Nice cast in a sometimes very funny spoof of erotic thrillers that were appearing at the time. Beginning with "Body Heat" in 1981, you could pick one adjective from Column A and one noun from Column B. From Column A: Fatal, Basic, Dangerous, Lethal, or Deadly. From Column B: Affair, Instinct, Liaisons, or Encounters. And then there was the anomalous "Poisonous Panties: The True Story of the Victoria's Secret Murders." This hectic farce rips off scenes and themes from innumerable noirish thrillers with base overtones. I caught "Double Indemnity," "Body Heat," "Sleeping With The Enemy," "The Maltese Falcon," "The Postman Always Rings Twice." I'm not showing off. It's easy. And I'm sure I missed some. The "Airplane" people and those who produced this imitation of imitations -- a kind of meta-imitation -- must have just about run out of gags because there haven't been that many recently.There's no reason to outline the plot. It has something to do with a wife's wanting to kill her husband for insurance but the plot is pulled apart by so many exotic allusions and so much word play, so many quips and monstrous metaphors, so many catachreses and zeugmas and whatnot, that it's often forgotten and just as well. Not that it's a masterpiece of literary play. People are always falling down stairs and doing forward flips for little discernible reason. We're not talking Oscar Wilde, but the dialog is pretty funny. I should have taken notes but, as it is, I can't recall any lines. My short-term memory is getting shoddy. I think my brain is turning to tofu and I may leave it to the American Culinary Institute for analysis.Two observations though. One is that Armand Assante is an excellent comic character. I wouldn't have expected it from him. He put his arrant masculinity to ridiculous use. And Sean Young, for all her off-screen foibles, is a delicious creature, all cream and pearl.I think you'll enjoy this unless you're in an irretrievably dark mood.

With the opening sequence there is a glimmer of hope but roll on a few minutes and it soon becomes clear that this is going to be well short of the mark of decent spoofs like Airplane, Naked Gun and Hot Shots. A good cast does nothing for the poor jokes and bad direction. Some of the cast were totally underused especially John Witherspoon who is extremely funny and might have added that something which was definitely missing from this film.I should have went with my Instinct after the first few minutes and stopped watching, that i'm afraid was my Fatal mistake. Overall if you like the above mentioned spoofs stay well clear of this one.

Fatal Instinct (1993): Starring Armand Assante, Kate Nelligan, Sherilyn Fenn, Sean Young, Christopher McDonald, James Remar, Tony Randall, Michael Cumpsty, Clarance Clemons...Director Carl Reiner...Writer David O'Malley Released in 1993, this comedy spoof film is top notch in much the same lines of The Naked Gun/Leslie Nielson movies and or the earlier Airplane! which means there are endless sequences of visual jokes, even if they are unbelievably unrealistic. Armand Assante (yes a serious actor in a comic role really works although they could have easily used Leslie Nielson for the part) stars as the victim of the scheming Lola Cain (Sean Young) who will stop at nothing to see his marriage ruined. She is a parody of the psycho bitches played by Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction" and Katherine Tramell played by Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. She hams it up as a scheming, evil temptress. Like the title suggests, the movie is a cross between Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct. Those were the two most standard thrillers during the early 90's period. Both films starred Michael Douglas as the target of a scheming, sexually powerful and psychotic, dangerous woman. The laughs keep on coming as the obvious parodies are executed. I.E. the famous Interrogation Scene in Basic Instict, the murder in the bath tub and the cooked rabbit in Fatal Attraction. Also on here are parodies of Sleeping With The Enemy starring Julia Roberts and Patrick Bergin, a 1991 thriller about a husband who is obscessed with his own wife and who likes to have his own things in the house arranged his way. (same element here only funnier!) This movie is really great comedy and really will take you back to the 90's. The 90's is long gone and many were too little to remember everything in detail. But it was a time in which movies were full of thrillers. I wish they had made a spoof of "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" on this film too. It was a time of laughing at criminals and their schocking crimes. Remember the Melendez Brothers ? Remember Lorena Bobbit ? And let's not forget the secret plotting of Tonya Harding against Nancy Carrigan. All this happened in the 90's. This was the time of the O.J. Simpson trial after all. I really recommend this movie. Many can easily dismiss it as cheap comedy but there are some genuinely comic moments, such as Armand Assante and Sean Young's lovemaking scene, the final part of the movie is funny too. A must have for fans of comedies of the 90's.

This is Happy Gilmore awful! A sure sign I need to upgrade my cable (which, incidentally, I called to do today). I got bored of infomercials while grading student papers and surfed to this. I knew Assante from his Mike Hammer made-for-TV movie from the 80s, so I stopped. The plot seemed familiar and the gags were kind of funny, so I stuck around. Holy cheese-wiz, what a great way to spend a rainy Sunday! Sexy women, evil bad-guys and inept good-guys who'd make Frank Drebbin himself raise an eyebrow! Ned is a cop/lawyer (does Law & Order know about this concept?) who lost a major case 7 years ago. The defendant is getting released and vows his revenge. Viewers will recognize James Remar as the villain Albert Ganz from 48 hours. CLASSIC casting! Completing the certification of Happy Gilmore awful, Christopher McDonald also plays a major role. Man... just watch it. If you like cheesy spoofs, this is THE BOMB!!!