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mythtaken is the fault of a somewhat fannish-oriented, marginally geeky englishwoman with too much time on her hands and serves as an attic for her to keep all her stuff in.

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On the box: Supernatural, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, Heroes, Knight Rider

At the flicks: Quantum of Solace

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/current reading

Friday, March 23, 2007

Basic Instinct 2

Sex 'n' death in London as Sharon Stone reprises the role of Catherine Tramell.

Basic Instinct 2 (Uncut Version) [2006] I'd have been happy to give this one a miss except that Mark Kermode - a critic whose opinions I always find worth listening to, even if he does hate Pirates of the Caribbean - gave it a positive review. Reasoning that it definitely had an edge over the first film, as far as I was concerned, simply by not having Michael Douglas (who I find creepy and horrible even in relatively fluffy fare like Romancing the Stone) in it and that frankly, any film that kills off Stan Collymore in its opening scene couldn't be all bad, I added it to my rental queue.

Well, it turns out that I would much rather look at David Morrissey and his nicely defined stomach muscles than Michael Douglas, so it was certainly not a difficult film in that respect. Sharon Stone clearly has a whale of a time playing Tramell as she slinks about fellating cigarettes and being all ambiguous and icily clever. I do think she's an interesting character; she comes close to veering into the misogynistic archetype of the seductive, manipulative, evil woman, but ultimately escapes it because her ambiguity means the film never judges her. We never find out whether it's her committing the murders and she doesn't receive any sort of "comeuppance". Well, there's a bit where she's nearly drowned in her jacuzzi, and she gets called some vile names, but basically she comes out of that none the worse for wear.

David Morrissey's pleasantly sculpted midriff

London looks gorgeous in this film, constructed entirely out of metal, sheets of glass and cool, classic stone, it's all sleek office buildings and elegant squares and even the seedy, neon-lit urban decay of the Soho backstreets seems chic in its grubbiness.

Basically this is the sort of film you expect to catch on BBC1 on a Saturday at some ungodly hour of the night, except with a really glossy finish, and Charlotte Rampling being classy. Ultimately silly but pretty enjoyable nonetheless.

[ mood | sleepy ]