Kate Nelligan

(On TV, April 1999) Curiously tame spoof of erotic thrillers (Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct, mostly, obviously) best caught on TV, not rented: Even though constantly amusing, it’s not exactly hilarious and fails to make the most of its opportunities. Armand Assante is quite good, though the remainder of the cast fades in the background. Put it at a level above Robin Hood: Men In Tights, equal with The Silence Of The Hams but below any of the early Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker films such as Airplane!, Top Secret! and Hot Shots!.

(Second viewing, On Cable TV, September 2022) I had at least two reasons to be curious about re-watching spoof comedy Fatal Instinct, twenty-five years after an initial viewing.  For one thing, I have since watched many, many of the noir and neo-noir films parodied here – I could expect to catch many more of the film’s jokes.  For another, I was curious to see how the film’s comedy had aged: It wasn’t considered a top-notch spoof comedy back then, but the sub-genre got much, much worse in the following decade-and-a-half (before disappearing) and the result may look better in comparison.  As it turns out, a re-visit was worth the time on both counts.  Fatal instinct isn’t funny as much as it’s deeply silly, and that feels far better than the intolerable, laugh-free, mean-spirited form the spoof comedy took during the 2000s.  Amand Assante stars as a police officer moonlighting as a lawyer, but much of the rather solid plot chains sequences out of classic noir and neo-noirs, with director Carl Reiner (no newcomer to the genre, having helmed Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid) playing with form as much as with content.  (My favourite visual gag has the lead character’s car equipped with cinematic blinds and a ceiling fan.)  The blend of influences from 1940s noir to 1970s neo-noir to 1990 erotic thrillers is a great deal of fun (especially when it’s blending all three, such as two characters’ amorous activities are interrupted by a postman ringing twice) even when the film is not subtle about it at all.  Other than a very solid Assante, Sherilyn Fenn is quite good as the lead character’s secretary with a hidden past, although both Sean Young and Kate Nelligan both have their moments along the way.  (Other notable casting coups: A young Christopher McDonald as a romantic rival, as well as veterans Eartha Kitt and Tony Randall as judges.)  I suspect that part of the fun these days is playing pop-culture archaeology in decoding which film are being parodied, especially as many of them are no longer the references they once were.  I wouldn’t want to over-praise Fatal Instinct: it’s weak brew compared to the ZAZ spoof comedies of the 1980s.  But it’s a great deal better – particularly from a plotting standpoint! — than many of the subsequent spoofs that extinguished the genre, and it still makes for a smirk-filled late-evening watch.