Basic Instinct 1972 Erotic thriller directed by Paul Verhoeven. Retired rock star Johnny Boz has been stabbed to death with an ice pick during sex. Homicide Detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is in charge of the investigation. Boz’s latest girlfriend bisexual Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone in her prime) has written a novel with just such a killing. She’s extremely provocative, but has an alibi and passes a lie detector test. (When questioned, Catherine spreads her legs ostensibly just enough for interrogators to see she’s wearing no paties. Stone has said, as per Verhoeven’s instruction, she wore none to film.)

Nick and Catherine begin a torrid cat and mouse affair despite her having a female lover in situ. There’s a murder, an accidental death, and a great many false clues. Sizzling and tense. With George Dzundza and Jeanne Tripplehorn, Rent on Amazon Prime.

For another erotic thriller with corporate twists and turns, rent Disclosure 1984 Directed by Barry Levinson-with Demi Moore and Donald Sutherland.

Wall Street 1987 Directed by Oliver Stone. Legendary Wall Street player Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas – Academy Award Best Actor) is doggedly pursued by ambitious young stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen). Finally in front of his hero, Bud bombs until he unwittingly shares inside information about Bluestar Airlines learned in passing from his father, Carl (Martin Sheen), head of the company’s maintenance workers’ union. The information could be useful. He becomes a modest client of the young man.

In order to achieve status in Gekko’s eyes, Bud is asked to spy on a British financier. His information facilitates the player’s making a great deal of money in a takeover. Bud buys a fancy apartment and acquires high priced decorator girlfriend Darien Taylor (Daryl Hannah). He continues to utilize insider information and is promoted. When Bluestar comes into play, however….With Terrance Stamp, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, Sylvia Miles, Josh Mostel. Stone made the film as a tribute to his father, Lou Stone, a stockbroker during the Great Depression. The character of Gordon Gekko is a composite. This is where the iconic “Greed is Good” originated. Rent on Amazon Prime.

Wall Street Never Sleeps 2010 Directed by Oliver Stone. Considerably thinner, but a plausible follow-up.

War of The Roses 1989 Based on a novel by Warren Adler. Directed by Danny DiVito. Oliver Rose (Michael Douglas) meets his soon-to-be wife Barbara (Kathleen Turner) while in law school. They marry, have two children, move to Washington, D.C., and purchase a mansion that she proceeds to refurbish with money no object. (They have it.) With Oliver a self-centered workaholic, and Barbara a restless, neglectful mother and wife, the relationship eventually careens into divorce. Barbara wants everything, but neither party will move out of the house. Instead they attack and destroy each other and their home with manic fervor. Rent on Amazon Prime.

To see these actors in wacky, battling proximity again, rent action adventure comedy Romancing the Stone.

The Wonder Boys 2000 Based on the novel by Michael Chabon. Directed by Curtis Hanson. Professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) is having an affair with university chancellor, Sara Gaskell (Frances McDormand), whose husband, Walter (Richard Thomas), is the head of his department. Grady’s third wife has just left him. He has writer’s block on a book he needs for tenure and Walter’s getting suspicious. Then Sara tells him she’s pregnant. Also complicating matters is student James Leer (Toby Maguire), who’s stalking him and the arrival of his editor Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.) whose career hangs on getting Grady’s book finally published.

Terry and James flirt, student Hannah Green (Katie Holmes) pursues Grady, valuable Marilyn Monroe memorabilia goes missing and Grady ends up driving around with a dead dog in his trunk. Still, everything works out. Genial and wry. Also notably with Rip Torn, George Grizzard and Philip Bosco. Rent on Amazon Prime.

The American President 2019 A smart  romantic comedy. Directed by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin, creator/writer of the highly successful West Wing television series. Widowed three years, Democratic President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) suddenly finds himself without a partner for a state dinner in an election year. Intrigued by environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening) at a meeting, he makes a deal with her to promote legislation substantially reducing carbon dioxide emissions  if she can secure 24 votes for the environmental bill by the date of the State of the Union.

That night, he telephones Wade, who initially thinks his call is a joke. Surprised and flattered she agrees to join him at the dinner assuming it’s just business, but Shepherd pursues her. Dating occurs mostly in presidential White House quarters with and without the president’s young daughter Lucy (Shawna Waldron). Needless to say everyone on staff has advice as to the political affect of his dating and conceivable marriage. Things go very well, however, until Shepherd has to chose between party policy and the deal he made. With Martin Sheen, David Paymer, John Mahoney, Anna Devere Smith, Wendy Malick, Michael J. Fox and Richard Dreyfuss. Rent on Amazon Prime.

The Kominsky Method (Series). A sharply written comedy in which Douglas plays Sandy Kominsky, an aging acting coach with a small school unable to accept what’s available to him both as a man and an actor after success and time take their toll. Sandy’s best friend Norman Newlander (Alan Arkin), Sandy’s daughter Mindy (Sarah Baker) who runs the school with him, his ex-wife Ruth (Kathleen Turner, of course) and recent divorcée Lisa (Nancy Travis), a romantic interest, round out the regular cast. Two Golden Globes and an American Film Institute Award. Rent on Amazon Prime.

Top Bigstock photo: Michael Douglas at the 65th Emmy Awards – Press Room at Nokia Theater on September 22, 2013 in Los Angeles, CA.

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