Paul Verhoeven (“RoboCop”, “Starship Troopers”) directs “Basic Instinct”, a cheesy and enjoyable murder mystery flick. Some have criticised it for its perverted nature but the movie seems so overboard that is hard to do anything but laugh at it. Verhoeven is great at using extreme imagery while making you laugh at how absurd everything is.

In “Basic Instinct”, Nick Curran (Michael Douglas “Wall Street”, “Fatal Attraction”) a mentally unstable police detective that is investigated a violent murder. The main suspect is a manipulative and seductive crime writer (Sharon Stone “Sliver”, “The Specialist”) that quickly has Nick exactly where she wants him.

Michael Douglas is good as Curran. His character is complex and has been deemed potentially unfit for duty after he shot some tourists. We never hear the exact details of what happened. Sharon Stone is very good as Catherine Tramell. She is of course most known for one particular shot in this film in which she reveals an awful lot. The chemistry between the two is effective. “Basic Instinct” attracted a lot of complaints from homosexual rights organisations for its depiction of lesbian and bisexual characters. I do not see what is wrong with the depiction as nobody would have protested if these were straight characters behaving the same way.

While not quite as fun as “Total Recall”, “RoboCop” or “Starship Troopers”, “Basic Instinct” is a good movie from Verhoeven. While only a few moments are graphically violent, the movie does contain some very intense sexual scenes. Normally, I would fine this sort-of thing cheap and gimmicky but Verhoeven has a way of doing it and making it entertaining. However, he seemed to lose his way when he did “Showgirls” a few years later but that is a different story. If you want a murder mystery film that deals with some mature themes but is not afraid to be silly then this is worth checking out.