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Peter Proud looks at INSTINCT!
You remember this trailer don't ya folks? It's the one where Anthony Hopkins looks like a cross between Charles Manson and Jeremiah Johnson and The Man Called Horse! INSTINCT is what it's called, and the consistantly reincarnated Peter Proud has once again opened back the curtain to give us a looksee... go on... look...
Harry, long time no scoop, it's Peter Proud here with another successful
mission sneaking into the mouse backyard and watching one of their
summer treats --- Instinct. I did my best to look like a Mouse employee
and sat in for the screening...so how was it, you ask? In one word ---
WHOA!!!
Now, I've liked most of what Jon Turteltaub's films (Cool Runnings and
While You Were Sleeping) but his last outing Phenomenon was a bit of a
disappointment. So I was skeptic about this one since on previews I saw
it looked another one in the long lines of Monkey movies Disney is
cooking (George of the Jungle, Mighty Joe Young, Tarzan and this one),
but the end result took me by surprise. It had its flaws but it's still
a very solid and recommendable movie.
Story begins with Dr. Ethan Powell (Sir Tony Hopkins) being moved from
his Ugandan prison cell to Florida. He was jailed for murdering park
rangers and refusing to speak a single word during the trial or
something. Dr. Theo Calding (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is an upstart
psychiatrist looking for a big break, he sees analyzing and breaking
through to Powell's psyche a big opportunity (BOOKS!!!) to hit paydirt
and volunteers for the work to visit him in his Florida Psychiatric
Prison Ward and evaluate him and the rest of the inmates. Powell,
looking like Sean Connery's first scenes in "The Rock" but quietly
acting up a storm, errupts at the airport and his daughter (Maura
Tierney) and wife got totally disenchanted with him. Still continuing
with his creepy demeanors in prison, the rest of the film unfolds as
Cuba learns of his secrets and why he went into that killing rampage.
Along the way, Powell shows the mean prison guards that the inmates are
human beings that need respect, much like the family of gorillas he
lived with in the Ugandan forest.
I won't spoil the film for you...once the two actors started sparring
with each other (acting-wise) the movie is so juicy good, I could feel
the intensity at my backrow seat steaming. There are a couple of scenes
in there that were treated very well (kudos to what I think is final
music by Danny Elfman) and not done as an overkill. The road to getting
the two main characters to meet was a bit boring here and there but
generally passable, you have to accept it as a set-up, obviously. But
some tighter editing could really make it better (maybe too late).
Hopkins have been faxing in most of his performances since "Howards End"
really (The Edge, anyone?) and this one, supposedly one of his last
movies if he does retire, brings back the glimpse of just how good this
man is...and Cuba Gooding, Jr., who could have been blown away holds his
ground against the Legend.
I thought Donald Sutherland's charcter as Gooding's mentor was a bit
paper cut-out (but aren't most of his roles are that way?) and you feel
a sense of awkwardness between Gooding and Tierney (whose underwritten
role feels a bit wasted), I heard there's supposedly insinuations of a
love angle between the two but I can't see any in this print I saw,
maybe they've tweaked it a bit. But heck, minor distractions
notwithstanding, I thought this is a vintage acting tour-de-force by two
outstanding actors. And that alone is good enough reason to watch the
film again...that and paying closer attention to some of the scripts'
lines which I thought were pretty well written. Although Gerald
DiPego's work on this one can be best described as uneven (the slow
first 15% or so is unnerving), it did had shining moments. I would
believe this is a very final version (maybe just minor color and sound
changes) so moviegoers should be treated to this version by June.
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this movie sounds like such a movie. i bet it made a great pitch. what i mean is, certain movies have such premises that sound like things that only happen in the movies. im sick of movies like that. it sounds like SILENCE OF THE LAMBS part 2. i want more movies that dont sound like movies because thats where the most creative filmmaking occurs. since kubrick is on the talkback, ill use him as an example. does the evolution of man sound like a good idea for a movie? not really, but did it make a good movie with 2001?
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I understand that this film might have a great actor (I have to leave out Cuba now because everty time I see him I can't shake the feeling he's going to sell me something), but this film bothers me. It purports that it is based on Ishmael, a philosophical text by Daniel Quinn. WRONG! WTF? Other than a gorrilla, what about these two things is similar? Somebody help me out, cause I just don't get it.
Oh, btw, I hope everyone has seen The Matrix. Its like Dark City on roids. -
Does anybody know anything about this movie? The only thing I ever hear about it is the release date being pushed back. I thought the project was dead, until this weekend they had promotional items at the theater. South Park was one of the funnest shows on tv when it was released, and now it is cirling the drain. I was hoping this movie would breath some life back into the series, but after the many release date changes and hushed production I wonder.
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Does anybody know anything about this movie? The only thing I ever hear about it is the release date being pushed back. I thought the project was dead, until this weekend they had promotional items at the theater. South Park was one of the funnest shows on tv when it was released, and now it is cirling the drain. I was hoping this movie would breath some life back into the series, but after the many release date changes and hushed production I wonder.
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In the past I'll admit I've posted some things that could be construed as.....adversarial against Lane Myers. However, I would like to formally withdraw all such comments. I recently had a nice long talk with Lane and well.....he's not the bastard I thought he was. We may not see eye to eye on anything, but I respect anyone who takes as much time as he has to turn an enemy into a friend. While I wouldn't call myself his friend exactly, I do respect him quite a bit after getting to know him. So I suppose I'm saying I apologize to Lane Myers for insulting and ridiculing him on this site, using my personal beliefs as the blunt object to do it. I'm sorry, Lane.
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I, for one, was not very impressed by the trailer. Although I must say -I LOVE Anthony Hopkins (strictly platonic), and althoguh I don't think he's been challenging himself as of late - even when he's bad (for him) he's still acts circles around 99% of the rest of the crowd. Cuba Gooding, Jr., OTOH, just didn't seem right for his part. This is no fault of his, but I thin his voice is just a little to high-pitched to be effective in an intense psychoanalytical thriller. I thin Cuba's a great guy and I love watching him on the talk shows, but he seems just a little too "eternally happy" to me to be taken seriously in the role he will be playing. The whole premise of this movie doesn't strike me as too original. Getting back to the trailer - it just seemed to be trying to get me excited, but for me, it fell flat on its face. Some scenes seemed almost laughable. Anyway, I probably will end up seeing the movie - it's just not on top of my list right yet.
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So, this particular incarnation of Peter Proud: do you think he works for Disney, or is simply an independant contractor? Or is that bit of hackwork pro bono, trying to land himself some kind of PR job? The trailer (what I remember of it) looked solidly in the 'maybe-I'll-rent-it-someday' category, and nothing this putz said changed my mind. 13th Warrior, on teh other hand, looks a mite bit interesting. That one gets my early vote for "Best Film of 1999 That Sat In The Can For Aeons."
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I agree with you wholeheartedly about Hopkins acting circles around the rest of the bunch out there. And I agree that INSTINCT doesn't look all that good, but you never know until you see it. I didn't think THE EDGE was gonna be worth seeing, but I saw it because I love Tony's work and came out of the film very pleasantly surprised. The same goes for THE MASK OF ZORRO. So I'll go see this one with no expectations except a great Hopkins performance. Personally I'm more anxious to see TITUS...Tony + Shakespeare = fireworks...
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...and I ain't him. I still don't like you, AC99. Bitch
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Not having seen Instinct, I cannot comment on the writing for Maura's part. But it's starting to seem to me that *all* of her roles seem "underwritten." One of two things is going on: 1) Either she has a talent for accepting underwritten roles, which as a business proposition might be just fine, since I have no idea what she was paid, and many of those films have done quite well; or, what I'm starting to expect, that 2) that she simply does not have the talent for pulling underwritten female roles out of the bag, as female actresses are forced to all the time, but can accomplish if they have the *talent* as actors. best, sterling
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Yeah, Gordian, I didn't see the connection between this flick and Ishmael too at first. (BTW, everyone read "Ishmael" by Quinn, ok? Good. Or at least visit ishmael.org) But from what I can tell, it fulfills a similar purpose because both of them force you to question Mother Culture's propoganda. It sounds to me actually like it is more based on Quinn's later works, like My Ishmael and Story of B (my personal fave). If nothing else, the previews are not going to show too clear of a picture of what the film is about, because it is harder to influence people if they know they are going to be confronted by something challenging. Or something like that. :-) Anyway, the end of the trailer said something ridiculously silly about how far removed it was from Ishamael. I don't remember exactly what it was, but look at the credits at the end next time you see it. I remember Quinn was talking about the song "Do the Evolution" (by Pearl Jam?) and said he is happy when people create things they wouldn't otherwise because of his books' influence. I think Instinct is a similar case. It will be interesting to see how 'true' it is to its inspiration...
Keith -
Regarding that comment about human evolution: chances are any major motion picture won't deal with this topic because
a: most of the "little people" who wander aimlessly from day to day living empty and useless lives either/or can't understand the topic or subscribe to the "humans have fallen not risen" theory - in other words it challenges their feeble intellect and they don't like it.
b: There's too many people on the planet right now. Everyone would like to believe the magic day that is soon to come that will bring universal peace, but it ain't gonna happen, bub. The only way mankind will take the next step in evolution is if there is some kind of castastrophe (read: war) that reduces the population.
This is semi-related to the Instinct movie since Sir Tony plays an anthropologist.
Elan Vitale - the next step in human evolution is intuition! -
It'll take more than a Disney insider's recommendations to get me to see this one, especially someone who "liked Jon Turtletaub's films".... The funny thing about the trailer is it makes the film look just like two other Hopkins films: The Edge meets Silence of the Lambs. Except here, Hopkins IS Bart the Bear. Tell me when a citizen sees this; i have a feeling even after it opens, not too many citizens will see it.
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