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'Basic Instinct 2': More fatal seductions

Mention certain movies, and a distinct visual imagine comes to mind. With 1992's Basic Instinct, it was the way Sharon Stone crossed her legs and left little to the imagination during a police interrogation.

Sony Pictures 'Basic Instinct 2' B+ The verdict: Manipulative Catherine Tramell is back, with the same killer results. Director: Michael Caton-Jones Starring: Sharon Stone, David Morrissey, Charlotte Rampling, David Thewlis, Hugh Dancy Run time: 114 minutes Release date: March 31, 2006 Rating: R for strong sexuality, nudity, violence, language and some drug content. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Basic Instinct 2'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

It has taken Stone 14 years to return as manipulative, cold-blooded killer and crime novelist Catherine Tramell, and while Basic Instinct 2 will never be confused with high art, it should satisfy the sex-and-violence tastes of fans of the original movie.

True, Stone does not cross her legs as provocatively this time — but nor does she keep them together much.

This time around, Catherine has moved her base of operations from San Francisco to London, and in the opening sequence, she crashes her sports car into the Thames, killing the soccer star with whom she was having high-speed sex. It might have been called an accident, if paralyzing drugs were not found in his system.

The court orders criminal psychiatrist Michael Glass (David Morrissey) to evaluate Tramell, and, naturally, Catherine starts the kind of mind-game seduction that got Michael Douglas in trouble in the first movie.

Dr. Glass diagnoses her as being addicted to risk, then watches as people around her keep showing up dead while he is helpless to do anything but look very guilty.

Stone, who turned 48 this month, looks terrific and is usually dressed to kill, when she is dressed at all. The story of Basic Instinct 2 is silly and gets progressively sillier, but you do pay attention when Stone is on the screen.

Morrissey is too bland to generate much chemistry with her, but David Thewlis is better as a possibly corrupt police detective, and Charlotte Rampling has a few classy moments as Glass' disapproving mentor. But for the most part, class is not what Basic Instinct 2 is selling.