A spoof of the erotic thriller genre in the "Naked Gun" mold, "Fatal Instict" must have been funnier back in 1993. Now, a lot of its references to other movies ("Sleeping With The Enemy", "Cape Fear", "Body Heat"), though still recognizable, have lost much of their topicality. The film is full of "meta" gags which are sometimes clever, sometimes derivative. 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. Also, Carl Reiner's direction doesn't over-rush the pacing like most such spoofs, and Richard Gibbs' music score is spot-on. **1/2 out of 4.
Review of Fatal Instinct
