Stars: John Travolta, Connie Nielsen, Samuel L. Jackson, Brian Van Holt, Timothy Daly

Director: John McTiernan

Summary: A DEA Agent, Tom Hardy is called in to help a Captain investigate the disappearance of a Sergeant and his elite team which was on exercise in the Panama jungle. Two survivors have been found but neither is anxious to explain what has happened.

John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson team up in BASIC, an action-packed military thriller from director John McTiernan (DIE HARD). Jackson plays Sergeant Nathan West, propagator of a harsh military training programme that appears to have pushed a group of young recruits too far, when an exercise winds up with them attempting to kill each other. Only two soldiers emerge alive from the slaughter, and Jackson isn't among them. Rogue DEA agent Tom Hardy (Travolta) is called in to question the survivors, teaming up with Lieutenant Julia Osbourne (Connie Nielsen), in an attempt to solve the puzzle.
The two remaining soldiers (played by Giovanni Ribisi and Brian Van Holt) tell their conflicting tales, with director McTiernan utilising flashbacks to illustrate what may have happened in the Panama jungle. It quickly transpires that Jackson and Travolta's characters are old army acquaintances, both with a penchant for unorthodox techniques; and when it transpires that corrupt doctor Bill Styles (Harry Connick Jr.) has been selling the recruits illegal drugs, it also appears he has a romantic history with Nielsen's character. The subsequent plot twists come thick and fast, resulting in a white-knuckle ride to the finale, in which nothing can be taken for granted.

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Despite its inevitable fate as a critically reviled box-office flop, Basic Instinct 2sure has a funny way of holding your attention. It's not just Sharon Stone's trash-talk and occasional nudity that keeps you watching, but also the way she gamely earns every cent of her $14 million paycheck, vamping like a real pro in her second outing as mystery novelist and alleged serial killer Catherine Tramell. Now living in London, Catherine sets her lethal sights on Michael Glass (David Morrissey), the control-freak psychiatrist assigned to evaluate her as a risk-addicted suspect in the "accidental" killing of a star soccer player. Turns out Catherine's just getting started (or is she?), and that's bad news for Glass's ex-wife, a tabloid journalist, and the Scotland Yard detective (David Thewlis) who's desperate to put Catherine in jail. With plenty of sex, murder and salacious dialogue, BI2is certainly never boring, especially with the morbid fascination of seeing the once formidable Stone torpedo her career in a sequel that took 14 years (and countless drafts of screenplays and at least one high-profile lawsuit) to bring to the screen. She's still impressively hot at age 47, prompting critic Roger Ebert to observe, "the Catherine Tramell role cannot be played well, but Sharon Stone can play it badly better than any other actress alive." So, while this ill-fated sequel falls just short of being a guilty pleasure (if only because Morrissey is no match for Michael Douglas in the 1992 original), it's enjoyably absurd and slickly produced, and the hot-tub scene is guaranteed to wear out the freeze-frame function on a lot of DVD players. For some viewers, that's reason enough for multiple viewings.-- Jeff Shannon

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Directors Commentary, A Writers Perspective, Directors Design, Trailers, TV And Radio Spots
Subtitles:	English
Year:	2003
Release Date:	January 19, 2004
Runtime:	98 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 095312
Keywords:	Basic, General, Wide, Screen, Thriller
Genre:	Thriller