Movie Review Black Los Angeles

BlackNLA Movie Reviews

*****THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****

by Edwardo Jackson

BIASES:30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

BASIC INSTINCT 2 (R)

MOVIE BIASES: Fourteen years older, fourteen years bolder?

MAJOR PLAYERS: Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct), David Morrissey (Derailed), and director Michael Caton-Jones (City by the Sea)

Remember where you were when you first saw Sharon Stone cross her legs in the interrogation room for Michael Douglas? I do, barely - I was in high school at the time. Please believe when my girlfriend and I got back from seeing "Basic Instinct," the first thing I did was check under the bed for ice picks, it was just that well done of a psycho-sexual thriller. Well, it'll take more than an ice pick to slay 21st century audiences with "Basic Instinct 2," the long-delayed, intriguing but train wreck of a sequel.

Opening with the winning combo of sex and speed (Detective: "You were having sex at 100 MPH?" Tramell: "One hundred and ten. I must have hit a pothole."), "Instinct" has our favorite sex novelist Catherine Tramell (Stone) escaping a near death situation in London's Thames River that results in the loss of her soccer star boyfriend (Stan Collymore). With Scotland Yard investigating the incident, forensic
psychologist Michael Glass (Morrissey) is brought in, evaluating Tramell as someone with a "risk addiction," who could pose a danger to herself, if not others. As she becomes his patient, it looks like the good doctor is ready to take some kinky, unprofessional new risks. All the while, people start dying around Dr. Glass as a tabloid journalist (Hugh Dancy) pursues the story behind one of the psychologist's most dramatically failed cases.

The premise sounded interesting enough: Tramell's sexualized, reckless indifference versus the British stiff sensibilities. In spite of an amusing script with a decent plot by Leora Barish & Henry Bean, "Instinct" abandons its predecessor's good ones. Perhaps itï¿½s the neo-Puritanical times we're living in or a deference to Stone's advanced age (more on that later), but there's decidedly less of everything in this go 'round: less menace, less style, and less sex - but still plenty for everyone (literally - an orgy at a group sex motel is this movie's (comical) sexual centerpiece). Costume designer Beatrix Aruna Pasztor should've been fired for lazily draping both Stone and Morrissey in black throughout the movie (we get it - they're
people with bad intentions). That bewitching, creepy musical theme is back, but Caton-Jones hasn't matched its dangerous delectability with any real onscreen jeopardy of his own. Although Morrissey acquits himself serviceably as the control freak, "you look a little divorced" Dr. Glass, Caton-Jones' mismanagement of his actors - his franchise player in particular - ice picks this movie's sexy center. A more capable or committed director would have truly explored the sexy, twisty possibility that Catherine may be maneuvering patient-doctor privilege not only to shield herself from the law but also to create risks for self-indulgence. Too bad this movie lacks such a director.

And it needs one - Catherine Tramell is a mess. Sharon Stone, while well preserved for 47 (at the time of filming), has clearly had "work" done of the Star Jones variety. If that's not distracting enough, her portrayal of a supposedly older, allegedly wiser Tramell has aged her in reverse: like the head cheerleader who thinks she's smarter than the rest of the squad, Stone's Tramell is far more vampy than the younger, coolly precise Tramell. Sure, she still likes to play mind games, sex games, and smoke cigarettes (in an amusingly modern, anti-smoking world), but it comes off as mere scenery chewing vapidity instead of character-building intimidation and psychological misdirection. Still a very nasty girl with a penchant for sensual
wordplay (every syllable out of Stone's mouth is laced with innuendo), Stone's Tramell comes off like a horny old broad instead of a master manipulator: "That's the boredom of shrinkdom," a sexually frustrated Tramell chastises Dr. Glass. "Too many answers, too many questions, nobody gets laid."

She ain't the only one who's frustrated.

@@ REELS
(TWO REELS)
Extra medium

Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com!

Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com




			BlackNLA Movie Reviews ***THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*** by Edwardo Jackson BIASES:30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare BASIC INSTINCT 2 (R) MOVIE BIASES: Fourteen years older, fourteen years bolder? MAJOR PLAYERS: Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct), David Morrissey (Derailed), and director Michael Caton-Jones (City by the Sea) Remember where you were when you first saw Sharon Stone cross her legs in the interrogation room for Michael Douglas? I do, barely - I was in high school at the time. Please believe when my girlfriend and I got back from seeing "Basic Instinct," the first thing I did was check under the bed for ice picks, it was just that well done of a psycho-sexual thriller. Well, it'll take more than an ice pick to slay 21st century audiences with "Basic Instinct 2," the long-delayed, intriguing but train wreck of a sequel. Opening with the winning combo of sex and speed (Detective: "You were having sex at 100 MPH?" Tramell: "One hundred and ten. I must have hit a pothole."), "Instinct" has our favorite sex novelist Catherine Tramell (Stone) escaping a near death situation in London's Thames River that results in the loss of her soccer star boyfriend (Stan Collymore). With Scotland Yard investigating the incident, forensic psychologist Michael Glass (Morrissey) is brought in, evaluating Tramell as someone with a "risk addiction," who could pose a danger to herself, if not others. As she becomes his patient, it looks like the good doctor is ready to take some kinky, unprofessional new risks. All the while, people start dying around Dr. Glass as a tabloid journalist (Hugh Dancy) pursues the story behind one of the psychologist's most dramatically failed cases. The premise sounded interesting enough: Tramell's sexualized, reckless indifference versus the British stiff sensibilities. In spite of an amusing script with a decent plot by Leora Barish & Henry Bean, "Instinct" abandons its predecessor's good ones. Perhaps itï¿½s the neo-Puritanical times we're living in or a deference to Stone's advanced age (more on that later), but there's decidedly less of everything in this go 'round: less menace, less style, and less sex - but still plenty for everyone (literally - an orgy at a group sex motel is this movie's (comical) sexual centerpiece). Costume designer Beatrix Aruna Pasztor should've been fired for lazily draping both Stone and Morrissey in black throughout the movie (we get it - they're people with bad intentions). That bewitching, creepy musical theme is back, but Caton-Jones hasn't matched its dangerous delectability with any real onscreen jeopardy of his own. Although Morrissey acquits himself serviceably as the control freak, "you look a little divorced" Dr. Glass, Caton-Jones' mismanagement of his actors - his franchise player in particular - ice picks this movie's sexy center. A more capable or committed director would have truly explored the sexy, twisty possibility that Catherine may be maneuvering patient-doctor privilege not only to shield herself from the law but also to create risks for self-indulgence. Too bad this movie lacks such a director. And it needs one - Catherine Tramell is a mess. Sharon Stone, while well preserved for 47 (at the time of filming), has clearly had "work" done of the Star Jones variety. If that's not distracting enough, her portrayal of a supposedly older, allegedly wiser Tramell has aged her in reverse: like the head cheerleader who thinks she's smarter than the rest of the squad, Stone's Tramell is far more vampy than the younger, coolly precise Tramell. Sure, she still likes to play mind games, sex games, and smoke cigarettes (in an amusingly modern, anti-smoking world), but it comes off as mere scenery chewing vapidity instead of character-building intimidation and psychological misdirection. Still a very nasty girl with a penchant for sensual wordplay (every syllable out of Stone's mouth is laced with innuendo), Stone's Tramell comes off like a horny old broad instead of a master manipulator: "That's the boredom of shrinkdom," a sexually frustrated Tramell chastises Dr. Glass. "Too many answers, too many questions, nobody gets laid." She ain't the only one who's frustrated. @@ REELS (TWO REELS) Extra medium Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com! Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com Â© 2004, Edwardo Jackson