Basic Instinct

 Rating ****/*****, or 8/10

Paul Verhoeven took a break from science fiction in favour of directing two steamy sexy thrillers, one an almost instant genre classic, the other (Showgirls) not so much. The former is Basic Instinct, a successful hommage to Alfred Hitchcock's work, which deals with a cop with a sleazy past (Michael Douglas) investigating a homicide involving a beautiful femme fatale (Sharon Stone), only to fall under her spell while trying to determine whether she's the next target or actually the killer, in the process coming under the murderer's radar himself. A perfect mix of erotic tension and suspense, often simulated but so far still unsurpassed. The leg crossing scene where Stone is locked in an interrogation room with a bunch of male detectives and no panties on, yet still fully dominating events due to her brooding sexuality, has got to be one of the most (in)famous sequences of the last thirty years of movie making. Often accused of blatant homophobia, to my mind injustly. The movie contains one of the most memorable and most strongly tone-setting main themes ever, nigh omnipresent on those 'greatest movie themes' collection CDs, and deservedly so.

Starring: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Jeanne Tripplehorn

Directed by Paul Verhoeven

USA: Carolco Pictures, 1992