Review of Fatal Instinct

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. A handful of clever gags are interspersed with tons of leaden jokes. 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. Kate Nelligan is his cheating wife, and Christopher McDonald is her auto mechanic/insurance salesman/lover. These two hatch a murder scheme loosely based on the one in "Double Indemnity," and they quote (and misquote) lines spoken by Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in that classic 1944 film, but to no avail. Slapstick vies with verbal gymnastics and Hollywood in-jokes as David O'Malley's script lurches from one silly situation to another in an effort to get audiences rolling in the aisles. Maybe some audiences do roll, but unless you find bouquets flushed down toilets the height of hilarity, you probably won't. The sad thing is that this picture has an excellent cast—including Sean Young as a film-noir temptress and James Remar as a maniacal goon—and features cameos by Eartha Kitt, Tony Randall, Rosie O'Donnell and the director himself, who appears standing at a urinal. Reiner has done many good things on television over the years, and it's possible some of the hi-inks in this movie might work in a sketch. Here, unfortunately, the old pro steps up to the plate and swings mightily but whiffs. It's a strikeout, leaving several fine runners on base.