Basic Instinct 2 (DVD, 2006)

Catherine Tramell is the perfect role for Sharon Stone who, though not a great actress is certainly a screen "personality" : someone that commands your attention. You simply cannot take your eyes off of her perennially, it seems, gorgeous face and body.
In her other roles, other than arguably in "Casino," there is a falseness in Stone's approach as if there is a scrim between her and us...her technique "shows" and she is simply not effective.
But in both "Basic Instincts," Stone has found the role of a lifetime: one in which everything about her persona, her acting abilities and her charisma come together and form a cogent performance. And believe me, Stone's Catherine Tramell is a chew-the-scenery, gut-splitting, batten-down-the-hatches p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-n-c-e.
"Basic Instinct 2" is much better than it has any right to be: the screenplay, is pretty good, David Morrissey as Dr. Andrew Glass: Catherine's foil, plaything, Psychiatrist, though at first kind of a stick in the mud...ends up being an interesting, edgy character. The sublime Charlotte Rampling is also on hand to add weight and substance to the proceedings as Glass' mentor. But the real acting honors go to David Thewlis as a slimy, maybe-lying-maybe not lying, conniving, profanity spouting detective Roy Washburn. Thewlis chews through all the plot machinations and screenplay inconsistencies with his sterling acting chops.
"Basic Instinct 2" is ultimately an effective entertainment though not quite on the level of a so-bad-it's good, way, way over-the-top movie like "Showgirls." If anything "B.I. 2" is too safe, too perfect looking for it's own good.