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	“Basic Instinct-Ultimate Edition: Unrated Director’s Cut”
	Reviewer:	Wayne A. Klein	Studio:	Lion’s Gate Home
	Genre:	Drama	Release:	3/14/06
	Special Features:	Commentary track by director Paul Verhoeven and director of photography Jan De Bont; screen tests, “A Conversation with Sharon Stone”, Introduction by Sharon Stone, “Blonde Poison: The Making of Basic Instinct”, “Cleaning Up ‘Basic Instinct’”, trailers
Review:	A basic thriller highlighted by a sneak peek up Sharon Stone’s skirt, this is the second re-release on DVD for this thriller featuring Michael Douglas. In fact the peek up Stone’s skirt where its revealed she isn’t wearing underwear was the most unexpected thrill in this mediocre film from director Paul Verhoeven and writer Joe Esteveles. Potential homicidal maniac Catherine Trammell(Sharon Stone) meets homicide detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) and the two fall or each other. Set in San Francisco Curran could be a jaded version of the character that Douglas played ages ago on “The Streets of San Francisco” with Karl Malden. The previous edition from a couple of years ago including the collectable “ice pick” really was the ultimate edition of the film in terms of extras. So why are we getting yet another edition of the film? Why because of the forthcoming release of the long delayed sequel to this film just to remind us you always hurt the ones you love. Image & Sound: “Basic Instinct” looks terrific with little in the way of digital artifacts and virtually no analog artifacts. This spiffed up addition presents “Basic Instinct” in its cleanest looking version yet. The 5.1 sound nicely recreates the theatrical experience of the film with sound effects and dialogue placed throughout the system. The late composer Jerry Goldsmith contributes a very nice score to this thriller enhancing the suspense. While it isn’t one of his best scores it’s one of his best sounding in this edition. ---
Special Features:	The outstanding commentary track by director Verhoeven and director of photography Jan De Bont (who later went on to direct “Speed”, “Speed 2”, “Twister” and awful version of “The Haunting”) remains intact from the previous editions of the film. MIA is the commentary track by the idiotic Camille Paglia so sometimes missing extras can be a good thing. With an introduction by Sharon Stone and “A Conversation with Sharon Stone” as the only two new extras included there’s really no reason to junk that older editio of the movie in favor of this one. Once again we get a glimpse at the storyboards for the film the featurette “Blonde Poison: The Making of Basic Instinct”. ”Cleaning up Basic Instinct” let’s fans see how the film was cleaned up for TV. We also get screen tests and trailers round out the extras in this set.
Final Words:	This would have been a terrific reissue if the previous 2002 deluxe edition hadn’t already appeared. As it is this case is pretty transparent-Lion’s Gate is guilty of an unnecessary triple dip. I wouldn’t recommend this “Ultimate Edition” (pretty soon they’re going to be running out of names for all these editions) as it’s not a step up or major improvement compared to the previous edition of the movie.