So, Why Did It Flop?

“It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’” (2 Samuel 11:2-5 ESV)

Reuters reported that Paul Verhoeven, director of the first Basic Instinct movie blames the “people at the top” (Bush administration) for the box office failures of erotic thrillers like Basic Instinct 2 in the United States. He also stated that administrations like Bush Administration are “constantly hammering out Christian values,” and also stated that “Christianity and sex have never been good friends.” Therefore, Christian values (read the Christian right, which I am NOT!) caused the movie Basic Instinct 2 to fail at the box office last week.

One of the biggest problems with liberal filmmakers in Hollywood is their arrogant. They think that we the movie viewing public is obligated to spend our money on their bad movies. I will grant that most of the moralistic, therapeutic, deism of so-called Christianity in American most likely will not be watching Basic Instinct 2 (or the hypocrites will most likely wait to rent it out on video where they can’t be seen at the theater). What Hollywood is missing the most with all their passion on "politics-correctness" and their mocking of the “religion” community is that in order to get people to see your movie you must number one tell a good story!

It is not the sex, the nudity, or the violence that is keeping people away from movies like Basic Instinct 2. It is the fact that this movie is just bad. I will guarantee you if this movie was an action, comedy, drama, or romantic movie that was telling a bad story (or a good story not executed well) it would fail at the box office. Many sexual thrillers like Fatal Attraction have been very successful at the box office because they have a very compelling story tell.

This film was very disappointing from a director like Michael Caton-Jones, who is much better than what he has demonstrated with this movie. The problem with this movie is that the thriller aspect of the story was not working with the audience and the drama was not compelling. The intended tension of the story was not executed very well and it would have been much better it was.

What should have been the really big pay-off of this thriller was the ending. It was the ending where the tension was the biggest disappointment. Why? Because the failed execution of the ending failed to deliver the big ending we have been waiting for two hours. I just can’t believe that Catherine Tramell’s (Sharon Stone) sexual manipulation was strong enough to drive Michael Glass (David Morrissey) that insane. Maybe if she was younger, who knows? One good point about the movie is that I do believe that David Morrissey performance was the strongest member of the cast but not enough to save it.

As a Reformed Christian I will tell you that I have no hesitation to recommend a sexual thriller if the story is good and the movie is well made. This does not mean that I endorse sexual sins. As fallen creatures it all goes back to why we humans commit sexual sins? Is it because “I am what I am because I do what I do OR I do what I do because I am what I am?” If sexual thriller honestly explores that issue, and it is well made, it is a worthy film to see.

Timotheus