As Roger Ebert or one of those people would say there is "a good movie in there somewhere". I had just rented, and was blown away by, the "Basic Instinct" DVD reissue from I think a few years back.
The problem with this first of all was the script. It loses the tension. the guy who did it (esterhous?) doesn't weave one of those thrillers that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It gets you sort of near the edge of your seat, but then it paints itself into a corner and stops.
Also, Billy Baldwin is dumb looking and not believable as someone this woman would even f**k out of sympathy. He has zero charm.
I would like to see a retooled remake because it's actually pretty cool idea for a movie.
Not sure if the script is the guilty here. Don't take me wrong, I don't have much apreciation for Estherzas, but I happened to read the source novel by Ira Levin and it was very bad as well.
Apart from that, sitting on the director's chair is Philip Noyce, who before reinventing his career with "Rabitt Proof Fence" and "The Quiet American" was quite known for his lack of inventive. See, if you dare, "Patriot Games" or "The Bone Collector" and you'll see that Noyce is not exactly Brian De Palma when it comes to staging thrillers, or any kind of tension.
My verdict: Boooooring stuff. Fast-forward for Sharon Stone's (few) instances of nudity, dump the rest.
This was also Robert Evans' attempt at a comeback as a high powered producer. The film became well known for the original ending testing very poorly with preview audiences, so a new ending was shot and mucho bucks spent doing it. The film still failed at the box office, and was chewed up by critics. Entertainment Weekly used this film as a whipping boy and punchline for years in articles and sidebars, later joined by "Cutthroat Island".
what was the original ending?
I can't remember exactly, maybe IMDB would have it under "trivia" or "alternate versions".
Just checked, IMDB says the original ending had Stone and Baldwin's characters fighting in a helicopter that crashes into a Hawaiian volcano, killing both. That kind of meshes with what I remember from EW.