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Basic Instinct 2
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Basic Instinct 2, also known as Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction, is a 2006 film, being the long awaited sequel to 1992's Basic Instinct. The film was directed by Michael Caton-Jones and produced by Mario Kassar, Joel B. Michaels, and Andrew G. Vajna. The screenplay was by Leora Barish and Henry Bean. It stars Sharon Stone, who reprises her role from the original, as well as David Morrissey and David Thewlis.
The film follows novelist and suspected serial murderer Catherine Tramell, who is once again in trouble with the authorities.
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Quotations
Everthing interesting begins in the mind.
Encyclopedia
Basic Instinct 2, also known as Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction, is a 2006 film, being the long awaited sequel to 1992's Basic Instinct. The film was directed by Michael Caton-Jones and produced by Mario Kassar, Joel B. Michaels, and Andrew G. Vajna. The screenplay was by Leora Barish and Henry Bean. It stars Sharon Stone, who reprises her role from the original, as well as David Morrissey and David Thewlis.
The film follows novelist and suspected serial murderer Catherine Tramell, who is once again in trouble with the authorities. Scotland Yard appoints psychiatrist Dr. Michael Glass to evaluate her after a man in Tramell's presence dies. As with Detective Nick Curran in the first film, Glass becomes a victim of Tramell's seductive games.
After being in development hell for a number of years, the film was shot in London from April to August 2005, and was released on March 31, 2006. After numerous cuts, it was released with an R rating for language, nudity, and drug content. The film was not as well received as its predecessor and fell short of commercial expectations.
Plans for a third film have been scrapped due to the film's poor box office reception. However, Stone has reportedly been championing the film's production and, if greenlighted, said she would not be starring in the final installment to the trilogy but would hope to instead be its director.
Plot
The film is set in London (as opposed to San Francisco in the original). It opens with American best-seller author Catherine Tramell in a speeding car with her companion, a famous British football star. Tramell takes the man's hand and begins masturbating with it, all the while increasing her vehicle's speed. At the point of orgasm, Trammell veers off the road and crashes into the West India Docks in Canary Wharf. She attempts to save her partner but, as she says in the subsequent scene, "When it came down to it, I guess my life was more important to me than his."
Tramell is interrogated by Detective Supt. Roy Washburn of Scotland Yard. He claims that D-Tubocurarine (a neuromuscular blocking agent, used to relax muscles during general anesthesia) was found in her car, and that a man named “Dickie Pap” said that he sold Tramell “15 milliliters of DTC last Thursday.” Tramell counters by saying that this Dickie Pap must be lying because “you’ve got him on some other charge and he's trying to deal his way out, if he even exists.”
Tramell continues therapy sessions with Dr. Michael Glass, who has conducted a court-ordered psychiatric exam and given testimony in her case. She begins to play psychological games with Glass, who becomes increasingly frustrated with, yet intrigued by, this mysterious woman. Glass's own life begins a spiral of destruction.
One night, while having sexual intercourse with a lesser character, Glass makes love with a violent aggression after dealings with Trammell, similar in the fashion that Michael Douglas's character Nick Curran did to police psychologist Dr. Beth Garner in the original Basic Instinct. Glass receives a call from his ex-wife in a state of distress. Her partner, a journalist writing a negative story about Glass, has been found dead. Multiple murders begin to surface around him, his obsession with Tramell grows and his career and life are threatened until he can no longer tell right from wrong.
A ruined man in the end, silent and institutionalized, Glass learns from Tramell that the subject of her novel was, as with Curran back in San Francisco, a man very much like him.
Cast
Background
Production
Basic Instinct 2 had been in "development hell" for the better part of a decade. In 2000, the film was announced as having a March 2002 release. However, casting for the male lead was long and troublesome, with male actors declining the role due to either the level of sexuality or the violently explicit nature of the film. When no acceptable male lead had been cast before the slated production start date of 2001, the project was cancelled. Stone immediately sued the producers for breach of contract.
In 2004, just before Stone's case was brought to trial, both sides settled for undisclosed terms. One of the conditions of the settlement that was made public was that the movie would be made as it had been originally planned. In April 2005, the filmmakers and Stone (who was a key element of her male co-star's casting), chose British actor David Morrissey, and production began.
Controversy
On February 6, 2006, several film news websites began circulating a short, leaked, and uncensored promotional reel that depicted scenes from the movie. The approximately four minute promo included clips of explicit love scenes from the movie. Two days after it had begun circulating, the official trailer debuted.
More Leaks
On Sharon Stone's 48th birthday, March 10, 2006, several deleted scenes from the film appeared online at basicinstinct2.com. The scenes did not appear in the finished R-rated theatrical version of the film (nor in the Unrated DVD, oddly enough), and they are presumed to have been given an NC-17 rating by the MPAA, which would explain their absence. This website has been shut down and now redirects to Sony.
Like the original, the film was initially assigned an NC-17 rating by the MPAA; this was again because of the sexual content and graphic violence. Two scenes in particular were cited as the reason for the rating: At one point in the film, Sharon Stone's character is part of an orgy scene and gets raped by the main character in another scene. There was also a threesome scene as well. Eventually the orgy scene and threesome were cut from the film and an R rating was obtained. According to an interview of David Morrissey by MTV in November 2005, the subsequent DVD release of the film should have had all edited scenes restored. The uncut version was released theatrically outside the USA, including Canada; however, the US "Unrated Cut" DVD did not contain an extended orgy scene or any of the threesome scene, leaving many to wonder if these scenes will ever see the light of day outside of various obscure internet sources.
Reception
Critical
Upon release the film found little praise from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, a film review collection website, the film earned a 6% fresh rating, meaning that out of 105 reviews, only 7 were favorable. It recently received the 2006 "Moldy Tomato" award for being the worst-reviewed film of the year, and ranks at #70 as the worst critiqued movie ever as tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. Although some critics approved of Stone's performance, it was the film's plot that became the main target of criticism. The film also suffered from comparison to the original Basic Instinct, which was more popular with critics.
Box office
The film was a noteworthy failure at the box office. Budgeted like a summer blockbuster (estimated budget was $70,000,000 USD), the film grossed only $3,201,420 in its first weekend of release in the United States, placing it a poor 10th in top gross, against such competition as Ice Age: The Meltdown (opening the same weekend), V for Vendetta and Inside Man (still in their first few weeks of their release). Things then went from bad to worse. Low as the opening weekend was, the second week dropoff was just under 70%, nearly the worst of the year. (Only Harsh Times and Eragon dropped off more.) In the end, the film would run in theaters for only 17 days, and finish with a domestic gross of only $5,851,188.
The film found more success outside the United States, earning over 32 million dollars, giving Basic Instinct 2 a worldwide theatrical gross of nearly $39 million.
Even so, MovieFone.com ranked the film as #16 on its Top 25 Box Office Bombs of All Time.
DVD rentals and sales
While the movie flopped at the American box office and made only a moderate dent in European and Australian cinemas, it was a minor success on DVD and video. In its first week of release (starting July 11, 2006), it placed third. Counting U.S. rentals alone, the film has earned $21.01 million. It took BI2 3 months and 10 days to be released on video and DVD.
Miscellanea
- In the film, Sharon Stone drives a Spyker C8 Laviolette.
- The only on location filming to take place outside of central London was at Royal Holloway, University of London, 32 km (20 miles) southwest of London in Egham, Surrey. This institution doubled as a hospital. It also features in the movie Howards End.
- In the movie, Catherine Tramell's newest book is titled "Shooter" and is based upon Michael Douglas's character in the first movie.
- Catherine would even mention Michael Douglas's character by name (Nick Curran) in one of her sessions with Dr. Glass following the "Shooter" book scene that Dr. Glass attends.
- The unrated version of the DVD is still missing footage. A scene featuring Michael Glass seducing Catherine Tramell in his office is missing and a scene featuring Michael involved in a threesome is also deleted. There are also some minor shots missing that appeared in the promo reel that include Catherine Tramell getting out of the hot tub, showing full frontal nudity and Catherine wearing a see-through outfit with no underwear on. The promo reel is still available on numerous websites.
- Of interest to architects, the office scenes all take place either outside or within 30 St. Mary Axe, also known as "The Gherkin", a famous office tower designed by Sir Norman Foster, Architect.
External links
- at Sonypictures.com
- at Apple.com*
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