Basic Instinct 2

I haven't really liked a Sharon Stone movie since Total Recall, way back in 1990. And then, I liked her in that role only because: (1) she was in the movie for only a short while, and (2) her character is killed by Arnold after a merciless butt-kicking. I want to like Stone. Really. But I just cant, no matter how hard I try. The original Basic Instinct? Pretty good movie, but her acting was over-the-top. Sliver? She made that movie trading on her first Instinct cred, and her acting was way over-the-top. That western she made with Gene Hackman, The Quick And The Dead? Over-the-top.

Oh! I liked her in Casino. But then her character snorted cocaine in front of her young child, making me somewhat nauseas and placing her and that movie on this list of disturbing movie scenes.

I'm just not a fan.

She tries too hard. And it shows. It shows in her dialogue, her body language and the roles she chooses. She can't do subtle. Stone seems to know only one gear, and you either like it or you don't. I don't.

Stone's over-the-top acting killed this Basic Instinct sequel, but the movie was nearly dead already. Basic Instinct 2, like Stone, tries to hard. It wants to remind us of the original, and even uses many of the same themes to set a mood ("There's no smoking in here" is used in this movie more than once). The plot is extreme, the acting is awful and the dialogue is cheesy. I hated this movie so much that I stopped watching half-way through.

It was unbearable.