You can't keep a bad woman down. With a worldwide boxoffice gross of $350 million and a career-transforming role for Sharon Stone as the seductive and possibly deadly novelist Catherine Tramell, work on a sequel to 1992's "Basic Instinct" has been under way for years.
What finally comes together in "Basic Instinct 2" is a case of more of the same -- but not the same thing. The original film, a giddy pulp-fiction stew of sex, seduction and murder, afforded director Paul Verhoeven a shock corridor in which he coupled the unbridled eroticism of his earlier Dutch films with images of brutal violence and death. Love it or hate it, the film, written by Joe Eszterhas, was a tour de force of provocation in which a femme fatale and a corrupt cop throw decorum to the wind to romp in a sun-drenched California, featuring camera angles worthy of Hitchcock and a nerve-teasing score by Jerry Goldsmith.
By contrast, "Instinct 2" takes place in cool, sleek and dark postmodern London with cavernous interiors, often monochromatic surfaces and shadows everywhere. The director this time is British, Michael Caton-Jones, and he makes the sex scenes off-putting and dirty -- but not dirty in the right way. You sense his distaste just as you sensed Verhoeven's enthusiastic voyeurism. Complicating matters, the sequel, written by Leora Barish and Henry Bean, gets trapped by the need to repeat themes and scenes from the original rather than boldly explore a new terrain.
Stone is back as the bad-girl novelist. But Michael Douglas' San Francisco cop is gone, replaced by David Morrissey's cold-fish shrink, Dr. Michael Glass. No offense to Morrissey, but that's a let-down that unsettles the balance between a man and woman titter-tottering on the very brink of the law. The minute you see Glass, you know he's no match for Tramell: This Glass is bound to shatter.
The title and Stone's name ensure a good two weeks at the boxoffice, and perhaps some moviegoers might even like a tamer sex thriller where much is predictable though certainly not logical. Dialogue often is hilarious -- "Even the truth is a lie with her!" shrieks David Thewlis' police detective about Tramell -- the sexual roundelays put soap operas to shame, and the solution to all the murders is offered up without a shred of credibility. If any of this takes, then a decent worldwide gross is possible for "Instinct 2".
The movie's original subtitle, since dropped, was "Risk Addiction", which expresses the new film's take on Catherine. She is a risk addict, thriving on danger and needing to take greater and greater risks to quicken her pulse. When Catherine -- relocated to London for unexplained reasons -- drives her sports car into the Thames late one night, she is implicated in the death of a football star. Detective Superintendent Roy Washburn (Thewlis) brings in noted criminal psychiatrist Glass to perform an evaluation of her.
His analysis must have impressed Catherine because when she is released by the court, she wants to engage him as her shrink. In the film's first howling implausibility, he actually takes her on as a patient despite the objections of his colleague Dr. Milena Gardosh (the always wonderful Charlotte Rampling).
Naturally, their sessions see tables turn: She provokes and draws information out of him without revealing much of herself. And, naturally, he is thoroughly smitten. You know this because his colorless, grim visage grows even more colorless and grim.
While Washburn continues his quest to nail Catherine for the first death, she insinuates herself into the lives of seemingly everyone Glass knows -- his ex-wife (Indira Varma), a journalist (Hugh Dancy) working a damaging story about Glass and even Gardosh. Not everyone survives. In the movie's wildest bit of nonsense, Catherine lets the good doctor tail her into Soho's seedier streets, where she pays a pimp in a brothel to have sex with her, fully aware that Glass is watching.
The architecture and interior designs are all trendy and slick yet still feel like film noir as Goldsmith's musical themes resurface within the contours of John Murphy's new score. But the dynamics are off between Stone and Morrissey. What could possibly intrigue Catherine about this anal creature? That pimp or even the detective would be a better bet if she's looking for the thrill of risks.
Morrissey gives a stiff, awkward performance, while Stone moves dangerously close to overplaying the femme fatale. There is little if any intrigue in the story or the characters. Even the murders don't even seem to matter much. The only real intrigue comes in the film's risky flirtation with high camp.
BASIC INSTINCT 2
Columbia Pictures
Mario F. Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna in association with MGM Pictures present a C2/Intermedia 3 production in association with IMF3
Credits:
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Screenwriters: Leora Barish, Henry Bean
Based on characters created by: Joe Eszterhas: Producer: Mario F. Kassar, Andrew G. Vajna, Joel B. Michaels
Executive producers: Moritz Borman, Matthias Deyle, Denise O'Dell, Mark Albela
Director of photography: Gyula Pados
Production designer: Norman Garwood
Music: John Murphy
Music theme: Jerry Goldsmith
Costumes: Beatrix Aruna Pasztor
Editors: John Scott, Istvan Kiraly
Cast:
Catherine Tramell: Sharon Stone
Dr. Michael Glass: David Morrissey
Dr. Milena Gardosh: Charlotte Rampling
Roy Washburn: David Thewlis
Adam Tower: Hugh Dancy
Denise Glass: Indira Varma
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 114 minutes...
What finally comes together in "Basic Instinct 2" is a case of more of the same -- but not the same thing. The original film, a giddy pulp-fiction stew of sex, seduction and murder, afforded director Paul Verhoeven a shock corridor in which he coupled the unbridled eroticism of his earlier Dutch films with images of brutal violence and death. Love it or hate it, the film, written by Joe Eszterhas, was a tour de force of provocation in which a femme fatale and a corrupt cop throw decorum to the wind to romp in a sun-drenched California, featuring camera angles worthy of Hitchcock and a nerve-teasing score by Jerry Goldsmith.
By contrast, "Instinct 2" takes place in cool, sleek and dark postmodern London with cavernous interiors, often monochromatic surfaces and shadows everywhere. The director this time is British, Michael Caton-Jones, and he makes the sex scenes off-putting and dirty -- but not dirty in the right way. You sense his distaste just as you sensed Verhoeven's enthusiastic voyeurism. Complicating matters, the sequel, written by Leora Barish and Henry Bean, gets trapped by the need to repeat themes and scenes from the original rather than boldly explore a new terrain.
Stone is back as the bad-girl novelist. But Michael Douglas' San Francisco cop is gone, replaced by David Morrissey's cold-fish shrink, Dr. Michael Glass. No offense to Morrissey, but that's a let-down that unsettles the balance between a man and woman titter-tottering on the very brink of the law. The minute you see Glass, you know he's no match for Tramell: This Glass is bound to shatter.
The title and Stone's name ensure a good two weeks at the boxoffice, and perhaps some moviegoers might even like a tamer sex thriller where much is predictable though certainly not logical. Dialogue often is hilarious -- "Even the truth is a lie with her!" shrieks David Thewlis' police detective about Tramell -- the sexual roundelays put soap operas to shame, and the solution to all the murders is offered up without a shred of credibility. If any of this takes, then a decent worldwide gross is possible for "Instinct 2".
The movie's original subtitle, since dropped, was "Risk Addiction", which expresses the new film's take on Catherine. She is a risk addict, thriving on danger and needing to take greater and greater risks to quicken her pulse. When Catherine -- relocated to London for unexplained reasons -- drives her sports car into the Thames late one night, she is implicated in the death of a football star. Detective Superintendent Roy Washburn (Thewlis) brings in noted criminal psychiatrist Glass to perform an evaluation of her.
His analysis must have impressed Catherine because when she is released by the court, she wants to engage him as her shrink. In the film's first howling implausibility, he actually takes her on as a patient despite the objections of his colleague Dr. Milena Gardosh (the always wonderful Charlotte Rampling).
Naturally, their sessions see tables turn: She provokes and draws information out of him without revealing much of herself. And, naturally, he is thoroughly smitten. You know this because his colorless, grim visage grows even more colorless and grim.
While Washburn continues his quest to nail Catherine for the first death, she insinuates herself into the lives of seemingly everyone Glass knows -- his ex-wife (Indira Varma), a journalist (Hugh Dancy) working a damaging story about Glass and even Gardosh. Not everyone survives. In the movie's wildest bit of nonsense, Catherine lets the good doctor tail her into Soho's seedier streets, where she pays a pimp in a brothel to have sex with her, fully aware that Glass is watching.
The architecture and interior designs are all trendy and slick yet still feel like film noir as Goldsmith's musical themes resurface within the contours of John Murphy's new score. But the dynamics are off between Stone and Morrissey. What could possibly intrigue Catherine about this anal creature? That pimp or even the detective would be a better bet if she's looking for the thrill of risks.
Morrissey gives a stiff, awkward performance, while Stone moves dangerously close to overplaying the femme fatale. There is little if any intrigue in the story or the characters. Even the murders don't even seem to matter much. The only real intrigue comes in the film's risky flirtation with high camp.
BASIC INSTINCT 2
Columbia Pictures
Mario F. Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna in association with MGM Pictures present a C2/Intermedia 3 production in association with IMF3
Credits:
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Screenwriters: Leora Barish, Henry Bean
Based on characters created by: Joe Eszterhas: Producer: Mario F. Kassar, Andrew G. Vajna, Joel B. Michaels
Executive producers: Moritz Borman, Matthias Deyle, Denise O'Dell, Mark Albela
Director of photography: Gyula Pados
Production designer: Norman Garwood
Music: John Murphy
Music theme: Jerry Goldsmith
Costumes: Beatrix Aruna Pasztor
Editors: John Scott, Istvan Kiraly
Cast:
Catherine Tramell: Sharon Stone
Dr. Michael Glass: David Morrissey
Dr. Milena Gardosh: Charlotte Rampling
Roy Washburn: David Thewlis
Adam Tower: Hugh Dancy
Denise Glass: Indira Varma
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 114 minutes...
- 3/31/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
HAMBURG, Germany -- The supervisory board of IM International Media will resign before the company's general shareholder's meeting in August, setting the stage for the election of a new board that will better reflect IM's new focus on midbudget features and television production, the company said Wednesday. IM, the German parent company of production/sales outfit Intermedia, said its three-member supervisory board comprising Antoinette Hiebeler-Hasner, Matthias Deyle and Ronald Frohne will step down before the general meeting Aug. 23, paving the way for new elections. In their place, IM is setting up a board of German TV executives, a clear sign the company behind Alexander and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is looking to focus on the more risk-averse TV and genre film business as it tries to restructure and boost its ailing stock price.
- 7/13/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- The producers of Dead Fish said Tuesday that Gary Oldman (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and Robert Carlyle (Black and White) would round out the cast for the black comedy thriller. The duo play alongside Billy Zane (Titanic), Jimi Mistry (The Guru), Elena Anaya (Sex and Lucia) and Andrew Lee Potts (Band of Brothers) in the picture, which started shooting this month on location in London. Directed by Charley Stadler, the movie is billed as a twisting tale of mistaken identities, double-crosses, merciless killers and unrequited love. Fish is an Orange Pictures and German fund IMF (Internationale Medien Film) production in association with L.A.-based production company Franchise Pictures and SE8 Group. Based on a story by Stadler and Thomas Geiger, and scripted for the screen by Adam Kreutner and Dave Mitchell, the movie is produced by Dan Maag, Philip Schulz-Deyle, Elie Samaha and Matthias Deyle. Executive producer is Douglas Urbanski. Franchise Pictures is also handling the worldwide sale of rights to the picture.
- 10/14/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It's quite apparent -- right down to the hot pink lettering in the advertising -- that the distributor of "Slap Her ... She's French" would very much like it to be mistaken for another "Legally Blonde".
The only problem is, the Reese Witherspoon picture wasn't a gratingly unfunny groaner littered with zero-dimensional, unlikable characters and hackneyed, threadbare comic setups.
Fortunately, few -- aside from those who might mistake this German-financed production for a breezy foreign-language art house import -- will take the bait, ensuring that "Slap Her" beats a hasty retreat to the video store.
Wasting a potentially workable "All About Eve" premise, the film concerns the seemingly charmed life of one Starla Grady (Jane McGregor), the most popular student at Splendona High School, located somewhere deep in the heart of Texas.
That is, until one fateful day when, needing to amp up a little audience sympathy during another beauty pageant (Sending up pageants? How novel!), she announces her family will be taking in an exchange student from Paris in yet another gesture of her unfailing goodwill.
Enter the mousy, bespectacled Genevieve LePlouff (Piper Perabo), who seemingly worships the ground Starla struts upon. The beret and really bad French accent might fool some people, but it's clear from the get-go that Genevieve, or whatever her name really is, has major plans to dethrone her not-so-gracious hostess.
Naturally, Starla doesn't take kindly to people attempting to appropriate her life, and with a little detecting assistance from her bookish kid brother (Jesse James) and the nice-guy school photographer (Trent Ford), she exposes Genevieve as a vengeance-crazed wannabe.
But Genevieve isn't the real culprit here -- it's writers Lamar Damon and Robert Lee King and director Melanie Mayron who are truly deserving of a group smack.
Rather than striving for anything resembling sharply observed satire, the filmmakers have instead opted to mine lazy laughs from tired targets, and the bottom-feeding results leave behind an irritating, slimy residue.
While King, who directed the appropriately campy "Psycho Beach Party", and Damon seem to be biding their time until the next cat fight, actress-turned-director Mayron allows all the squandered comic opportunities to fall with an awkward thud, as if anticipating a laugh track to bail her out.
The cast, which also includes Julie White, Brandon Smith and Michael McKean as an improbable French teacher (maybe that's where Perabo learned the lame accent), doesn't fare much better, while the technical aspects, including the work of production design team Anne Stuhler and Roswell Hamrick ("Boiler Room", "Made"), are more proficient than the picture deserves.
SLAP HER ... SHE'S FRENCH
The Premiere Group
The Premiere Marketing & Distribution Group and Constantin Film present in association with Bandeira and Key Entertainment a Beau Flynn, Emcke/Augsberger and IMF 2 production
Credits:
Director: Melanie Mayron
Screenwriters: Lamar Damon, Robert Lee King
Producers: Beau Flynn, Jonathan King, Matthias Emcke
Executive producers: Bernd Eichinger, Thomas Augsberger, Stefan Simchowitz, Matthias Deyle, Volker Schauz
Director of photography: Charles Minsky
Production designers: Anne Stuhler, Roswell Hamrick
Editor: Marshall Harvey
Costume designer: Julia Caston
Music: David Michael Frank
Cast:
Genevieve LePlouff: Piper Perabo
Starla Grady: Jane McGregor
Ed Mitchell: Trent Ford
Monsieur Duke: Michael McKean
Bootsie Grady: Julie White
Arnie Grady: Brandon Smith
Randolph Grady: Jesse James
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
The only problem is, the Reese Witherspoon picture wasn't a gratingly unfunny groaner littered with zero-dimensional, unlikable characters and hackneyed, threadbare comic setups.
Fortunately, few -- aside from those who might mistake this German-financed production for a breezy foreign-language art house import -- will take the bait, ensuring that "Slap Her" beats a hasty retreat to the video store.
Wasting a potentially workable "All About Eve" premise, the film concerns the seemingly charmed life of one Starla Grady (Jane McGregor), the most popular student at Splendona High School, located somewhere deep in the heart of Texas.
That is, until one fateful day when, needing to amp up a little audience sympathy during another beauty pageant (Sending up pageants? How novel!), she announces her family will be taking in an exchange student from Paris in yet another gesture of her unfailing goodwill.
Enter the mousy, bespectacled Genevieve LePlouff (Piper Perabo), who seemingly worships the ground Starla struts upon. The beret and really bad French accent might fool some people, but it's clear from the get-go that Genevieve, or whatever her name really is, has major plans to dethrone her not-so-gracious hostess.
Naturally, Starla doesn't take kindly to people attempting to appropriate her life, and with a little detecting assistance from her bookish kid brother (Jesse James) and the nice-guy school photographer (Trent Ford), she exposes Genevieve as a vengeance-crazed wannabe.
But Genevieve isn't the real culprit here -- it's writers Lamar Damon and Robert Lee King and director Melanie Mayron who are truly deserving of a group smack.
Rather than striving for anything resembling sharply observed satire, the filmmakers have instead opted to mine lazy laughs from tired targets, and the bottom-feeding results leave behind an irritating, slimy residue.
While King, who directed the appropriately campy "Psycho Beach Party", and Damon seem to be biding their time until the next cat fight, actress-turned-director Mayron allows all the squandered comic opportunities to fall with an awkward thud, as if anticipating a laugh track to bail her out.
The cast, which also includes Julie White, Brandon Smith and Michael McKean as an improbable French teacher (maybe that's where Perabo learned the lame accent), doesn't fare much better, while the technical aspects, including the work of production design team Anne Stuhler and Roswell Hamrick ("Boiler Room", "Made"), are more proficient than the picture deserves.
SLAP HER ... SHE'S FRENCH
The Premiere Group
The Premiere Marketing & Distribution Group and Constantin Film present in association with Bandeira and Key Entertainment a Beau Flynn, Emcke/Augsberger and IMF 2 production
Credits:
Director: Melanie Mayron
Screenwriters: Lamar Damon, Robert Lee King
Producers: Beau Flynn, Jonathan King, Matthias Emcke
Executive producers: Bernd Eichinger, Thomas Augsberger, Stefan Simchowitz, Matthias Deyle, Volker Schauz
Director of photography: Charles Minsky
Production designers: Anne Stuhler, Roswell Hamrick
Editor: Marshall Harvey
Costume designer: Julia Caston
Music: David Michael Frank
Cast:
Genevieve LePlouff: Piper Perabo
Starla Grady: Jane McGregor
Ed Mitchell: Trent Ford
Monsieur Duke: Michael McKean
Bootsie Grady: Julie White
Arnie Grady: Brandon Smith
Randolph Grady: Jesse James
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 8/22/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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