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Basic Instinct 2
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Entertainment
Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 40 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Crime | Drama | Mystery | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Leora Barish
Henry Bean
Joe Eszterhas (characters)
Directed by: Michael Caton-Jones
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 31, 2006
DVD: July 11, 2006
Running Time: 114 minutes, Color
Origin: Germany / Spain / UK / USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong sexuality, nudity, violence, language and some drug content
Starring Sharon Stone, David Morrissey, Charlotte Rampling, David Thewlis, Hugh Dancy, Anne Caillon, Iain Robertson, and Stan Collymore
A slick psychological thriller, Basic Instinct 2 explores what happens when the darker side of human nature is uncovered. Has the intelligent, seductive and manipulative Catherine Tramell (Stone) finally met her match? (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Basic Instinct Beyond the Gates City by the Sea Rob Roy The Jackal This Boy's Life
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Basic Instinct 2 isn't bad, exactly, but it lacks the entertaining vulgarity of the first film; it's Basic Instinct redone with more ''class'' and less thrust.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
BI2 is packed with as much lust, nudity and sexual depravity as the first. So, why isn't it as much fun? What's lost in any sequel is the freshness of the first film, and was "BI1" ever fresh!
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
Those hoping for either a sizzling -- or an unintentionally hilarious -- good time will be disappointed by this inexplicably dull sequel.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
The movie isn't boring, exactly. It's too nutty for that.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Like many sequels this is actually a remake, and it suffers from the law of diminishing returns.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
It's turned Stone's Catherine Tramell from a warning sign for the dangers of wanton sex into the last thing you'd figure - a bore.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
A few bodies pile up. Surprisingly little sex is had. And given that Catherine's true nature was revealed at the end of the first "Basic," the mystery seems superfluous.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
If you're trying to reinvigorate the art of the stylish thriller, the movie you come up with needs to be stylish and it needs to be thrilling. Basic Instinct 2, is neither.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Stina Chyn
Fails as a sequel because we’re not in the 90s anymore. Gone are the days when characters could answer questions with questions and hypothetical situations and still sound clever and cool.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Morrissey gives a stiff, awkward performance, while Stone moves dangerously close to overplaying the femme fatale. There is little if any intrigue in the story or the characters. Even the murders don't even seem to matter much.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Basic Instinct 2 pushes diligently along in a murder-and-mayhem-stuffed effort to demonstrate that (a) a sillier and more hackneyed movie than "Basic Instinct" is possible and (b) that shrinks have ids too, by golly.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Once the credits are done rolling it's a dour, enervated mystery, selling the old cat-and-mouse games.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Basic Instinct 2 is supposed to help Stone show it's possible for a woman to be sexy in her late 40s. But it's Rampling - who is 60 - who comes off as the more provocative and alluring. Stone's purring, snarling, bedroom kink is embarrassing.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Basic Instinct 2 is double trouble -- the femme is to die for, the film is to die from.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
For all the sex and slicing, the most shocking thing about it is how dreary it is.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It's a lot of things, but boring is not one of them. I cannot recommend the movie, but ... why the hell can't I? Just because it's godawful? What kind of reason is that for staying away from a movie? Godawful and boring, that would be a reason.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
What we may very well be looking at here is another "Showgirls," a drag camp-fest for the "Baby Jane" crowd, fabulous fodder for future cabaret acts, and a pleasure probably best enjoyed in a crowd -- preferably a vocal one. Dead serious and stone idiotic, the only basic instinct in evidence here is desperation.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Dennis Lim
Not content simply to examine the relationship between sex and death, BI2 ponderously blurs the boundaries between art and life, and the plot, already mired in nonsensical backstory, collapses with the late-inning introduction of a tired metafictional device (not to mention a wildly lunging "Usual Suspects" twist).
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Basic Instinct 2 is pretty awful. Rarely has a meaningless thriller had so many meaningful glances, or such arch acting by good actors who know better.
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Where is the suspense part? There is no suspense part. Suspense demands clarity of motive and action, and this screenplay never provides it.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Fortunately, as a showcase for Sharon Stone's physique, Basic Instinct 2 is a rousing success. In every other respect, it's a colossal failure.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Few expected Basic Instinct 2 to be very good, but no one expected it to be this boring.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
The 1992 phenomenon was creepy, tense and sexually charged in a bold yet tawdry way. This sequel lacks even a shred of those elements.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
In a better movie, this grand-dame performance might have been fun, but it's surrounded here by an impossibly dull and unsatisfying whodunit plot, unintentionally funny dialogue and such absurdities as having Catherine stay up late one night and whip out an entire novel.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
This film is unable to involve, entertain, or titillate. Basically, it stinks.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
At this point, there are inflatable toys that are livelier than Stone, but how can you tell the difference? Basic Instinct 2 is not an erotic thriller. It's taxidermy.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
This script by the husband-and-wife team of Leora Barish and Henry Bean is hopelessly contrived and takes forever to get to the point. (I warn you: The film does not absolutely identify the killer.)
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
A disaster of the highest or perhaps lowest order.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The laughs to be had in this deliciously awful sequel are all unintentional. A bummer for film buffs, but a ball for fans of the misbegotten.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Stone still dazzles the eye, but this wholly unwarranted sequel is so outrageously preposterous (and so very chockablock with quotable examples of the fine art of bad dialogue) that the end result achieves a basement grandeur of near-epic proportions.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 40 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Tony B. gave it a4:
Not nearly as bad as many critics hoped it would be, "Basic Instinct 2" moves along at a decent pace. Unfortunately, where it winds up is questionable. I would like an example of the"unintentionally hilarious dialog" that some say is to be found here.
Daz gave it an8:
Really enjoyed it. It wasn't as good as the first but what mattered for me was that i enjoyed the film. It didn't hurt that Sharon Stone looked AMAZING.
Victor G. gave it a7:
Watched it 2 times. First time was ok. 2nd time, I listened more and it was very good. Some times it was a bit much, but that's the director...not Sharon. The international touch was great! Trammel has sold a lot of books. Lastly...Sharon looks great and appears to be aging well. She has a great look. I would have loved to have her on my arm years ago and even more so now.
George S. gave it a1:
Brutal... couldn't sit threw it. Turned if off about 45 minutes in.
Hans B. gave it a6:
Sharon Stone is delightful to watch. The story was so so. The therapist was a bit unbelievable.
Alex V. gave it an8:
I think the reviewers all jumped on the bandwagon, i.e. it's OK to trash Sharon Stone. And a sequel? Even more reason. This movie was not bad at all, I was expecting some flop of a movie. And Sharon's still got it, she looks great. No one does the mean, mind-warped female character like she does. I don't know why I was comparing to Match Point, maybe because it takes place in London, but this was better than Match Point.
Aaron B. gave it a5:
This movie isn't horrible. Well, yes, it is. But listen . . . this might be a movie for you if you want to sit down and have a guilty pleasure. Sharon Stone works what she's got, and she's still got 'it'. She does what she can with the most laughable dialogue I have witnessed on screen in years. The supporting actors try to take themselves seriously, and do a decent job when all is said and done. This movie is bad, but it's not that bad. In fact, it is almost good. Well . . . almost.
