Deluge of so-called psychological and "erotic" thrillers that started in 1987 with Fatal Attraction and reached its peak in 1992 with Basic Instinct, simply had to inspire at least one Hollywood parody. This task was given to Carl Reiner, director who had done the similar job in his 1982 film noir parody/homage Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. Eleven years later result of his efforts was comedy Fatal Instinct.
Protagonist of the film is Ned Ravine (played by Armand Assante) who works as policeman at day and as defence attorney at night, often defending the clients he had arrested himself. He is happily married man, although his cheating wife Lana (played by Kate Nelligan) plots to kill him for insurance money. In the same time he must deal with the romantic advances by seductive blonde Lola Cain (played by Sean Young) and personal problems of his secretary Laura Lincolnberry (played by Sherilyn Fenn) who escaped from abusive husband. Another of his problems is Max Shady (played by James Remar), ex-convict who wants to settle some old scores with detective/lawyer.
Reiner definitely knows how to make a comedy, but his scriptwriter David O'Malley missed the target. Fatal Instinct indeed tried to parody best known late 1980s and early 1990s thrillers, but those scenes are mixed with the scenes in which the objects of parody come from classic film noires of 1940s. This anachronistic combination doesn't look very believable and only strengthen the impression that O'Malley and Reiner ran out of ideas. Jokes are mostly lame and not particularly funny, additionally limited with the filmmaker's need to tame the humour to PG-13 levels. Actors are more than fine, including Armand Assante in one of his rare comedic appearances, and Sean Young again exploits her psychotic bitch routine. Unfortunately, like many genre parodies of 1990s Hollywood, Fatal Instinct too is rather forgettable film, totally meaningless to those who were spared from the objects of its parody.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on October 4th 2000)
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