Fridae

Fourteen years ago, Sharon Stone attained instant
stardom/notoriety when she flashed her privates and
tongued a sexy woman in a thrashy thriller called
Basic Instinct. Overnight, the world crowned her as
the fantasy goddess/bitch/actress whose quips and
dress sense were deemed to be as murderously sharp as
the ice pick she wielded in the movie. These days, the
press may still rave about what a hot mamma she still
is. And the fact is, age has been kinder to Sharon
Stone than it has been/will be to many of us.

However, the film camera is one of the unkindest
instruments there is. When her current visage is
projected on a 6m-high silver screen, the lines and
wrinkles show. And suddenly, it looks ridiculous for
Sharon Stone to strut about in a movie trying to
seduce anything that movies, as she does in Basic
Instinct 2. Because frankly, she just doesn't have it
anymore.

Returning to the role of a bisexual nymphomaniac
novelist, the movie begins bizarrely with her being
fingered to orgasm by a soccer star as she speeds down
the streets of London. The car skids off the road and
crashes into a river, the man dies, and Sharon is
slapped with murder charges. A pale-faced psychiatrist
(David Morrissey) is assigned to assess her mental
health. But as you would expect, he quickly becomes
obsessed with her.

Watching Basic Instinct 2 makes you feel like you are
caught in a time warp. The dialogue, acting,
production design and camerawork have the amazing
ability of taking you back to 1980s and early 1990s.
The psycho-babble that David and his colleagues spout,
for instance, feels very old. And Sharon's methods of
seduction just look embarrassingly dated.

Sharon, honey, you've had your day in the sun. But
it's time to let go of privileges of youth and start
to age gracefully.