Basic Instinct Reviews
Oct 11, 2022
Sharon Stone radiates on screen in Paul Verhoeven's erotic thriller.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
Oct 5, 2022
Controversial and offensive. Enthralling and sexy. Featuring a star turn from Stone and no shortage of male character actors, Verhoeven and Eszterhas have crafted a sublime queer Erotic Thriller that doesn't play it safe or seek to appease audiences.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
Aug 30, 2022
Basic Instinct is a predictable, unintentionally self- mocking and ultimately dangerous piece of misogynist, anti-queer ideology.
May 23, 2022
Basic Instinct is the most feminist film I have seen since Thelma and Louise.
Mar 25, 2022
Beyond that, though, Basic Instinct is best known for sex. (30th anniversary)
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Jun 23, 2021
...a rare example of a blockbuster that's not aimed at family audiences, but made by a provocateur hoping to shake up attitudes to sex...
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| Original Score: 5/5
Jun 14, 2021
...earns its status as what Nick deems "the f*ck of the century", or at least what Catherine grudgingly concedes to be "a pretty good beginning", in radicalising the sexual politics of a subgenre more often associated with male privilege.
Jan 12, 2021
Basic Instinct depicts queerness in the most sinister ways imaginable.
Nov 16, 2020
The classic erotic neo-noir thriller...Sure, this one has questionable morals, but at least the woman has all the power.
Nov 13, 2020
Time, sadly, hasn't been so kind to Douglas. A decade and a half later, the glimpse of his saggy naked bottom after one of the duo's sex scenes remains shocking.
Sep 9, 2020
Even as Verhoeven is pushing buttons and stretching the boundaries of conventionality, he still incorporates artsy filmmaking techniques.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
Apr 11, 2020
...a slick, stylish, and generally unsatisfying thriller from a distressingly erratic filmmaker.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Aug 27, 2018
With her high octane gyno-power at full throttle, [Sharon Stone] ... commands our attention now as much as she did on the film's initial release, defiantly holding our gaze if we dare even for a moment let our eyes drift towards anything else.
May 29, 2018
Verhoeven tries mightily to come across as a twisted Hitchcock, but, like his leads, he's too sick and confused to succeed.
Feb 3, 2017
Here is a film so utterly devoid of art and intellect that nothing remains other than a husk of ridiculous ploys.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
Mar 25, 2013
Joe Eszterhas shamelessly reworks ideas and themes he had earlier exploited in films such as Jagged Edge and Music Box, but the sheer overheated nature of Verhoeven's direction makes this extremely watchable.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Mar 25, 2013
Trailer trash Hitchcock spliced with overboiled film noir.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Mar 25, 2013
Verhoeven does not explore the dark side, but merely exploits it, and that makes all the difference in the world.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
Mar 25, 2013
[The film has] a smug faith in the ability of its own speed, smartness and luxe to wow the yokels.
Mar 25, 2013
Slick, clever and entertainingly overheated while you're watching it, Basic Instinct starts to evaporate the second you leave the theater.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4