Release Year: 1992 Rating: R Duration: 123 minutes Other Title: Ice Cold Desire Director: Paul Verhoeven Producer: Alan Marshall Distributor: Lions Gate Home Entertainment
This steamy thriller to end all steamy thrillers stars Michael Douglas as Nick, a boozy San Francisco police detective who finds himself drawn to the prime suspect in a murder case, manipulative, sexually uninhibited novelist Catherine Trammell (Sharon Stone). Catherine's latest book features a murder uncannily similar to the one Nick is investigating, and as the pair engage in a mating dance of dangerous one-upmanship, more murders occur, all described in her current work, about a boozy cop in love with a killer. Nick's psychiatrist (Jeanne Tripplehorn), and cop partner (George Dzundza) are both worried about him, and Catherine’s jealous lesbian lover (Leilani Sarelle) may be trying to kill him, but Nick is just too turned on to care.
cast
Sharon Stone as Catherine Tramell
quote
[Nick just had rough sex with Beth]
Beth Garner: You've never been like that before. Why?
Nick: You tell me, you're the shrink.
Beth Garner: You weren't making love to me!
Nick: Well, who was I making love to?
BASIC INSTINCT is a difficult movie to write about, for me. Those of you who have been kind enough to read my reviews in the past know that I have often complained about the treatment of gay people in Hollywood movies, which seldom depict us as other than victims or maniacs. Paul Verhoeven (ROBOCOP, TOTAL RECALL, SPETTERS, FLESH & BLOOD, THE FOURTH MAN) and his newest movie are under a very vocal, high profile attack by gay, bi, and women's groups. And I'm not at all sure where I want to come down in this dispute now that I've actually seen the film.
