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· Year: 1993
· Also known as: Crazy Instinct, Triple Indemnity
· Director: Carl Reiner
· Writer: David O'Malley
· Cast: Armand Assante, Sherilyn Fell
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· Parodies numerous film noir and thriller movies, including Basic Instinct, Body Heat, Cape Fear, The Changeling, Chinatown, Double Indemnity, Fatal Attraction, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Sleeping with the Enemy.
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| Synopsis |
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Ned Ravine's a cop. A good cop. He's also a lawyer. An okay lawyer. But he's got problems, does Ned. For one thing, his wife wants to kill him for the insurance. His girlfriend wants to put him six feet under because she's nuts. And an ex-con wants him pushing up daisies because he lost the con's case years before. On the bright side, Ned's secretary wants to marry him because he's really a decent guy at heart. And Ned? Clueless about all of it.
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RATING
Out of 100 |
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93
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| COLD ANALYSIS |
| 3.75 -ATMOSPHERE |
| 0.0 -GORE |
| 4.0 -HUMOR |
| 0.5 -SCARES |
| 3.25 -TENSION |
Included in this site on a technicality--I swear, it makes fun of The Changeling at the end--Fatal Instinct is the best film parody I've ever seen. This is what all goofy parodies should be. Every scene is thick with visual humor, puns, gags, even anything you could ask for--even, God forbid, intelligent satire. Unlike the case with far too many of its compatriots, though, the jokes in Fatal Instinct are actually held together by the plot, which brilliantly combines the plots of several film noir and neo noir classics like Double Indemnity and Body Heat. Each performance is pitch-perfect, from Sherilyn Fenn's repressed secretary to Sean Young's psychotic temptress to Kate Nelligan and Christopher MacDonald's adulterous--and murderous--duo. But the movie belongs to Armand Assante, who doesn't play his character Ned Ravine as a straight man, a la Leslie Nielsen, but instead plunges into an hilarious end-all parody of film noir tough guys.
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RATING
Out of 100 |
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78
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| COLD ANALYSIS |
| 3.0 -ATMOSPHERE |
| 0.0 -GORE |
| 3.25 -HUMOR |
| 0.0 -SCARES |
| 0.75 -TENSION |
Carl Reiner's work can never really be compaired to his son Rob's. The elder Reiner's direction has a more slapstick feel (check out the three he did with Steve Martin). Here Reiner returns to that formula, only without Martin. Thankfully, the time he spent away does pay off, mostly; though most of the jokes in the first half and in the ending of Fatal Instinct miss their targets, the middle of the film has just too many hilarious parts. For one thing, the Postman Always Rings Twice spoof comes off great. Just think about it--the only way Christopher McDonald's mechanic character could get Ned Ravine's car to not start is to remove the engine. Funny stuff. Some of the references to more recent works fail, but the moments you don't see coming--and there are plenty of those--are the funniest parts in the film.
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