Basic Instinct 2 (2006)

Directed by Michael Caton-Jones. Starring David Morrissey, Sharon Stone, David Thewlis, Charlotte Rampling, Heathcote Williams, Flora Montgomery, Indira Varma, Hugh Dancy, Iain Robertson. [R]

Stone lifelessly vamps her way through this deadening, long-delayed sequel that hardly anyone was clamoring for in the first place (the actress’ pocketbook notwithstanding). Once again, she’s the ice-veined novelist Catherine Tramell, into kinky sex and mind games, and her newest “toy” is a none-too-clever court-ordered therapist (Morrissey) who’s supposed to be helping mercurial detective Thewlis’ investigation into her involvement in the “accidental” death of her lover. The bodies pile up, the flesh is bared (though less of it than one might expect), but it’s all so perfunctory that the experience can’t even be enjoyed as overheated trash. Despite being the only returning character from the original (the events in between the two films are sketchily-defined at best), Stone is merely a supporting player, with the heavy lifting left to Morrissey’s wooden bore. As for the requisite asinine twist ending, it probably would have either been laughable or infuriating if anyone could reasonably care at that point.

17/100