"Fatal Instinct"** 1\2 (out of ****)
"Fatal Instinct" (1993) will drive you wild with passion and revenge. Laughs on the other hand....
The movie is a spoof of film noir and erotic thrillers, in the style of "Airplane!" (1980), the standard bearer of this particular sub-genre of comedy. Only there is something slightly off and missing. It doesn't make you laugh as much as "Airplane!" or the "Naked Gun" (1988) and doesn't have any jokes as memorable.
That is kind of difficult to believe since the movie was directed by Carl Reiner. Personally spoof comedies usually appeal to me. The more juvenile they are, the more I laugh. I know the jokes are corny, sometimes even predictable, but I can't help it, I laugh. In fact if you happen to miss the opening credits of "Fatal Instinct" you would be forgiven if you assume this is a David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker movie. The guys behind "Airplane!".
Armand Assante stars as Ned Ravine (a play on the name of William Hurt's character in "Body Heat" (1981) Ned Racine) a police detective that is also a lawyer. He eventually defends the very suspects he has arrested. It is a funny concept but not much is done with it. Ned considers himself an authority on women. He says women aren't that complicated and is it easy to tell the good ones from the bad. He is so sure of himself he tells his partner (John Witherspoon) he is willing to bet his badge on it.
Ned is a bit like the Frank Drebin character in the "Naked Gun" movies. He is clueless but occasionally stumbles into competency. He can't be much of an authority on women however as he doesn't realize his wife Lana (Kate Nelligan, most likely named after Lana Turner) is having an affair with auto mechanic Frank (Christopher McDonald). Lana (despite the name is the Barbara Stanwyck of the movie) plans to have Frank murder Ned after she reads his insurance policy and discovers there is a triple indemnity (the original name of the movie) clause. But will Frank be able to get to Ned before Max Shady (James Remar, a "Cape Fear" (1991) reference) does? Ned was Max's lawyer and lost his case. Max has now served his prison sentence and wants revenge.
Ned also seems clueless when it comes to two other women; Laura (Sherilyn Fenn) and Lola Cain (Sean Young. Cain has to be a reference to James M. Cain, the man who wrote "The Postman Always Rings Twice"). She tries to lure Ned into an affair despite his rejections, as he wants to remain faithful to his wife. Lola seems to have developed a fatal attraction (!). Laura on the other hand is Ned's secretary and the only women in the movie that truly loves Ned and has time for him, despite her constant "Sleeping with the Enemy" (1991) flashback spoofs.
To everyone's credit in the cast, all the actors play their roles straight. One of the first rules of comedy is play a character serious. If you act silly it isn't funny. Carl Reiner understands this rule and directed everyone as such. This is also clearly seen in the casting choices. Armand Assante is not a comedic actor nor is Sean Young. Unfortunately, at times, the script betrays the actors asking them to be silly for the sake of being silly and have characters behavior in strange ways. For example there is a moment when Ned, wearing his usual business suit, also sports a pair of high-heels and begins dancing. The question is why? It is not funny in concept and cringe worthy in execution. Silly for the sake of being silly.
The best jokes in the movie are the ones that stay close to their target of film noir and thrillers. I particularly like a re-occurring gag, every time Lola appears in the movie, we get a close-up of her shoes first, which always have something stuck to them (gum, papers and even a beer can). There is also a police car chase done via bumper cars which is definitely silly but original. And I like the way the movie plays around with the ways characters smoke. Noir movies always have characters smoking. In this movie, sometimes they forget to light their cigarettes. But my all-time favorite sequence is a court room one with a sports announcer (the great Bob Uecker) calling the play-by-play.
You also have to admire the look of the movie. To me, it has a glossy cartoon look. Praise should be given to the art direction, set direction, production design and costume designer. Equally admirable is the musical score by Richard Gibbs. The main theme of the movie, with its sultry saxophone, seems to be a riff on the theme to "Body Heat". It sounds like a theme to an actual erotic thriller.
But the movie eventually suffers from two fatal instincts of its own. One is the movie relies too heavily on the viewers knowledge of the movie being spoofed that it can't really be a stand alone movie. If you've never seen or heard of "Basic Instinct" (1992), "Fatal Attraction" (1987), "Body Heat", "Double Indemnity" (1944), "Cape Fear", "Chinatown" (1974), "9 1/2 Weeks" (1986) or "Sleeping with the Enemy" you won't get the joke. An aspect of the movie's humor is just knowing what is being spoofed is meant to be funny within itself. Sometimes a movie can get around this. Mel Brooks made "High Anxiety" (1977), a spoof of a collection of Hitchcock movies. Yes, the movie may work better if you know which specific movies are being referenced but there is enough original stuff for the movie to work on its own.
Which takes us to our second point. Not enough original comedy and keeping the jokes at a surface level. For example, lets make an "Airplane!" comparison. That movie is working on multiple levels. You have jokes in the background, musical cues, narration and the joke in the forefront not to mention the spoof reference itself. "Fatal Instinct" is working only on the one level. Oh, this is referring to that one scene from (name that movie). I know that movie. How funny! The screenplay by David O' Malley isn't as ambitious as it could have been.
Movies like "Fatal Instinct" are hit and miss. At a certain point in the 1990s this style of comedy had fallen out of fashion. The market place just became saturated with too many similar style comedies. By 1993 already released were "Airplane!", "Airplane II: The Sequel" (1982), the television series "Police Squad!" (1982, which sadly ran for only six episodes), "The Naked Gun" (1988), "The Naked Gun 2 1/2" (1991), "Hot Shots!" (1991) , "Hot Shots! Part Deux" (1993) and "Loaded Weapon" (1993) just to name a few. Many of the jokes seemed recycled and audiences lost interest. "Fatal Instinct" was a box-office disappointment and a critical failure. I still have faith in this genre of comedy and with the passing years, it might be time for a comeback. "Fatal Instinct" has some good jokes, especially if you enjoy the spoof genre. Still there isn't enough here to make this a lethally funny comedy.
P.S. - Check out Carl Reiner's prior attempt at a noir satire, "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (1982) with Steve Martin. That is a lovely tribute to films of the 1940s and was even shot in black & white. Maybe something "Fatal Instinct" should have been shot in as well.
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