Basic Instinct 2

David Morrissey, as a psychiatrist, becomes the target of the sexy suspect (Sharon Stone).

Herald rating: * *

This doesn't feel much like a sequel - it's more like a remake of the original infamous 1992 erotic thriller staring Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas. Stone is back for round two. Douglas, sensibly, is not. Stone must have signed up so she could show off how good she looks at 48 - or to pay for all the work she's had done. And apart from a right nipple which seems to be slightly higher than the left, she looks magnificent.

In between looking for surgery scars on Stone's new plastic-looking face, admiring her wardrobe, and wondering how she manages to stand in those divine heels all day, you'll find a steamy, slightly camp story of sex, drugs and murder.

The film is set in a modern, industrial, silver and sleek film noir London, where Catherine Tramell (Stone) is writing her new novel and has been arrested on suspicion of killing a football star in a dodgy car accident, the details of which are too sordid to describe. Dr Glass (Morrissey) is brought in by the prosecution to do a psychiatric profile and evaluation of Tramell and is intoxicated by the sexually uninhibited and dangerous Tramell and drawn into her web of lies.

Those expecting another shocking scene such as when Tramell forgot to put on her undies in the first movie, will be disappointed.

Stone is happy to flash her breasts, and writhe and moan, but there is none of the lurid behaviour that made the first film so gossip-worthy.

While Stone does all she can to appear sexy and risque, she is horribly let down by a script filled with ridiculous sexual innuendo. Initially it is laughable , then it makes you squirm, and by the end of this almost two-hour marathon you're just bored.

CAST: Charlotte Rampling, David Thewlis, Sharon Stone, David Morrissey
DIRECTOR: Michael Caton-Jones
RUNNING TIME: 114 Minutes
RATING: R18 - Violence, Offensive Language and Sex Scenes
SCREENING: Village, Hoyts and Berkeley Cinemas