Posted on 04/02/2006 10:48:21 PM PDT by MadIvan
The original broke new ground with the risqué shot that made a star of Sharon Stone. Its long-awaited sequel, however, is likely to be remembered only for failing to deliver anything approaching so memorable a moment.
Basic Instinct 2, the follow-up to the 1992 blockbuster starring Michael Douglas as a San Francisco policeman who falls for Stone's murderous femme fatale, opened at the weekend to paltry box office sales and a critical mauling.
According to preliminary figures, it made only $1.15 million on its opening night and was expected to total just over $3 million by the end of the weekend. By contrast, the animated feature Ice Age: The Meltdown - also a sequel - made an estimated $22 million on its opening night and was expected to take more than $70 million by last night.
Fans of the original Basic Instinct, directed by Paul Verhoeven, have waited 14 years for the follow-up to the erotic thriller in which Stone played the smouldering, icy crime writer who is a suspect in a series of vicious sex murders.
Its iconic interrogation scene - where an underwear-less Stone demonstrates her sexual power to police officers with a swift uncrossing of the legs - became one of the most talked-about peep show moments in cinematic history. The film went on to gross $350 million.
Trailers for the new film, directed by Michael Caton-Jones, feature lots of teasing footage of Stone - now 48 - but, as many critics waste no time in pointing out, there is no repeat of the revealing shot.
The Washington Post calls the film "a hammy plot with a pickle on the side". Writing in the New York Times, Manohla Dargis dubbed it "a disaster of the highest or perhaps lowest order".
The film, also starring Charlotte Rampling, David Thewlis and Liverpool-born David Morrissey, is set in what the CBS News critic David Edelstein calls "a drab London that's, no offence to English people, really un-erotic".
lol
*spew*
I dunno - they could have just called it "Basic Instinct - the MILF Cut" and streamed it to the web.
Well said!
Rock on!
:-)
So what happened to the Michael Douglas character from the first one?
What offended me about the flashing scene was the way it reduced the police interrogators into drooling juveniles.
The movie was vastly overrated, IMO.
I believe that the correct answer to your last question is "both."
Ice Age II did 120 million this weekend and I suspect it's politically motivated. (the warming)
Hollywood is truly delusional..they keep believing that luminaries such as Sharon Stone (and Uma Thurman, Cameron Diaz, J.Lo, etc), can actually ACT. Who wants to pay money to watch that washed-up old slut anyway?
If you were sthupping Catherine Zeta Jones, you'd stay away from Sharon Stone too.
British entertainment goes on two extremes. You can have some very wholesome shows and films such as The Last of the Summer Wine or Brassed Off, shows that most Americans immediate recognize when they think of British TV. Even the Bridget Jone's Diary seem rather implicit in sexual descriptions.
Last of the Summer Wine's site:
http://www.summer-wine.com
But on the other hand, the sky is the only limit when you come to shows like The Footballers' Wives, Cold Feet, or Sirens. They are so explicit that they will literally make members of Parents TV Council or Focus on the Family's Plugged In reviews suffer heart attacks. There is nothing like that from American's free-to-air TV networks.
The Footballers' Wives's official site:
http://www.footballerswives.tv/
I think I've missed the extremes. When I think of British TV I think of Dr. Who, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, etc.
You are lucky, New Zealand has pervasive British influence and we do watch as many British shows as American ones on local TV. So we do get to know the both extremes of British TV and movie s.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.