TWELVE years ago Sharon Stone played bisexual novelist Catherine Tramell, who had some unusual sexual appetites ice-picks, hand-cuffs and Michael Douglas.

The sequel, Basic Instinct 2, has had a troubled and extended production.

There have been more rewrites and false starts than a David Beckham booksigning session.

Once again the predatory Tramell drags a damaged man into her world of temptation by sitting in an unladylike manner on modernist chairs and once again there is a murder with just a few, equally crazy, suspects.

This time the unfortunate male is Dr Michael Glass (David Morrissey, looking like he would rather be anywhere else than here).

He plays a respected criminal psychiatrist from London, who is brought in by Scotland Yard detective Roy Washburn (David Thewlis) to evaluate crime novelist Tramell, following the death of a sports star.

The sports star is played by former footballer Stan Collymore, who is killed off in a car in the admittedly quite exciting first few minutes of the film.

The original was so long ago Stone seems to have forgotten how to play the role. The steely seductive menace of her first portrayal just become a procession of hisses and slinky walks.

Morrissey, a fine character actor, is bland almost to the point of invisibility here. Why Trammell should feel him worthy of her sexual grooming is a mystery more foxing than anything scripted in the film.

The supporting cast fare better.

Thewlis gives a nicely crumpled performance while Charlotte Rampling is still cat-eyed and sexy as a Hungarian psychiatrist.

Director Michael Caton-Jones (Doc Hollywood, Scandal) does not really have the unapologetic B-movie salaciousness of Paul Verhoeven who gave the original its pulp appeal.

The film stays reasonably interesting when the perpetrator of the crimes remains a mystery but once it is tied up it becomes a quite orthodox and uninspiring thriller.

Most people's basic instincts will be to avoid this.