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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Basic Instinct (1992)

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Ice Picky

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Basic Instinct on DVD

Paul Verhoeven's sex mystery worked only if you turned off your brain completely and watched from below the waist. (Too many people took this movie too seriously.) And it actually works in a nasty, tasteless sort of way. A San Francisco cop (Michael Douglas) tries to solve a series of murders centered around the work of a mystery writer (Sharon Stone -- who deserved an Oscar nomination). Artisan's 2002 DVD release included two commentary tracks with director Verhoeven and sex writer Camille Paglia, plus lots of other extras, including an ice-pick shaped pen!

Starring: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Denis Arndt, Doroty Malone, Leilani Sarelle, Bruce A. Young, Chelcie Ross, Wayne Knight, Daniel von Bargen, Stephen Tobolowsky, Benjamin Mouton, Jack McGee, Bill Cable
Written by: Joe Eszterhas
Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
MPAA Rating: R/Unrated
Running Time: 128 minutes
Date: March 7, 2002