Basic Instinct (1992)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 59
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 27
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5.3/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 10
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 116,390
My Rating
Movie Info
This cold, stylish erotic-thriller grossed over $100 million at the box-office despite vigorous protests at its depiction of gays and women. The shocking opening sequence features a graphic sexual encounter involving a rock-star bound with a white Hermes scarf by an unidentified blond woman. Despite the fact that the scene ends with a bloody icepick murder (horrifyingly realized by makeup artist Rob Bottin), Hermes scarves quickly sold out at stores nationwide. This seeming paradox is at the
Jan 1, 1992 Wide
Aug 26, 1997
Artisan Entertainment
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Cast
-
Sharon Stone
Catherine Tramell -
Michael Douglas
Detective Nick Curran -
George Dzundza
Gus -
Jeanne Tripplehorn
Dr. Beth Gardner -
Denis Arndt
Lieutenant Walker -
Leilani Sarelle
Roxy -
Bruce A. Young
Andrews -
Chelcie Ross
Captain Talcott -
Dorothy Malone
Hazel Dobkins -
Wayne Knight
John Correli -
Daniel von Bargen
Lieutenant Nilsen -
Stephen Tobolowsky
Dr. Lamott -
Benjamin Mouton
Harrigan -
Peter Appel
Detective -
Julie RitterLinda Bond
Hand Puppet Model -
William Duff-Griffin
Dr. Myron -
Bradford English
Campus Policeman -
Mary Pat Gleason
Juvenile Officer -
Michael Halton
Bartender at County Wes... -
Juanita Jennings
Receptionist -
Michael David Lally
Detective -
Irene Olga Lopez
Maid -
Keith Henry McDaniel
Featured Dancer -
Jack McGee
Sheriff -
Mitch Pileggi
Internal Affairs Invest... -
Eric Poppick
Coroner's Guy -
James Rebhorn
Dr. McElwaine -
David Wells
Polygraph Examiner -
Bill Cable
Johnny Boz -
-
Byron Berline
Doo Wah Rider -
Adilah Barnes
Nurse -
Stephen Rowe
Internal Affairs Invest... -
Freda Foh Shen
Berkeley Registrar
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All Critics (59) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (38) | Rotten (27) | DVD (34)
Verhoeven does not explore the dark side, but merely exploits it, and that makes all the difference in the world.
Top Critic[The film has] a smug faith in the ability of its own speed, smartness and luxe to wow the yokels.
Slick, clever and entertainingly overheated while you're watching it, Basic Instinct starts to evaporate the second you leave the theater.
The harsh, politically incorrect truth about Basic Instinct is that it's a tantalizing, suspensefully correct thriller.
Basic Instinct is a reminder of the difference between exhilaration and exhaustion, between tension and hysteria, between eroticism and exhibitionism. The line may be fine, but it is real enough to separate the great thrillers from the also-rans.
Call me a prude, but it's not sexy watching an erotic thriller in which every time a couple does it, one of them gets it with an ice pick. I don't care how many firmly toned tummies and tushes are bared.
Joe Eszterhas shamelessly reworks ideas and themes he had earlier exploited in films such as Jagged Edge and Music Box, but the sheer overheated nature of Verhoeven's direction makes this extremely watchable.
Flashy, raunchy and schlocky, Basic Instinct is classic nineties noir for which Verhoeven's overblown direction and Stone's exposure secured a place in movie history.
The result may be flimsy, but it goes out and grabs you from the start.
Trailer trash Hitchcock spliced with overboiled film noir.
[Verhoeven] has always had a skill for storytelling, however questionable and tasteless the materials; but here he is hopelessly defeated by Ezsterhas' talky, slow-moving, and derivative script.
If Basic Instinct achieves nothing else, it will replace Caligula as Bob Guccione's favorite movie.
[Stone] is the very best thing about this often disappointing, frantically sexy and, ultimately, unpalatable thriller.
There's nothing new about this ploy, or about much else in Basic Instinct, but it's disheartening to see that Hollywood is still afflicted by its age-old anxiety toward strong, confident women.
Through all this, there remains that calm center of nasty, brilliant social insight.
Excessive whodunit is definitely not for kids.
Audience Reviews for Basic Instinct
Super Reviewer
Nick Curran is a troubled cop with a troubled past whose latest murder investigation leads him to Catherine Tramell- a lovely bisexual author of sleazy pulp who is the prime suspect because her lover is the victim, and was killed in a fashion basically verbatim from a scene from one of her novels. Nick makes the questionable decision to begin a torrid affair with Tramell, as he is really unsure if she's truly the suspect, but also because she's just too alluring to ignore, no matter how much danger could be involved.
The film really tows the line between exploitative sleaze and actual cinematic merit. It's not always balanced, as the plot often gets cast aside for sex and violence, but the film is certainly nothing if not intensely memorable. The look is great, the score is phenomenal, the performances are quite solid, especially from Stone as Tramell, and, if you watch the director's cut, the film really delivers the goods where the violence and lust are concerned.
This sort of thing is generally Z-Grade schlock, but I found the treatment of the material here to be surprisingly solid and entertaining. It's no masterpiece of course, but it's certainly a highlight on the B-List of Verhoeven's filmography.
Super Reviewer
Discussion Forum
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