To cross or uncross? Sharon Stone is back

in Basic Instinct 2.(File photo)

Beijing, March 31(Xinhuanet)-- As countless sequels which have failed to match the original, Basic Instinct 2 has not escaped the fate.

Fourteen years after"Basic Instinct," with the original writer, director and star gone, all that's left from the original film are the late Jerry Goldsmith's delightfully insinuating score(or pieces of it) and Sharon Stone, who reenacts her role as Catherine Tramelle, the super-slutty novelist who uses men for sex before killing them.

Stone still looks terrific at age 48. She fairly oozes star power and she can still strike a provocative pose. But the sequel is nothing more than a police procedural freighted with some solid acting talent and a little kink. The impossibly dull and unsatisfying whodunit plot, unintentionally funny dialogue, and such absurdities as having Catherine stay up late one night and whip out an entire novel, make the movie so laughable that it's likely to be remembered as one of the all-time dumbest sequels.

It doesn't help that co-star Morrissey-- who serves as the audience point of view and has most of the screen time-- is a charisma-challenged non-entity. Clearly, the producers could not induce a male star of any stature to take on the thankless role.

Director Michael Caton-Jones fills his frame with teasing flashes of naked bodies, simulated copulation and full-scale orgies; all his characters talk dirty and the movie's advertising would have us believe that it's the last word in steamy cinematic sex.

But Caton-Jones doesn't have original director Paul Verhoeven's gift for glossy smut, and the world has passed by filmmakers in this department during the past 14 years. Compared to what is one click away from any kid on the Internet, the depravity of"Basic Instinct 2" is very tame indeed.

The problem with"Basic Instinct 2" is not just that it's bad, but that it's boring, flat and lacks the sense of danger and thrills that made the first movie so memorable.

It also comes out after a period of time where the genre it helped fuel has run its course due to the abundance of cheap knock-offs, most of which are better than this.

If your own basic instinct is to avoid this movie, then you probably should go with that. Enditem

(Agencies)[1][2][3][4]

Editor:

Yang Lei