Midweek Mention... Basic Instinct

This week the dads tackle Paul Verhoeven's infamous erotic thriller — the fourth highest-grossing film of 1992 and quite possibly the most rewound VHS tape in rental shop history. Basic Instinct turns 33 this year, and it's still just as wild as you remember.

In this episode:

• The legendary interrogation scene and the great Wayne Knight sweating debate
• Whether Sharon Stone knew — and whether Paul Verhoeven is telling the truth
• Nick Curran: the "anti-Columbo" and arguably cinema's least heroic hero
• Why Michael Douglas was paid $14 million and Sharon Stone got half a million
• Verhoeven's Hitchcock obsession and the Vertigo parallels hiding in plain sight
• The ambiguous ending, the ice pick under the bed, and whether the sequel tells us anything
• LGBTQ+ representation and the bisexual villain problem
• The 2001 collector's edition DVD that came with a replica ice pick
• Sharon Stone's Barbie film pitch, and why it never happened

Verdict: Strong recommend. Ludicrous, overwrought, problematic in places — and still absolutely compelling.

Films mentioned: Basic Instinct (1992), Basic Instinct 2 (2006), Vertigo (1958)

Cast & crew discussed: Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Wayne Knight, Paul Verhoeven, Jerry Goldsmith

We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
 
Until next time, we remain...
 
Bad Dads

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:11

We're going to talk about the fourth highest grossing film of 1992.

SPEAKER_04 0:16

Wow. And it is just, you know, a basic instinct.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:21

For everyone. Really, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 0:23

We've mentioned this film quite a few times on the pod. Yeah. For various reasons. Yeah. I don't think we've done like an erotic thriller for the pod before, really. I think we did a top five sex scenes or penises or something. We did something sexy. Yeah. But we haven't done an erotic week.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yeah. This is it. This is not a week, but we did see that the Korean, Japan, The Handmade. That was quite sexy, I thought.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

Yeah, it was. Basic Instinct, though, I don't think we need to worry about spoils. I reckon out of every film we've ever reviewed, this is probably one that's most watched by listeners as well. Do you think so?

SPEAKER_04 1:01

It's got to be right up there, I think. A few minutes of it. Had you seen this before, Dan? I'd seen this a few times before, and parts of it I'd seen like 50 times. Just 50. Chris, had you seen this before?

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Yes, I have seen it, and I actually do have a funny story about this because the when I first seen it, it was on a cassette the VHS, right? Yeah. And we you go to the cassette place. I can't remember what. Rental. Yeah, the rental. And you rent it. Cassettarium. Yes, cassettarium. And you rent it, and the crossing leg scene has been rewind. You know when you rewind it so many times that the the scene was like a few. So you couldn't really see properly really what was going on because whoever rented it before that probably furiously masturbated to it numerous times, and you just kept going backwards and forwards.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

So talking about that scene, this with the advances in TV quality and the whatever source that it was streaming from for me, this is the most like graphically I've seen that. Okay. This was real high quality pussy for you. Yeah. So it opens this one with a sex scene. We're right in to uh The murder of Johnny Boss. Mysterious blonde-haired woman on top of soon-to-be murder victim.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Yeah. I think we first see him reflected in the ceiling link mirrors, don't we? Yeah, it's Paul Verhoven doing like sexy stuff. Yeah. And she's got long blonde hair that obscures her face and they're having sex and she ties him up. She ties him up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

With little Hermes scarves. Yeah. And then she's writhing around, she sort of leans back and then reaches for something and then Right at the moment of orgasm, it seems, crescendo furiously brutally stabs him to death with an ice pick.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Yes. Sharon Stone actually pierced actor Bill Cable's chest multiple times through the blood packs in this scene, and he was actually required to go to hospital afterwards and was left with permanent scars. Wow. So that's nice. I hope she made it up to him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:04

He looked like she did. Can you imagine that? Just well Sharon Stone gave me that in Basic. Oh, and that one.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

Because that could that could have very easily they could have used a body double there, because you don't see her face. Yes. So it was her. It was actually her, yeah. Great commitment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:16

Yeah. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

And then they next come in to investigate the crime scene. Soon it's Nick. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:23

Yeah. Michael Douglas, who was, you know, just the the man of the early nineties, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Yeah, and in this, he's kind of he's this like loose canon that you know uh already known basically before he's even on screen for his drinking and taking of cocaine and embroiled in this controversial shooting of two not for the first time in his career as well. Amazingly, he shot two tourists, as we'll find found out. I think of him he's like he's like the anti-Columbo in this movie, and that he's always two steps behind everybody else. And he's like in where Columbo sort of like uses his sort of old man act to make the everybody underestimate him, he's the total opposite. He uses like all he compensates for his massive insecurities by being hugely masculine all the time and talking about how amazing he is. But being behind is where he likes to be.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

Yeah. Yeah by the looks of it.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

Janine Triple's gonna find that out in fairly. First of all, they they get a lead on who this guy's been shagging.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Yeah, they're all laddish and blokish about the crime scene. Oh, there's a lot of jizz here, isn't there, or whatever they say. Don't they do a UV? Maybe they do some of the drugs at the time, whether they don't.

SPEAKER_04 4:33

There's like a UV scene, isn't there, where they're just kind of He talks about it.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

They they know who this guy is, who he's been with, so they go to Katherine Tremell is Sharon Stone's character. Yeah. And they go to one of her houses.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Well, just before that, Nick is allowed back on active duty by Gene Triplehorn. He goes to see his psychiatrist. So that's where we find out about the shootings and there. Also, he makes a joke within about 15 seconds in there about wanking and says I've got calluses on my hands, remember that? That's right, yeah. Because they used to fuck and now they don't anymore, so he has to jerk off.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

But that's temporary as well, as is his brief sobriety, because that goes out of the window fairly soon. But they do go to her one of her houses and Roxy comes down the stairs, which they think is Sharon Stone at first. Yeah. Because she matches the description of a blonde. Leggy blonde. Yeah. Yeah. Roxy's smoking hot and that turns out to be her partner. Yes. Who is okay with her fucking other guys.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

She's not really okay with it, but sometimes she watches. She wants to be part with Catherine, and that's the part of the deal.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

So and she says no, she's not here, she's fucked off to her summer house because it turns out that she's super fucking wealthy. Yeah, well, she's an author. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

And yeah, authors are notoriously wealthy. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Well I think she's especially ones writing utter trashy shit like she does. She had inherited some money as well, though.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

Yeah, because her parents died when she was young. So she's like north of a hundred mil. So she's not her motives aren't like if she is the killer, it's not financially motivated. No. So they do go and meet her, and she is pretty aloof.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

She's already She's not really giving them anything.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Yeah, she's completely in control of the conversation. All of the men are shown to be bung bumbling and incompetent, basically, and easily manipulated by her.

SPEAKER_03 6:31

She just basically tells them to fuck off unless you're gonna arrest me and take me downtown, then you can get out. Yeah. She kind of brushes them off. It's very soon that we're gonna get to the famous scene.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Yeah, we get a little bit of the background history where we learn about her parents died in a boating accident, and then she wrote a book strangely sort of anticipated, or was it after the fact, said the same thing, and she had a former boxer boyfriend who died in the ring, and there was all sorts she's got a crazy, like crazy, crazy history, really, hasn't she? She's a college professor who was stabbed with a uh that's gonna come in later, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 7:06

Yeah. I think first of all, he f Nick fucks Gene Triplehorn, doesn't he? Is that first? I think so. They have an encounter in the bar.

SPEAKER_04 7:15

Or maybe no, maybe he's af after the interview where she goes, You can arrest me for smoking Nick in your back. Okay, so it's after that.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:22

So this thing is he goes to see her then after she's already told him to fuck off once and says you need to come and answer some questions. And her response is, Well, are you gonna arrest me? He says, Well, if that's how you want to play it, but you might you know might as well just come along. So she goes to get dressed and puts on this like fucking knockout like looking white.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

She makes a it oh she dresses in the mirror so that Nick can see her and she's not wearing any underwear or anything.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

Yeah, and they do go downtown and I think like everyone in the world's seen this scene.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Yeah, it's where she terrifies a room full of men through with using her Percy, basically. The fat guy from Seinfeld, I can't remember that actor's name, but he is Oh, I know who you mean.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yes, yeah, the curly is especially sweaty.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

And she said, Are you gonna arrest me for smoking nick? And you're thinking, Yeah, yeah, no, we can do that now. Like you know, you can't smoke in these buildings. It would just but those days it was ridiculous, of course not.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

They've never met before, but she knows all about him. Yeah, yeah. Um and she's like addressing him.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

She knows her power, asking him questions, and yeah, she's got her psychology. They put I think one of them just eventually puts her on the spot and said, Did you kill him? And she said all this stuff about I wouldn't tie him up, I like the way he used his hands. She's very comfortable talking about the sex they were having, and they just put her on the spot, and that's the when she She says, I'll do a lie detector. And she uncrosses her legs.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:44

Like really a lot of chat about this scene because she later on said that she was misled.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

She was unaware that she was going to do a uh pussy flash, basically.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

Which seems really not right, doesn't it? Which doesn't I don't want to like say that I don't believe it, if that's what she's saying, but Paul Behoven says that it's bullshit. And she knew exactly what's going on.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

It absolutely skyrocketed the film and that scene has been parodied and you know written in history.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Transcended history. The film, you know, all that sort of stuff. And you can just see because it she does it and you do see everything, and then it cut, you know, it pivots the camera around and you see you see all the fellows, especially the bloke from Seifel, just like it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Some of them are like look really turned on, some of them look terrified.

SPEAKER_03 9:30

He just gets up and goes to get a drink and just keeps carries on. He's so fairly comfortable with it. Sorry, I'm trying to get his name because I did have it written down.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

It's really annoying because I've known that guy's name several times.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Oh, his actual name? I don't know. I think he is it Gus Moran in this film. Somebody shouting at his now with his name. Maybe it's him. Wayne Knight.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

That's because Spielberg cast him for Jurassic Park based on this.

SPEAKER_04 9:53

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Well he sweats in that one as well, so it shows that I mean she's basically because, like you say, she's really comfortable talking about her sex and using her sexuality to basically get out of this conversation and then or frame it in the way that she wants and then ends it with, I'll do a lie detector test. And they do do one, but even afterwards Nick is like, well that's just bullshit. Anybody can pass that, apparently. Um she could, especially because she's a sociopath.

SPEAKER_04 10:17

Because she's got the powers, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Then they they after this they go to the pub and Nick falls off the wagon here, starts drinking, his psychiatrist comes in and they have a she's sort of like given a lot of grief by the other cops. Yeah. And Nick's feeling a bit disgruntled, so he grabs her and gets her out of there and then rapes her.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Yeah. He takes her back to their place and it starts off a bit they've had a history, obviously.

SPEAKER_03 10:44

They used to date or at least have sex. Yeah. Um and they start off kissing and it's quite passionate, and then he starts to throw. Yeah, exactly. He starts to find out. It starts off like it's a bit he's really quite aggressive. Yeah. And she's sort of you know, uh but she fucking categorically says no. Yeah. And he just bends her over, rips her under her off, and rapes her. Yeah. He's murdered two tourists whilst heavily implied to be on cocaine. Yeah. He's now raped his psychiatrist. Yeah. And this is the guy supposed to be the hero of the film. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

It's a bit problematic. But the thing is, I mean, at l only he thinks he's the hero of this uh story.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

But so we're two sex scenes in and uh flashed vagina. And yeah, when we're halfway in. I bet I think we're even halfway. Or almost halfway um steamy. Yeah. Well then the guy from Internal Affairs. He ends up dying. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

That's after he gets an argument with Nick. He goes to see Catherine and she knows so much about him, stuff that he couldn't she shouldn't she shouldn't know unless she'd seen his. Yeah, he gets one in the chamber. Yeah. Shot to the head. Not before Nick has actually physically assaulted making himself look you know, there's a lot of like people incriminating themselves or like having alibis set up pre-imposed things and that sort of thing in this movie.

SPEAKER_04 12:08

The herrings are all red.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Yes, the herrings are all red indeed.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

So he's so he's And then he's put on leave, I think.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

After Nielsen's found out. After the Nielsen thing. Yeah, he's like obsessed with this case, but he can't leave it alone. Yeah. He's benched essentially, but decides to stay on, which involves him getting he does like a little car chase follow thing through, doesn't he? Follows them He goes up.

SPEAKER_03 12:31

I've never seen a car chase where the car goes up the stairs.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

It was fucking erratic driving. Yes. It's really bad. But eventually he's gonna fuck her.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Yeah. Well he goes to the club first, doesn't he? So we get the amazing scene of him with the turtleneck. Uh green turtleneck in the club. Like the real nineties dancing.

SPEAKER_04 12:49

This is it, he's got a strong hair game. Um it's uh you know, he's just pure war nineties macho sex appeal.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Well, yeah, Catherine and Roxy are sort of dancing together. Uh people are really throwing shapes in this place. Yeah, they're really going for it. And as soon as Catherine clocks him, she goes over to him and they start a bit of bump and grind. Yeah. And Roxy does this really exaggerated like you know, flounces off and she fucks off, and then they're gonna go and fuck, and it's set up to be exactly like the murder scene. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

It's it's it's a it's a carbon copy of the first scene of the movie, and he gets tied up, and will she stab him or won't they?

SPEAKER_03 13:28

And she does the whole movement.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Yeah, she leans back and then comes forward, but no. And then afterwards we get a really good shot of his ass. And he describes her as the fuck of the century. Yeah. To Roxy, who's been sat there listening to it all. Yeah. So horny. God, there's so much plot in this movie, isn't there? Because also at some point we're gonna learn that Gene Triplehorn, Garner is her character, Elizabeth Garner. She knew Catherine Tremell at they both went to university together and did psychology degrees, didn't they? There's a picture of her with blonde hair. Yeah. They all went wide hell high. Yeah, yeah. And they treat having a psychology like A-level as like you're some kind of fucking Oriarty in this, which I'm pretty sure is not the case. But and also there's like some suggestion of she was stalking her or she was obsessed with her or another.

SPEAKER_03 14:24

And then he goes, Yeah, but she said you were obsessed with her, and he said, Oh, oh, oh, that changed everything there. Yeah, yeah. The plot is kind of crazy. We get Roxy's death. She she dies in the car chase. Yeah. She goes over the bridge, doesn't she? And just like the car just plat, just hammers the floor, and then he's like, Who's driving it? And it's Roxy, she's dead. Yeah, yeah. And it sends Catherine spiralling into grief. Yeah. Grief lightning. I think they have sex again up against a wall in his apartment.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Yeah, that's later, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They do. Yeah. But like Is that when he's got an ice pick back at his house? He's like, every sound.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

But he's seen her, he's seen her use the ice pick before they fuck, and then he he's like really ham-fisted trying to do it, and she's like, Who's got an ice pick? I mean do you know what I've never seen one in the world? And everyone's got one in this movie. They just put a carrot bag full of water into the freezer and then they get that out and then they just hammer away it. What a fucking mess. Yeah. Barbarians. Have they not got ice trays?

SPEAKER_04 15:22

I guess it was before ice trays were invented.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Ice trays in the 80s. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. We had in communist Romania ice trays.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

So a machine that could even produce ice in in cube shapes.

SPEAKER_04 15:35

The man case just about everything. There is an ice pick up there, like you can see it. It's not for for the bar, but do you know you can use it for the bar if you want to?

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Big ice, if we had big ice. And I know we often bullshit, but there genuinely is an ice pick there, isn't there? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

Do you know that there was a collector's edition DVD released in 2001 that came with a small replica ice pick?

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Wasn't the only thing that came with this DVD. Nice memento to have at the moment.

SPEAKER_03 16:03

Mostly came on the DVD, but She's like, like you say, she's like grief stricken. Yeah. But still kind of manipulating him. Yeah. Which she just carries on doing throughout the movie. Yeah. Because he's a dick.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Yeah. The moron. I just can't remember, like. It's it's still more red herrings of like when he finds out the he reads the book and it's about him.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

Yeah, so all the all the while she is simultaneously writing a book about him, calls him shooter.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

Shoot him again. About him. And so the plot of the film is what plays out in the plot of her book. Yeah. And as soon as she has finished the book, she's she's claims to be finished with him.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

And he's grown quite obsessed by this point. Someone his partner, so he's he's off the case, but his partner is into it. And I couldn't work this bit out when I was watching it. So he goes into this building to get her. Yeah. But both the psychiatrist and Catherine are there. Are they not?

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Yeah, well, because Catherine has set the psychiatrist up, so it's Catherine who stabs it, even though we're told, yeah. Do we know that? Well, because it's there ever because this I'm Yes, the shot of the ice pick at the end confirms it. Does it? Yeah. Okay. I think I'm pretty sure that they're not going to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

I still thought I never I still watched it this time, I wasn't really sure. Anyway, the the elevator opens and his partner is like ice picked to death. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

By somebody in an FBI jacket or whatever their SBI jacket.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

Yeah, yeah. That's right, because there's a the wig and the jacket left behind as a sort of fake clue. But he's I didn't really still don't get this bit. Nick's looking up from the car at the building and realizes that his partner's about to be killed. He's been stabbed. And you're like, how do you know that didn't happen?

SPEAKER_02 17:52

I don't know. Yeah. It's because he's put together two and two about Garner because of all this stuff Elizabeth Garner that he's written. So he goes up there, doesn't he? And he sees Jean Triplehorn. Yeah. She comes out and she is reaching into her pocket and he's like got blood on his hands. He's just found Gus dead. That's right. And she comes round the corner and she doesn't say, Oh, she's law officer. She should know how to handle Exactly, she should know how to handle this situation. He's clearly freaking out, there's blood all over his hands. And she goes, Oh no, I've got this, and then puts her hand in her pocket and he just shoots her, shoots her dead. And then she realizes in probably the most unlikely part of the movie, she was going to try and return his keys to him. It's got a Bart Simpson. It's got Bart Simpson on it because he watches The Simpsons. This guy who's who is who's remember a cop who does cocaine and drinks and all that, but he has to be at home at 7 pm to watch The Simpsons. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:41

Yeah, it's all totally believable. I mean he's a loose canon, wasn't he, Nick? Yeah. You know, he's if anyone could do his cannons, then I only watched it like the other day, and I still can't remember what happens next.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Because I can remember that they fuck again. Well, they find that they find a load of clues. It's all sort of neatly wrapped in a bow that it was Elizabeth Garner and she was obsessed with Catherine Tramell, and she was the one who'd stabbed a boyfriend, the old one back 20 years ago. With the ice big. And so it's all gonna be they've had this thing about what is it raised rug rats, even though Michael Douglas looks about 84 in this already, he's talking about having kids settling down. Uh and they they go back, he goes back to his apartment and Catherine's waiting for him at the apartment. And they start to fuck again.

SPEAKER_03 19:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Wow. And this time it's it's sort of played again like that murder scene. It starts off all romantic and then it goes a little bit like the murder scene, and you're not really sure. And but the camera is different this time and it pans down to the side of the bed. Well, he orgasms and it's all cuddly, cuddly, cuddly, and she says something like, Oh, we'll live happily ever after, or whatever, and then the camera goes back down and dun dun dun the ice beats.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Yeah, I thought there was like a still a certain level of ambiguity. Yeah. But also like there's a basic instinct too, which I've never seen. And so she does have to be her. Otherwise, what's the point of having a sequel?

SPEAKER_04 20:02

Was it no Slither was the next film she did, not Basic Instinct 2.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

No, but that was also a kind of sexy one with Sylvester Stallone, wasn't it? Yeah, there was a shower saunery type scene, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 20:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Stan Collymore. Stan Collymore, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

And David Thielis, I think, wasn't it? Yeah. So not I don't think we've given that a great because the plot is kind of there's a lot of plot. It's a lot of plot. Kind of nonsense.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Yeah, and it's very sort of it's It's also really confusing. Yeah. Because it's it's it's kind of oh, is it him? Is it her? But it's not really I don't know, it because it doesn't tell you at the end who it actually is.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Well, because it's mostly about how dumb and stupid all the men are and how much cleverer and more manipulative the the women are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:44

So I was wonder I was what you know, sometimes we watch films and there you know there's a mess, so what it shows you on the screen is a message about blah, this one I think it's just smart, really.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

It's like Verhoven doing Hitchcock, but obviously doing it in his own like Verhoven way. I mean, she even looks like it's meant to be. He's obsessed with Vertigo and she wears And you can see that, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:04

All the uh outfits are taken from like almost completely from Vertigo. Yeah. Um her outfits, I should say.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

And I think it is kind of about how we sort of fear the psychos and stuff, but we also want to fuck him. And like, which is just totally in Verhoven's wheelhouse, that sort of thing. So Sharon Stone is fucking amazing and incredible. And despite how ludicrous it is, it's really what Michael Douglas is a really fucking good actor as well. So like he makes this moron really believable and hateable.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

Um I was younger, I was just there for the tits and stuff. Yeah. I never really realised that Michael Douglas is in it, but now, yeah, he that's kind of fucking dick.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Yeah, an absolute douche nozzle. And playing probably some but a character not dissimilar to but you know how he might have because he was a sex actor. I was gonna say he had all the sex problems and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 21:54

Well sex in Coke and he wouldn't have fallen for all these traps like himself.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

Yeah, so did you I can feel that in this thing. The score is also really good. It's Jerry Goldsmith and it's like really overblown, again, sort of Hitchcockian type score. And the other thing that I think is really remarkable is that she was so far down the list of actresses, fiftieth in the list of if you believe the stories of actresses offered.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Oh look, at the same time, if you read the script, then half of the film you're with your tit salved.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

I don't know how many people Well, she turned it into something, didn't she? I mean she was only paid half a million for it, whereas Michael Douglas is something like fourteen million dollars, I think, for his basic instinct too, though, she was down for a few quid.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

Michelle Pfeiffer, Kim Bassenger. Well, Kim Bassenger done nine and a half weeks. So she wasn't adverse to getting her boobs out. Gina Davis, there's no way Gina Davis would do it. Ellen Birkin, Merriel Hemingway. So actresses. She uh Sharon Stone claimed, you know, with the success of Barbie that she had pitched a Barbie film for having done this. You can imagine. There's fucking no way that's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Well we know that this Barbie doesn't have like no genitals because we've seen her.

SPEAKER_04 23:03

Yeah. Yeah, that would have been a hard, a tough sell. What kind of actresses wouldn't have been good for this, you think? It would have just been good. Sonia from EastEnders. Sonia from EastEnders, Miss Marple, I don't know. Kathy Burke. No, I love Kathy Burke. Yeah, but it's not the right role for her. It's not the right role. Yeah. There's a few that probably wouldn't have you know fitted.

SPEAKER_03 23:25

Yeah. Like you say the reason it is still really watchable for the the smutty kind of OTT nineties stuff. Yeah. But I think it is flawed. Also, there was loads of protests. I think I mentioned this sort of thing a few weeks ago about portrayal of LBGTQ.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Yeah, Roxy doesn't get very good potential.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Well, both of them like his bisexual character who's this fucking serial killer and that's tends to be they're always the villains or tend to be villains or portrayed as some kind of monstrous character when they're just people having sex.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

I suppose what is refreshing now, like what was probably really shocking at the time was a woman who was so like assertive about her own sexuality. But actually, if you listen to what she was actually saying in that room, it wasn't all that shocking. Like, do you know what I mean? Like in the 90s, this was obviously a really shocking scene, but she wasn't really, she was just like, Yeah, I like to have sex. It's like you know, these guys they just be like, Yeah, go on, talk anymore. Yeah. It's not that interesting.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

I was interested in her. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Yeah. I'm gonna go and get an ice pick.

SPEAKER_03 24:23

Yeah. Well, you can get it with the 2001 Collectors Edition, I'm sure it's available on eBay. Just spice things up with the misses, just leave it under the uh Yeah, well, we're gonna talk about that when we let me when we speak with our secretary. But for me, this strong recommend still. Yeah, strong recommend. Excellent.