.

Comment:
    Paul Verhoeven has created a masterwork from Joe Eszterhas' controversial script. Several sex scenes become a leitmotif, as the participants appear to pummel, rather than love, one another with their nether parts. But the most rugged and the most erotic scene occurs between Detective Nick Curran, Michael Douglas, and his colleague, Beth Garner, portrayed by Jeanne Tripplehorn. He throws her against a wall and then against the back of a chesterfield. That is only the foreplay. In this film sex is violence, and that is Verhoeven's theme. But there is more. Sharon Stone as Catherine Tramell has a beautiful blonde form in that Beach Boy / California girl manner. She plays her 'flashing' scene in the police interrogation room with wit and a touch of class. Throughout the film she is arch, intelligent, electric. Her foil, Nick Curran, a troubled detective, realizes she might be a murderer, but finds her personality and her allure, irresistible. Douglas' performance is driven, masculine, affecting ... yet he would be well advised to keep his trousers on henceforth, for his sagging bottom is simply too comical. There are several echoes of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (58). Both pictures have as a setting the picturesque San Francisco area. Jerry Goldsmith's music recalls Bernard Herrmann's symphonic score. The stairwell in Curran's apartment building resembles the vertiginous staircase of the Mission bell tower. And as with Hitchcock the dialogue is often simultaneously risque and humorous, although more vulgar in keeping with the tenor of modern times. Eszterhas' script is carefully crafted, and it does not cheat. Life proves ambiguous at many levels, and so does art. The mystery is dark; the action, including a car chase, thrills; and the locale continually shifts, from a cop station to Catherine's lovely seaside house to a colorful bar where Catherine's jealous female lover and Curran engage in a sensual battle for her charms. Day, night, sun, rain, streets, highways, scenery, ocean, sex, emotion, confrontations, death ... the film envelops everything, perhaps even love. Here, Verhoeven, Eszterhas, Douglas, Stone, have achieved some screen magic of the past The PQ is very good for a 1990's release but I believe could have been better. The visuals is worth the money I paid. What a piece of trash... a very interesting piece of trash. This is one of the most riveting movies I have ever seen. Michael Douglas & Sharon Stone are well cast in the leads. But I have a burning question: Is there one murderer or two murderers or is it three murderers? As many times as I have watched this movie I haven't been able to figure it out. And which one is the copycat: Sharon Stone or Jeanne Triplehorn? Who's the real blonde & does it matter? The movie is twisted & has a lot of twists. I never tire of watching this movie, I always seem to be looking for something I might've missed in a previous viewing but it's not there. Even without the gratuitous beaver shot I thoroughly enjoy this piece of trash. I love it & I'm still watching it. I need to chip some ice, anybody got an icepick? Basic Instinct: The Director's Cut adds a couple quick "cuts" of violence in the movie's opening and includes a healthy pack of extended sexual scenes. This Movie really is the quintessential "Who Dunn it" film with more twists and turns playing on the audience than any film to date. The acting is superb all around. Sharon Stone does a masterful job in adding her charater's enveloping and persistent tension with each personal encounter. PQ is above average with solid colors. SQ is above average when things heat up, but as far as sound goes, this is not the kind of movie that demands an intense sound track. What does shine here is the musical score. The main montage is a beautiful and yet haunting piece which is subtle yet very powerful! Almost on a subconscious level. Basic Instinct is a true thriller of entertainment augmented by excellent directing, acting, music and plot. I have yet to see anything this well made in it's genre. A must own on BD! Now, let me start by saying that this movie will keep you guessing about the correct meaning of the ending after the movie. What I mean by this is that the identity of the killer in this movie will still be a mystery to some. The story is about a police officer named Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) who is investigating a murder that involved a bloody ice-pick. The suspect is a beautiful blonde woman named Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone). She has a very dark and mysterious life and is very seductive. After a series of accusations and run-ins, the climatic end is near. As Nick becomes more and more unstable and bent on finding the killer, he starts to wonder about all the possibilities, and more twists and turns occur. This unrated dvd is worth at least one viewing and provides plenty of extra entertainment.