Michael Douglas Episodes

This week the dads tackle Paul Verhoeven's infamous erotic thriller — the fourth highest-grossing film of 1992 and quite possibly the most rewound VHS tape in rental shop history. Basic Instinct turns 33 this year, and it's still just as wild as you remember. In this episode: The legendary interrogation scene and the great Wayne Knight sweating debateWhether Sharon Stone knew — and whether Paul Verhoeven is telling the truthNick Curran: the "anti-Columbo" and arguably cinema's least heroic he...

When a notorious gangster escapes from custody while being transported to Japan, rebellious but inept cop Nick Conklin (Michael Douglas) sets out to recapture him at any cost, in Ridley Scott’s action thriller BLACK RAIN (1989). Slightly more thoughtful than it might first appear, with America's position as a global power analysed through the lens of an unengaging and drawn-out organised crime saga that never quite gets going. A likeable performance from Andy Garcia as unfortunately beheaded par...

Danny DeVito’s blackly comic THE WAR OF THE ROSES (1989) charts the disintegration of a marriage as Barbara and Oliver Rose try anything and everything to drive each other out of the shared marital home during a vicious divorce battle. Capitalising on the obvious chemistry between leads Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas as well as their shared cinematic history in 80's romantic comedies ROMANCING THE STONE and THE JEWEL OF THE NILE, director Danny DeVito chooses to frame the story by having hi...

The late 90's saw a run of films which deconstructed the idea that reality was an illusion; THE TRUMAN SHOW, THE MATRIX, DARK CITY all explored this theme in some way but David Fincher's 1997 THE GAME is the most paranoid of all of them. Michael Douglas is superb as affluent control freak Nicholas van Orton who finds himself involved in a conspiracy when brother Conrad gives him a gift certificate for the blandly-named Consumer Recreation Services promising a "profound life experience". Some typ...