March 23, 1992 -- ``Basic Instinct'' has more sex and violence in the first five minutes of the film than I have seen in any entire film this year. If that is the sort of thing that turns you on, this is your film.

How in the world this film is rated only an ``R,'' is beyond me. It should have the new ``NC-17'' rating (no one under 17 admitted). The only conclusion which seems reasonable is that Hollywood has corrupted the system of movie ratings in order to make more money at the box office, and boy is this film making money!

Clearly this is what would have been, a few years ago, an X-rated film, but now ``X'' has turned into ``R.'' Both leading women Sharon Stone and Jeanne Tripplehorn appear nude in the film. You also see quite a lot of star Michael Douglas. The violence is very graphic as are the sex scenes, which go beyond steamy.

This film does not depict a kinder and gentler world. Even the sex is violent and angry. The story concerns a cunning psychopath, played by Stone, who kills men and makes those killings the subject of her novels.

Douglas plays a detective who returns to those old Streets of San Francisco, this time as a deeply disturbed cop fighting a history of substance abuse. He knows that Stone is the killer but can't prove it. Then he becomes romantically involved with her.

Stone tells Douglas he is ``in over his head,'' and indeed he is one step behind her schemes all through the story. Unfortunately this whodunit has an ending which is both ambiguous and unsatisfying. The film is also overlong.

The dialogue from the reported $3 million script by Joe Eszterhas is occasionally witty and always wicked. Cinematography by Jan de Bont is excellent with inventive and interesting camera angles. Director Paul Verhoeven (``Total Recall and RoboCop'') has made a film that is slick and looks really good on the surface, but is mean-spirited and lacks substance underneath. What it really lacks is a heart. This film rates a C.

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