Basic Instinct/Headscratchers


 * When this troper saw the movie, he really wondered: How could any man, horny or not, fall for such a stupid act? One should think that a little child would be able to look through her charade.
 * Perhaps the tagline of another Michael Douglas movie, Disclosure, says it all; Sex is power. Douglas' detective is so enamoured with this woman, so enticed by her, that he basically can't see the forest for the trees, despite being a detective. Tramell's meant to be the perfect femme fatale, and that's how the trope works - older movies are full of men confounded by attractive, dangerous women.
 * Thirty trope pileup of media depictions of both men and women and drastic oversimplification of other, similar situations in real life.