Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 30, 1993 TAG: 9311020246
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JUDY GERSTEL KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This is old-fashioned parody, light years away from the post-modern lampoon ing that plugs into Generation X.
The title says it all.
From ``Fatal Attraction,'' there's a bathtub scene, a pot boiling on the stove and a furry creature - a skunk.
From ``Basic Instinct,'' there's a woman wielding an ice pick, of course, plus a spoof of the notorious scene in which Sharon Stone was seated with her legs crossed, only to reveal all.
``Fatal Instinct'' has Sean Young in dangerous-woman drag as Lola Cain, seated with her legs open and her feet on the police detective's desk, as if at a gynecological check-up.
The cop, Ned Ravine (Armand Assante), moonlights as a lawyer. Arrest 'em, then get 'em off is his modus operandi. And boy, is he dumb.
``Got a light?'' Lola says, fumbling around in her handbag for a match. He whips out his pocket flashlight and shines it into her purse.
The movie mines more than recent erotic thrillers, reaching back to classics of film noir.
Interrupted in passionate embrace by the doorbell, the adulterous wife Lana (Kate Nelligan) tells her lover Frank, the mobile mechanic, ``Oh that's just the postman. He always ring twice.''
Lana plots to get rid of her husband Ned and collect the insurance. Meanwhile Laura (Sherilynn Fenn), Ned's adoring but self-effacing and neglected secretary, just wants to get him.
Femme fatale Lola has her own secret motive for stepping into the picture in her high-heeled shoes, which always have something stuck to the soles.
It's mildly amusing to watch the actors mocking their own screen images.
And Reiner tries everything to get a laugh, succeeding from time to time with some clever bits. But there's rarely real lunacy and often just rote references - like a bird chirping on a windowsill a la David Lynch, or an airbag opening in a carnival bumper car, or cigarette packs labeled Black Lung Lights. Or jokes about breaking wind.
One inspired cameo: Reiner at a urinal, spoofing the ubiquitous men's urinal scenes in recent movies.
One problem with ``Fatal Instinct'' is that the genre it's poking fun at - the recent erotic thrillers - is already in a way a send-up of the classic film noir.
Parody works best when it's subversive, but after you've seen Stone making the cops sweat with a flash of pantyless crotch, what's left to subvert?
Still, ``Fatal Attraction'' does have its attraction. No matter how feeble the material may be, Reiner's touch can keep it alive, if not exactly kicking.
FATAL INSTINCT An MGM release playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Mall 6. Rated PG-13 for sexual situations and vulgar language.
by CNB