Basic Instinct 2 2006

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Few expected Basic Instinct 2 to be very good, but no one expected it to be this boring. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Despite all the heavy breathing and mood lighting, Basic Instinct 2 is so dull that you might find yourself easily distracted by side issues. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: At this point, there are inflatable toys that are livelier than Stone, but how can you tell the difference? Basic Instinct 2 is not an erotic thriller. It's taxidermy. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: In Basic Instinct 2 the manufactured thrill is gone. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Stupefyingly lackluster. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Basic Instinct 2 has a stylish look and a few sexy moments, but the plot goes from confusing to implausible to absolutely ludicrous in the final sequence. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: When Catherine finally picks up her beloved ice pick, it's more like she's showing you a photo of an old friend than an old potential murder weapon. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: As a showcase for Sharon Stone's physique, Basic Instinct 2 is a rousing success. In every other respect, it's a colossal failure. Read more

Scott Craven, Arizona Republic: Trust your basic instinct and avoid the worst sequel since Staying Alive. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Absurdly overheated and unforgivably dull, Basic Instinct 2 is the accidental comedy sensation of the year to date. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: Dead serious and stone idiotic, the only basic instinct in evidence here is desperation. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Like many sequels this is actually a remake, and it suffers from the law of diminishing returns. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Using the same basic plot as 1992's original, BI2 feels less like a sequel than a remake whose shelf life has expired. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's been 14 years since the original Basic Instinct, and time -- and the miracles of beauty technology -- have been kind to Stone. Not much else about this movie holds up. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Basic Instinct 2 seems aimed at two audiences: men in raincoats in dark theaters and graduate students in film studies. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: In the end, this is a movie that makes the original Basic Instinct look good. And in a way, that's quite a feat. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Basic Instinct 2 isn't bad, exactly, but it lacks the entertaining vulgarity of the first film. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The only real suspense in Basic Instinct 2 is whether Stone will or won't reprise the scene that she once absurdly claimed she was tricked into doing. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: But most of the conversation in the lobby will revolve around who designed SS's clothes and jewelry. That's the way Ms. Stone wants it, and that's the way it is. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Stone delivers her lines with slinky grace, but there's no helping out a plot with as many doggedly transparent twists as this one. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Basic Instinct 2, for all its implausible plot devices, poverty of motivation, occasionally lethargic pace and fragrant dialogue, is a subversive piece of cinema. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: As with the first film, BI2 abounds with red herrings and misdirection, and comes up with an equally ambiguous Did she or didn't she? ending. But there are problems here beyond its staleness. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: But the movie is a baroque little mystery of so little mystery or consequence that you're literally sitting there waiting for the next full body cavity search. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This film is unable to involve, entertain, or titillate. Basically, it stinks. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Here is a movie so outrageous and preposterous it is either (a) suicidal or (b) throbbing with a horrible fascination. I lean toward (b). Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: If you're trying to reinvigorate the art of the stylish thriller, the movie you come up with needs to be stylish and it needs to be thrilling. Basic Instinct 2, written by Leora Barish and Henry Bean and directed by Michael Caton-Jones, is neither. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: What Basic Instinct 2 is missing, besides any of the trashy good fun of the original, is a subtitle. Here's a suggestion: A Girl's Guide to Dressing for Her Shrink. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Basic Instinct 2 is as dull as a blunt ice pick, watering down the original film's knockout cocktail of kinky sex and bloody murder into a timid, tepid thriller. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The original movie lacked sense, but it did possess that sizzle. This one has neither. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Even the ice pick looks like it really doesn't want to be there. Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: As a stand-alone film, this doesn't work; but viewed through the prism of the original, it offers some twisted, self-conscious pleasures. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The 1992 phenomenon was creepy, tense and sexually charged in a bold yet tawdry way. This sequel lacks even a shred of those elements. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Those hoping for either a sizzling -- or an unintentionally hilarious -- good time will be disappointed by this inexplicably dull sequel. Read more

Dennis Lim, Village Voice: The plot, already mired in nonsensical backstory, collapses with the late-inning introduction of a tired metafictional device (not to mention a wildly lunging Usual Suspects twist). Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Where is the suspense part? There is no suspense part. Suspense demands clarity of motive and action, and this screenplay never provides it. Read more