A dated rip-off of BASIC INSTINCT, riding the wave of the psycho thriller genre's popularity in the early 1990s. I remember this one being mildly controversial back in the day due to the explicitness of the sex scenes, but it simply isn't a very good movie. Madonna gives a wooden turn as a Hitchcockian femme fatale who may or may not be responsible for the murder of an aged lover; Willem Dafoe's her lawyer. The near-the-knuckle sex scenes stand out to better or worse effect, but the courtroom drama is rather turgid and good supporting cast members are wasted.

Yes, this is an absolutely horrible movie, but it isn't worth a bomb rating simply because it's not laughably bad enough time to get that acknowledgement. Madonna isn't exactly horrible here, but her voice is extremely annoying, and she is just one note throughout. Even when she's trying to be sincere, it falls flat and Willem Dafoe just looks absolutely embarrassed, whether he's was or not, it shows in his eyes. This is a "Basic Instict" ripoff, and that's not even a good enough movie to be ripped off in spite of its controversy over a certain scene. This one however is just a perverted mess. At least "Basic Instinct" had a point to the story. The only point to the story in this film is that you should always analyze the story and ask the question, "Will the audience find this believable?" The script tries desperately to manipulate the audience into believing all of this by making Madonna seem like someone who could do something like that, and the results only cause major eye rolls.

Frankly, there is nothing sexy about Madonna even in the most revealing of clothes. She always comes off as a narcissistic succubus who thinks that she's alluring, but is sadly delusional about it. The sex scenes here are just embarrassingly repulsive, and poor Dafoe gets to be the sap falling for the nonsense of the script. The fact that she has allegedly causes her older lover to die of a heart attack by making love to him and then ends up on trial for his murder is too laughable a premise to stretch this out to feature length, and a lot of good actors had to suffer by being cast in supporting roles opposite Madonna and Dafoe. Julianne Moore as his wife, Joe Mantega as the prosecuting attorney, Frank Langella has one of the key witnesses, Anne Archer as secretary to the deceased and Jürgen Prochnow as a lecherous psychiatrist manage to come off decent. Lillian Lehman as the judge gets the best lines, and steals every second that she's on film.

It seems that one out of every ten movies that came out during this time was a rip off of "Basic Instinct", and this one was definitely one of the worst neo noir films. If any film should give credence for the return of that genre (after the earlier brief resurgence of noir with "Body Heat "),that wouldn't even be "Fatal Attraction". It would be "Sea of Love". Elements of the film that did cause me to laugh at it were from Madonna's hideous hairstyle, Julianne Moore's silent confrontation with her in the courthouse bathroom, and parts of the script where Madonna's character of Rebecca Carlson tries to analyze herself to make her seem less of the monster than she really is. Worth of viewing simply to show how overpublicized movies don't always require a bunch up ripoff movies. Judge Lehman's eyeroll during Madonna's testimony says it all with the thought of "Why do I take stuff like this just for a paycheck?"

Basic Instinct was a big hit cult film, and not long after it came out filmmakers decided to try and create another film with similar concept, and it was a vehicle that one of the world's most successful solo female singers was up for, I only watched it to see whether she deserved her anti-Oscar award, from Razzie nominated director Uli Edel (The Little Vampire). Basically elderly Andrew Marsh (Michael Forest) is found dead handcuffed to his bed, it is determined he died from complications of erotic asphyxiation, i.e. a heart attack during sex while watching pornography, but there is suspicion that the woman he was with, Rebecca Carlson (Razzie winning Madonna),may have murdered him. Rebecca is facing the courtroom, with lawyer Frank Dulaney (Razzie nominated Willem Dafoe) representing her for the defence, and as it goes on it is discovered that Marsh did not take drugs because of his heart condition, but cocaine was found in his system, so the combination could be what killed him, and his young girlfriend may be prosecuted from inducing him to the substances during sex. The key motives imposed by prosecution lawyer Robert Garrett (Joe Mantegna) is that Marsh changed his will before his death so that Rebecca would inherit his $8 million fortune, so a murder, using aggressive sex and drugs to kill him, would be the faster way to get the money, but she claims that she knew nothing about this while he was alive. As the court case continues Frank starts getting too close to his client, and despite being happily married to wife Sharon (Julianne Moore) he starts an affair with Rebecca, and just like with Marsh it is sex filled with bondage, sadomasochism and intensity. In the case there is mention of other possible relationships Marsh may have had before his death, including a sexual relationship with his private secretary Joanne Braslow (Fatal Attraction's Razzie nominated Anne Archer),but also Garrett finds Jeffrey Roston (Frank Langella) who admits to an intense relationship with her as well, so it is not clear what the conclusion will be. Frank insists that the jury hearing Rebecca talk about her relationship with Marsh may not give her the best chance of getting off, but she wants them to hear everything from her side, and the jury do come to a decision that means she is not guilty of murder and she is acquitted. Before leaving court however Rebecca whispers to Frank that she is actually guilty, and she knows that she cannot be accused of the same crime twice, so he later goes to her house, and court witness Dr. Alan Paley (Jürgen Prochnow) is there as well, where they admit that they worked together to kill Marsh. Rebecca openly admits that has used her sexual prowess on men to get her own way, she used Frank to get away with murder, and Payley in the heat of the moment, and knowing he could be caught for perjury, gets enraged and attacks her, Frank does everything he can to stop him, but he kills Rebecca with two shots, and she falls out the window into the water below to her death. Also starring Stan Shaw as Charles Biggs, Charles Hallahan as Dr. McCurdy, Lillian Lehman as Judge Burnham, Mark Rolston as Detective Reese, Jeff Perry as Gabe and Richard Riehle as Detective Griffin. Besides Desperately Seeking Susan and Evita it is obvious Madonna is not the best actress, her performances in Dick Tracy and Swept Away as the worst, but I don't think she is absolutely terrible copycatting Sharon Stone, it is debatable she may have done this film to help sales of her coffee table book "Sex", but anyway, she is alright. The rest of the cast are obviously more used to acting well and do so fine, the story is obviously mostly remembered for the sex stuff, with Madonna getting her clothes off a lot and trying to be seductive, only sometimes doing it (the masturbation on the floor scene for example),but actually I found the courtroom drama plot really interesting, so all in all it isn't a bad erotic thriller. It was nominated the Razzies for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay. Okay!