Thursday
Jul272017
"Nicky got too close to the flame...
Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 2:47PM 
.
...Nicky liked it."
Great Moments in Screen Come-Ons #96
Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct (1992)
Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 2:47PM 
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Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 2:47PM
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Reader Comments (33)
I don't know if it's a popular opinion but I would totally bang 'basic instinct' Michael Douglas.
Verhoeven's American run needs academic exploration of not just the movies themselves, but the culture they existed in.
I was very recently thinking I want to watch this movie for the 10th(?) time. Sharon is ultra iconic in it. And...
choog, it's popular with me!
Sharon Stone is still smoking hot after all these years... Hell she could've done Atomic Blonde I am convinced!!
Michael Douglas is gross and has ruined plenty of movies for me.
I hear you Norman, Basic Instinct being one of them
The performance should have earned Sharon the first of 2 BA nominations,the interrogation scene is fantastic.
Sharon Stone is the definition of iconic in BI, have no clue why she was not Oscar nominated here, totally would`ve placed her in the spots filled with Mary McDonnel or Susan Sarandon.... She so deserves to work more and in better projects; Ryan Murphy should've called her to play Joan Crawford in Feud.
Agreed.
BA 1992
Stone
Farrow
Sarandon
Pfeiffer
Thompson
I love Basic Instinct. Perfect pulp, played, written and directed to perfection.
A very sexy movie
Actors branch dropped the ball here by not nominating Stone...a star-making performance. I guess they couldn't see past the nudity and sex.
Btw, don't you love star-making performances (Nathaniel - if you haven't already - you should consider making a list of these king of performances) ...even Meryl doesn't really have a star-making performance...definitive performances, yes...star-making, no.
king = kinds of
SoSue great idea.
Sharon Stone took a role that, on the surface, could've gone either way, and totally elevated it to iconic status. Michael Douglas, meanwhile, was midway through his potboiler period where the returns (Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, Disclosure) were certainly diminishing. His sex appeal started to seriously wane after Romancing the Stone. But Stone, on the other hand, has never had a firmer grasp on her star persona. Yum.
1992 was such a weird best actress year.
I'm not sure how close Stone would have come though, despite the Globe nomination because she was a "new" star but not "new" in the way they like -em... she was a little scary (obviously this is a compliment) rather than "pretty young new".
I sometimes wonder if it wasn't Whoopi Goldberg or Miranda Richardson in 6th place for Sister Act and Enchanted April respectively, though.
I really liked Stone's period of popularity as an actress... she was great in earthy roles.
I think Kramer vs. Kramer was definitely a star-making performance for Streep. It was the top-grossing film of the year and she won best supporting actress. She was then on the cover of Newsweek, etc. Would she have made it as big without that successful role? I doubt it. It's called show BUSINESS. She knows how to bring in $$$.
This was Sharon's best work, IMHO. And yes, she should have played Joan on Feud!
I think the Academy LOVES to overlook sexy, gorgeous actresses that can also act, Sharon has been snubbed a couple of times ( BI, The MIghty, Bobby) and her performance in Casino is a tour de force . Look at how Michelle Pfeiffer was criminally not nominated for A thousand Acres and White Oleander,or Naomi Watts and her brilliant turn in Mulholand Drive....If were we talking weak linking here, I`d point out an undeserved win for Kim Basinger, and when the Oscars award them they need to look worn out ( Theron for Monster, Kidman for The Hours, not even nominated for Birth or Dogville). All this and the girls next door Lawrence and Bullock have a golden statue on their shelves.
One of the most perfect pieces of trashy cinema (and I mean that as a compliment) ever put to screen. Everything works in that film, from the soundtrack to the editing to the performances.
The only person in that interrogation room who is in control is SS. Delicious.
Ryan Murphy, she's waiting for you!!!
Boner police.
@ Faye
Great argument, but I think part of a star-making performance is that you really can't see anyone else in the role. As brilliant as Meryl was in Kramer vs. Kramer, I think many other actresses would have killed in that role.
Other roles that anounced an actor's arrival in a big way:
Whoopi The Color Purple
Julia Pretty Woman
Reese Legally Blonde
Does Nicole Kidman in To Die For count, so "late" in her career?
Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls (whatever the quality of her performance and her subsequent output, it literally made her a star and a household name). I was pleasantly surprised by how brilliant Hudson was in Chi-Raq (which also reminds me that it's a travesty that Teyonah Parris isn't an Oscar-nominated hot-young-starlet already after both that and Dear White People in consecutive years).
Anyway, I've never seen Basic Instinct (embarrassed to admit this) but have it recorded from TV in the UK waiting for a rainy day... I love Sliver (controversial opinion?) so I expect to be amazed!
kermit_the_frog- If u loved Sliver , you`re gonna have the time of your life with BI. In Sliver Sharon is an engagingly edgy heroine, better clothed than naked,the main problem lies with Joe Eszterhas' script, which reworks themes from his earlier efforts ( Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge), anyway you must see BI, Sharon is a knockout; Though Basic Instinct established Stone as a bombshell for the Nineties, it also shows she can nail a laugh or shade an emotion with equal aplomb. PLUS- Really love Sharon in almost all her 90`s roles, her Grace Kelly persona in Intersection is sublime, she`s campy , acid edge in Diabolique (say whatever you want, love this film),- "Am I alive?'', "No, you're dead, this is heaven, and I'm the Virgin Mary.'' - ( LOL) and her brave and feisty performance in Last Dance.
Eder Arcas - in one long paragraph (without a single wasted word) you have converted me from "Sharon Stone Fan" to "Sharon Stone SUPERFAN"
I'm watching it this weekend - just decided!
Maybe, but who knows if any other actress would have survived against Dustin Hoffman??! Only the strong survive! Does anyone have an email for Sharon? I want to tell her how great she would have been as Joan Crawford.
SoSue - Meryl played a major part in shaping her character's story. She and the filmmakers felt her part was too underwritten and she had a lot of say in the rewrites of her scene, including her big courtroom scene, to make her character less one-dimensional. If another actress had taken it on, they wouldn't have gotten Meryl's input and the part wouldn't be as good, therefore leading to a lesser performance from a lesser actress.
I know his big mid-80s action movies kind of passed me by before I got into movies, but Douglas' appeal escapes me. I just don't understand how he kept getting cast in movies where sexy, powerful women (Close, Moore, Stone) would just throw themselves at him and completely lose their shit when they couldn't have him. I think part of it is I find his voice to sound really nerdy, but otherwise, I just feel like I'm always missing something with him. He was pretty great in Wonder Boys, though.
Michael Douglas is gross. Watching Basic Instinct again because of this thread. I laughed several times at Douglas because he was gross in closeups and in various states of undress. He was unworthy of the objectification because he lost what it was he once had. His attractiveness is of a sleazy white thin porn stud from the 70s to mid 80s. Domesticated but cosmopolitan enough to make you believe he was worthy of being listened to.
I think Michael Douglas is an effective actor cause he (almost) always plays a variation of the same character playing men of power in obsessive control of his life, it's fine by me, he does it well, sometimes in a superb way.
As for Meryl in Kramer Vs. Kramer , yes, I do think it is an intelligent performance,the Director asked her to state her character's own case in the big scene where she argues for her child from the witness stand. She is persuasive, but I wouldn't say it is a career-making performance, but the combination of her been having quite a year appearing in what seems like the year's best female roles ( "The Deer Hunter," "The Seduction of Joe Tynan" , "Manhattan," and "Holocaust" on TV)
kermit_the_frog- You will enjoy. Always glad to convert people into Sharon's super fan. LOL .
It is not a great movie, but Stone was fantastic in Bobby.
As Miss Stone famously summed up, after she failed to get a nom for her breakout role: A vagina w a point o view is too deadly a combination for the mainly male voters.
Its a pity her career peaked so fast w Casino n her China Karma remarks further diminishes her marketibilty. Dior drops her faster than u can say JLaw!!