Fatal Instinct

Carl Reiner's hit-or-miss film noir parody, a collection of gags that vary much too wildly in terms of timing and wit. All that hold this comedy together are a playful outlook and a conviction that detective stories are intrinsically funny, especially if the detective is as much of a blockhead as Ned Ravine. Read full review

Director Reiner (All of Me, Sibling Rivalry) takes -- ahem -- a stab at parodying those wacky ice-pick thrillers of the Nineties and barely breaks the skin. Read full review

What the movie doesn't have, besides too many laughs, is either the pungent style and sociology of true film noir, or the sheer yuppie desperation of the hard-core erotic thriller. Instead of being hard-boiled, it's over easy. Read full review

Just identifying the references is a feast for film buffs, but the comedy here is so specifically film-oriented that the laughs, with rare exception, have no deeper resonance. The gags, both sight and verbal, come fast and furious, and more than a few connect. But the ultimate result is wearying, as if one were forced to sit through an endless succession of "Carol Burnett Show" parodies. Another problem is that the films parodied are often less than stellar; "Sleeping With the Enemy," for instance, was already a tired thriller rehash. [19 Oct 1993]

What Fatal Instinct seems to overlook, though, is that erotic thrillers such as "Basic Instinct" and "Fatal Attraction" do a pretty good job of parodying themselves. Rather than really develop any of their setups, writer David O'Malley and director Carl Reiner seem to think it's enough simply to cite the originals. [29 Oct 1993, p.51]

Even if you're judging by quantity, not quality, Fatal Instinct is merely comatose on arrival. [29 Oct 1993, p.D31]

On a scale of 1 ("Men in Tights") to 10 ("Naked Gun"), I'd give "Fatal Instinct" about a 5. [31 Oct 1993, p.9C]

Too dopey to cut it as a theatrical release, but more knowingly and competently made than most of its straight-to-video analogues, this Carl Reiner-directed pastiche-parody of film noir occupies a lonely corner of video purgatory. Read full review

Lacking in both inspiration and ingenuity, it doesn't so much spoof the conventions of the genre as dumb down famous -- and in some cases, forgotten -- scenes from a slew of other movies. Read full review