Amazon.com video review:
The take-no-prisoners sex thriller from 1992 now stands as a
milestone in the career of screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, but in the
hands of director Paul Verhoeven Basic Instinct is an
undeniably stylish and provocative study of obsession. In the role
that made her a star (and showed the audience a little more skin than
she intended), Sharon Stone plays the cleverly manipulative novelist
Catherine Tramell who snares San Francisco detective Nick Curran
(Michael Douglas) with her insatiable sexual appetite during the
investigation of her boyfriend's murder. Tramell is the prime suspect,
but the plot twists and turns until Curran is trapped in a dangerous
cycle of dead ends and unsolved murders, never sure if Tramell is
committing the crimes or if it is some other, unknown suspect. With a
plot that keeps viewers guessing, Basic Instinct is the work of
a director who is clearly in his element. --Jeff Shannon
