Fatal Instinct

Plot synopsis:
Ned Ravine, who's both a police officer and a lawyer (who often defends the people he arrests), believes that he knows everything about women, and says that he'll throw away his badge if anyone ever proves him wrong. While on a stakeout, he encounters a seductive woman named Lola Cain; the next day, Lola shows up at his law office, saying that she needs him to look over some papers she's come across. Meanwhile, Max Shady, who was just released from prison after seven years, starts stalking Ned, planning to kill him for failing to successfully defend Max in court.
Ned's wife Lana and her auto mechanic Frank, with whom she's having an affair, start plotting to kill Ned in order to collect on his accident insurance, which has a triple indemnity rider; if Ned is shot, falls from a northbound train, and drowns in a freshwater stream, Lana will collect nine million dollars.
Lola gets Ned to come to her house to examine the "papers", which are actually a laundry receipt and an expired lottery ticket, and the two of them end up having sex in various wild ways (while falling down a flight of stairs, in the refrigerator). The next morning, Ned says that they can never do that again because he loves his wife; this drives Lola to start stalking Ned.
A few days later, Ned takes the train to go to a legal symposium; Lana and Frank are also on the train, and so is Max. When the train passes over a lake, Lana shoots Max 36 times with a revolver, mistaking him for Ned, and he backflips through the door to his death; Ned thinks that Lana had acted to save his life. He arrests Lana, and then defends her in court, getting her cleared of all charges. Lana later kills Frank, believing that he was going to abandon her, by pinning him against a wall with his power drill; Lola witnesses this, and starts blackmailing Lana.
Ned confronts Lola, and learns that she and Lana are identical twin sisters; after Lana had smashed Lola's face with a shovel, the doctors had given her a whole new face, causing the man she loved to leave her for Lana (who now looked more like Lola than Lola herself); Frank was the man's son. Lola's plan from the beginning was to get revenge on Lana by seducing her husband and ruining her marriage.
Later, Ned's secretary Laura Lingonberry tells Ned about Lana's plans to kill him, having figured it out herself. Upstairs, Lana is attacked by Lola, who drowns her in the bathtub. While Ned goes upstairs to investigate, Laura's abusive husband (whom she'd escaped from three years ago) comes in and confronts her; she kills him with a frying pan. Lola and Ned fight, and Lola falls to her death from the second-floor landing after Ned pushes her back with a powered-up hair dryer through a broken handrail (which Lana had sawed off earlier). As Ned and Laura embrace each other (and Ned throws his badge away), Lola and Lana come back to life and attack; Laura shoots them both. Ned and Laura marry a few days later.

Tags: revenge, neo noir, murder, romantic

Review:
Boy was I wrong, I didn't think I'd like it because I thought Armand Assanti was a real serious actor and he wouldn't be funny but 5 minutes in to it when he put that hot dog in his jacket pocket I didn't stop laughing.
A wild spoof of suspense and film noirs, I appreciated this silly film a little more than most being a fan of "noirs." As with any comedy, the movie is a combination of genuinely laugh-out-loud gags and sight scenes and genuinely stupid lines.
Many parts of this movie parrot scenes from Fatal Attraction, Body Double, etc.
It takes several viewings to catch most of the inside jokes.Armand Assante is the smooth private detective and Sherilyn Fenn is his attractive and loyal secretary.
It may lack the "quality" feel of e.g. The Naked Gun, but I think it's almost as funny.The film looks great, and the jokes aren't as much of a hit-and-miss affair as you could fear.
Naturally it's almost essential that you've seen most of the films it takes a crack at (Double Indemnity, Body Heat, Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, Sleeping with the Enemy just to mention a few).But what really elevates Fatal Instinct above similar efforts is the brilliant performance from Armand Assante, who displays a comic timing that I never would have guessed he had.
He plays his completely oblivious-to-everything-that's-happening-around-him detective with such dead pan seriousness, that it's impossible not to laugh (the scenes with his skunk little Neddy are hilarious).
Carl Reiner, a man that knows about comedy, is the man behind this spoof on the noir genre.
Mr. Reiner, working here with David O'Malley's screen play, has created a film that parodies movies like "Double Indemnity", "Basic Instinct", and "Fatal Attraction", among others, with great style.The result is a film with some clever lines spoken by the cast as though they are acting in the prototype movies that Mr. Reiner is spoofing, with great panache.
Armand Assante is excellent as Ned Ravine, a man who is a policeman and lawyer and who does some excellent dancing in those red stiletto shoes his character seems to love.
Sean Young has some good moments in the film."Fatal Instinct" is a film to watch with a lot of friends.
He is so clueless that he doesn't see that his wife (Kate Nelligan)is having an affair with a mechanic(Christopher MacDonald), or that his secretary (Sherilyn Fenn) is deeply in love with him (She also has an abusive ex-husband that's looking for her).
She also wants Ned.This film spoof "Fatal Attraction," "Basic Instinct," and every film noir movie ever made.
Not only is it funny, it also has the beautiful Sherilyn Fenn which is very nice of course :) I highly recommend you see it, because even though I didn't "laugh my *** off", it was such an amusing movie to watch!Jens.
After sitting through countless comedies and parodies with gross and often times just plain bad jokes (try scary movie) one might wonder if it is actually possible to have a really brilliant spoof without insulting humor.
The selection Mr. Carl Reiner made in this film "Fatal Instinct" is nothing short of incredible.
Taking a cue from the film parried here ( Fatal Attraction) from the moment it begins, you will begin laughing, so one had better have a good grip on his chair.
What they achieved is memorable in various films, like airplane and Horror Movie.
Sherilyn Fenn as Laura Lincolnberry, Kate Nelligan is Lana Ravine and Sean Young playing Lola Cain.
I don't understand how a person can watch a very funny and entertaining movie like this and then go on IMDb and give it a low rating!
This movie obviously spoofs, or parodies (please forgive me if I don't know the difference!) noir movies and murder thrillers like Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction, hence the title.
I enjoyed movies like the Naked Gun, Airplane and Dumb & Dumber and love Abbot & Costello, ha ha, chuckle here and a laugh there, but this one, not even comparable to these.
And believe you me, you've NEVER seen an erotic thriller like Reiner's "Fatal Instinct".
If you've seen "Airplane!" or the Naked Gun movies, then you know what to expect here.
You don't have to know the erotic thrillers being spoofed to enjoy this Carl Reiner film.
This is a funny spoof in the ranks of the Naked Gun series, Airplane!
and Spy Hard, where Armand Assante plays attorney/cop Ned Ravine, whose wife Lana (Kate Nelligan) is having an affair with a mechanic (Christopher MacDonald) and is plotting to murder her husband for the insurance money.
Meanwhile, Ned is seduced by femme fetale Lola Caine (Sean Young) and his secretary, Laura Lincolnberry (Sherilyn Fenn), has a crush on him.The acting is well done and contributes to the hilariousness of the film, which spoofs a handful of murder mysteries and thrillers including Sleeping with the Enemy and Basic Instinct.
Sean Young does a humorous imitation of Sharon Stone's character in Basic Instinct and Sherilyn Fenn does a great Sleeping with the Enemy spoof; it made me crack up at the towel-lining scenes!
This makes you appreciate the humor more.There isn't much plot to the story, though, and I wished some of the characters elements, including the abusive husband parody from Sleeping with the Enemy, have been emphasized more.
If you're stuck on what to watch but want a good laugh, this film is for you!
Of course, back then I hadn't seen the movies it was spoofing, such as Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, and Sleeping With The Enemy.
The kind of humor when the cast acts seriously while the gags speak for themselves worked well for movies like Airplane, Naked Gun, and Hot Shots, but not for this movie.
Sean Young looked like she was trying to have fun with it, and is pretty convincing in some scenes.
The movie contains quite a lot of silly scenes, and that can be funny from time to time.
There are numerous laugh-out-loud jokes and scenes throughout the movie (like when the characters suddenly begin talking in Yiddish), yet there are those that desperately try to be funny but aren't (such as the entire court room scene near the end).
This movie is considerably funnier if you have watched the dozens of movies Fatal Instinct is spoofing.
You'll merely sit there not realizing that you've just seen a comedy bit.As for the rest of the movie, it's filmed on what appears to be a shoe-string budget.
The storyline is ridiculously boring, and there are some spoof jokes that seem incredibly out of place and unfunny (such as when Sean Young's character takes the Ravine family rabbit for a roller coaster ride, a la Fatal Attraction).Good jokes in the dialogue and original, if cheap, side gags distract from a poor overall screenplay.
This movie is probably even better than one or two of the Naked Gun films.
Sporadically funny movie spoof.
Put the two words together and you have "Fatal Instinct", a sometimes funny comedy spoof of sexy suspense thrillers such as "Fatal Attraction" and "Basic Instinct" with a little "Body Heat" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice" thrown into the mix as well as other movies of this genre.
"Fatal Instinct" isn't the best of movie takeoffs but it does have some moments that made me laugh.
The funniest thing about this movie is watching Armand Assante do comedy.
Sean Young is also very funny as the blonde bombshell who's also the femme fatale of the picture.
Kate Nelligan and Sherilyn Fenn don't fare quite as well as Young (as Assante's evil wife and secretary, respectably), but it's still fun to see them here in this movie.
Over the years Brooks has fared better at comedy spoofs than Reiner has, but "Fatal Instinct" is at least better than Brooks' last two movies: 1993's "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" and 1995's "Dracula: Dead And Loving It").
Cheating wife plots to kill her busy husband in this sporadically funny spoof of cop movies and sexy thrillers such as "Fatal Attraction." You would think you'd expect something better from Carl Reiner; at least I was..
I have seen this colorful parody movie twice now and the first time it was allright though I never felt it was great.
This movie spoofs so many movies though, there ARE a few really funny moments and laughs-just look at the title!The movie features an incredible cast and it was fun to see some of my faves BUT(and this is a big but) when I saw it again I really found it kind of boring.
I think at the time it came out it was funny but it doesn't hold up well and having seen alot more parody movies since then, I'll admit some of the jokes here aren't very good.
It maybe ok to watch as a late night or if one just likes this type of movie in general(which I do!) but there are really better spoof movies around..
Spoof comedy with Armand Assante pulling a Leslie Nielsen.
Carl Reiner tries his hand at an "Naked Gun"-styled spoof of crime-thrillers, such as "Basic Instinct" and "Body Heat", but the results are full of cheap gags and silly smut.
Armand Assante is the befuddled cop, Sean Young is the femme fatale, Kate Nelligan is Assante's two-timing spouse, Rosie O'Donnell is...Rosie O'Donnell.
All the characters play the "straight" role well, and they need to, because it's "deep thinking" humor, but also very funny.
Armand Assante wasn't the type of actor you would have expected to be good at this type of comedy - but I think he is brilliant as the straight-faced Ned Ravine.
Not all the jokes hit the mark but most of them are funny enough to win you over.My favourite line comes from the judge played by Tony Randall.
Fatal Instinct is better than most spoof movies that I have seen and I think it was very funny..
The multi-talented Carl Reiner blows the crime-drama genre wide open in this film, but the results are nowhere near as funny as intended.
This over-the-top takeoff on movies like "Fatal Attraction," "Basic Instinct" and numerous B movies tries much too hard.
It announces its intentions with tough-guy voice-over narration delivered by the main character, Ned Ravine (Armand Assante), who is a lawyer/cop and an intended murder victim.
If you didn't think that was funny, all I can tell you is that it is probably funnier than 95% of the gags in this film.
I will admit that a couple of the gags here and there elicited a few chuckles out of me, but for the most part, I kept watching this film wondering why a production assistant didn't pull Carl Reiner aside and say, "Sir, this isn't funny.
The elder Reiner, who is also no stranger to funny and often times memorable films ("The Jerk" (1979), "The Man With Two Brains" (1983)), probably felt the same pain as Rob after releasing this forgettable mess of a film."Fatal Instinct" is a comedy that is a spoof, but is sometimes unsure of just what it is spoofing.
Of course, there are many references to scenes in "Fatal Attraction" (1987) and "Basic Instinct" (1992), hence the name of the film.
Scenes from other such thrillers like "Sleeping With The Enemy" (1991), "Body Heat" (1981), and "Cape Fear" (1962 or 1991) are also obviously repeated.There are two problems with this films repeating scenes from these movies.
Simple referencing of such scenes does not make them funny.Second, the film is rated PG-13, which means kids can see it.
Because "Basic Instinct" and "Fatal Attraction" were R-rated movies that both came close to being NC-17, kids would not (or should not) have been able to see them.
Therefore, any jokes about, or references to, these films, regardless of whether or not they're funny, are going to fly over kids' heads.
If you're going to spoof R-rated movies, why not go edgier with the on-screen gags?
Kids probably would not want to see the movie anyway, so why did the filmmakers not even think to make this movie R-rated?When the film is not reenacting femme fatale shots from movies adult audience members probably have already seen, it seems as though it inserts infantile gags in an attempt to be "The Naked Gun" (1988).
Armand Assante is a good dramatic actor, but in this movie, it seemed as though he tried way too hard to be Leslie Nielsen.
It had very good actors in it that tried way too hard to be funny, and looked stupid as a result.
The writer of this film seemed to be so busy naming erotic thrillers that the audience never cares about the fate of the characters in THIS movie.
If they hadn't made their awful spoof movies, which are far more guilty of repeating pop culture moments, "Fatal Instinct" would probably be the worst parody film of all time.
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.
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.
In another scene, putting flowers in water takes on a whole new meaning.Numerous other jokes in the style of movies such as 'Airplane!' show up.
As with all good spoofs i enjoy it each time I watch it..
I have seen a few spoof movies, and this is definitely one of the better.
It has very much the same type of humor for a spoof movie, and it delivers some great laughs if you're into this type of movie.
The movie is a treat to fans of the spoof genre, but most other people probably won't like it.
This film was great, much better than those naked gun pictures.
If it wasn't for Sean Young looking like a fox, this movie would suck!.
There's really only one thing I can say about this picture, besides the fact that Armand Assante is better at comedy than you'd expect him to be: I am not a fan of Sean Young.
The movie is not good at all, but I can stomach it simply to see her hot body every time I watch.
I don't care that this movie is a comedy full of cliches, I would have had Assante's Ned Ravine end up with her at the end if I'd been writing it.
all in all very funny spoof movie!
Fatally Funny: Hilarious Comedy Out Of The Early 90's.
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!
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.
Like the title suggests, the movie is a cross between Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct.
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.
Shameless spoof of other movies, somewhat funny..
This is a parody of such movies as 'Basic Instinct' and 'Fatal Attraction', and others with strained male/female relationships.
A spoof of the erotic thriller genre in the "Naked Gun" mold, "Fatal Instict" must have been funnier back in 1993.
The cast is certainly game: Armand Assante is perfectly deadpan, and the women (devious Kate Nelligan, sweet Sherilyn Fenn and slinky Sean Young) are terrific.
FATAL INSTINCT is a side-split-tingly funny spoof of film noir dramas, in the AIRPLANE/NAKED GUN mode that offers affectionate winks at films like FATAL ATTRACTION, BASIC INSTINCT, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, and CAPE FEAR, offering consistent laughs thanks, in part, to the self- assured direction of comedy icon Carl Reiner.
FATAL INSTINCT is a side-split-tingly funny spoof of film noir dramas, in the AIRPLANE/NAKED GUN mode that offers affectionate winks at films like FATAL ATTRACTION, BASIC INSTINCT, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, and CAPE FEAR, offering consistent laughs thanks, in part, to the self- assured direction of comedy icon Carl Reiner.
Armand Assante is surprisingly funny as Ned Ravine, a cop and a lawyer who is being cheated on by a scheming wife (Kate Nelligan), being pursued by a sexy client (Sean Young)and being loved from afar by his faithful secretary (Sherilyn Fenn).
Armand Assante is surprisingly funny as Ned Ravine, a cop and a lawyer who is being cheated on by a scheming wife (Kate Nelligan), being pursued by a sexy client (Sean Young)and being loved from afar by his faithful secretary (Sherilyn Fenn).
Nice cast in a sometimes very funny spoof of erotic thrillers that were appearing at the time.
Fatally cheesy and instinctively funny..
The movie `Fatal Instinct,' is a campy film noir (color) comedy that parodies famous film noir pictures from the past fifty years.
This film is an evolutionary step up from Reiner's past film `Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' which was a black and white film noir comedy.The Players: (Some spoilers ahead)Armand Assante plays Ned, a married obtuse cop/lawyer who has no children and at the rate he is going, never will.
Sean Young plays Lola Cain, the ice pick wielding femme fatal trying to aggressively seduce Ned.Kate Nelligan plays the conniving red headed unfaithful two-timing (three-timing) wife who makes`Stanwyck' look virginal.