Basic Instinct

Paul Verhoeven, 1992 (7.6*)
This film won't appeal to everyone, but for those who enjoy a Hitchcockian murder mystery updated with modern sensuality, this will be right up your alley. After the murder of a famous rock star, detective Michael Douglas is making the rounds of those closest to the victim, and he runs across a beautiful and seductive suspect  in Sharon Stone. After a now legendary and infamous interrogation scene, he becomes intrigued by Stone's charms. Even though he has a fiance, he becomes involved with Stone anyway, who, it turns out, may have more than one thing to hide. He may have met his match, I'll let you decide after seeing it.

This film put Sharon Stone on the map, she was certainly more believably seductive in this than any prior roles. Thanks to some better acted screen mayhem than usual, this rises above standard slasher fare and approaches the finest of that genre. This was one film that begged for no sequel, but they made one anyway, which I already know not to watch.

This won 5 awards out of 18 nominations, but nothing big, in fact a couple were MTV awards (both for Stone), so those don't count

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Black Book

Paul Verhoeven, 2006, Holland (8.8*)

Excellent true story of a Jewish double agent, who went so far as to die all her hair blonde so she could literally sleep with the Nazi enemy in World War II Holland. She did this after nearly escaping, only to have Germans kill nearly everyone on aboat while she escapes, and being rescued by the underground. Carice von Houten plays a singer who infiltrates local Gestapo headquarters by seducing officers.


This is a strong storyline, with some excellent war sequences, a modernized version of an early 40's war film. This film was largely ignored in the U.S., grossing just 4m, but has a rating of 8 at IMDB, making it borderline top 250 all-time, and won 11 awards overall, including best film at the Netherlands film festival.


Verhoeven excels at films about WW2 Holland, as his breakthrough international success was Soldier of Orange, which made Rutger Hauer an international star.

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