Customer Reviews

Instinct to Kill [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Melissa Crider stars as a 28 or so year old woman named Tess. The movie starts by showing her marriage go sour and how violent her husband is. She finds a body part hidden in the house and calls the cops and they find out he killed many women. After being arrested, the husband immediately escapes and seeks revenge on his wife. Kadeem Hardison plays a cop and sends Tess to learn self defense from Marc Dacascos.

The story itself is bad, but the acting is pretty good. Melissa Crider is pitiful, but Dacascos and Tim Abell who plays the husband does some very good work. And that is literally the only good thing about the movie. There is no real training except for Tess learning to use a gun. The story just drags along while Tim Abell performs very well in badly directed scenes.

Since at least 90% of the stuff I watch is fighting movies, I can excuse a bad story and bad directing. Like I said, the acting is pretty good, so I was hoping for some good action, and I would be happy. The fights are shot so close up and are so choppy that it becomes aggravating to watch. I liked the final fight, but 2 or 3 good scenes does not make a movie. The last straw for me was when Tess is pointing a gun at an armed man, and after all her training, she holds her gun sideways. I don't remember her learning any sideways gun techniques, but I will admit I had a hard time paying attention for most of the movie.

1.5/5

DVD from DEJ Productions is full screen and picture quality is not bad, but could be better. Sound is fine. There is a Spanish language track included.

If you want proof of how Hollywood manages to take excellent novels and ruin them in the adaptation process, watch "Instinct to Kill." Based on Lisa Gardner's riveting psychological novel, "The Perfect Husband," the only thing the producers managed to retain are the names of a couple of the characters. The basic plot of the story - girl marries an alluring cop to escape her abusive family only to be abused herself, oh and her husband just happens to be a serial killer whom she turns into the cops. He escapes from prison and wants to kill her, so she enlists the aid of a mercenary-type to train her to defend herself.

All other traces of Gardner's plot are nonexistent in a ridiculously lame and poorly acted film, which appears to be nothing more than a mediocre vehicle to display star Mark Dacascos's karate moves, which were bested by the cheesy villain in each fight. And don't get me started on the inept Keystone Cops - how crimes actually get solved by these guys is beyond me. Save your time and watch a "Lifetime" woman-in-jeopardy movie on TV instead.

SYNOPSIS:
A WOMAN MUST CONFRONT HER HUSBAND THAT SHE HELPED TO PUT AWAY AFTER HE BREAKS OUT OF A CORRECTIONAL FACILITY.
(SHE DOES SO AFTER FINDING OUT THAT HE IS A KILLER/MURDERER)
SHE ENLISTS THE HELP OF A PERSONAL DEFENSE TRAINER TO HELP PREPARE HER SHOULD HE COME TO GET HER.
SO BUCKLE YOUR SEATBELTS FOR INSTINCT TO KILL!!!
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THIS WAS A FANTASTIC MOVIE WITH SOME COOL ACTION/FIGHT SEQUENCES INTACT. ALSO, THE ACTING WAS QUITE BELIEVABLE.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO THE THRILLER ENTHUSIAST.
I'M SURE THAT I WILL ENJOY THIS FILM FOR MANY YEARS TO COME.
THIS DIRECT-TO-VIDEO RELEASE RUNS CIRCLES AROUND MANY OF THE MOVIES THAT ARE RELEASED THEATRICALLY.
SO, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND SEE INSTINCT TO KILL.
YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPOINTED!!!
-JOHN SENECA

Melissa Crider stars as a 28 or so year old woman named Tess. The movie starts by showing her marriage go sour and how violent her husband is. She finds a body part hidden in the house and calls the cops and they find out he killed many women. After being arrested, the husband immediately escapes and seeks revenge on his wife. Kadeem Hardison plays a cop and sends Tess to learn self defense from Marc Dacascos.

The story itself is bad, but the acting is pretty good. Melissa Crider is pitiful, but Dacascos is good, and the husband (played by Tim Abell) does some very good work. And that is literally the only good thing about the movie. There is no real training except for Tess learning to use a gun. The story just drags along while Tim Abell performs very well in badly directed scenes.

Since at least 90% of the stuff I watch is fighting movies, I can excuse a bad story and bad directing. Like I said, the acting is pretty good, so I was hoping for some good action, and I would be happy. The fights are shot so close up and are so choppy that it becomes aggravating to watch. I liked the final fight, but 2 or 3 good scenes does not make a movie. The last straw for me was when Tess is pointing a gun at an armed man, and after all her training, she holds her gun sideways. I don't remember her learning any sideways gun techniques, but I will admit I had a hard time paying attention for most of the movie.

1.5/5

DVD from DEJ Productions is full screen and picture quality is not bad, but could be better. Sound is fine. There is a Spanish language track included.

Considering that he was just coming off of his role in the worldwide hit Brotherhood of the Wolf, "Instinct to Kill" is a disappointingly average DTV film as far as leading man Mark Dacascos is concerned: despite having proven that he can carry both cinematic weight and demanding physicality, this movie asks very little of him by relying heavily on a story that neither touches the audience particularly nor remains true to the book it's based on (The Perfect Husband: A Novel by Lisa Gardner). Sure, it's a decent thematic outing for the rest of the cast, but seeing as Dacascos had just become a (temporary) household name, it's inexcusable how the mediocre production hindered the possibilities his casting presented.

The story: Tess Beckett (Missy Crider, The Sex Monster) unknowingly married a murderer and barely escapes with her life before her testimony puts him behind bars. However, when Jim (Tim Abell, The Base) escapes from prison and goes after his former wife, she enlists the help of self-defense expert J.T. Dillon (Dacascos) to protect and train her.

The cast also includes Kadeem Hardison as the policeman who hooks up Tess with Dillon. Fans of either will know that Hardison and Dacascos had excellent chemistry in the excellent kung fu flick Drive, but they retain none of this for "Instinct": they only have a couple scenes together and don't inspire more than run-of-the-mill performances out of eachother. In fact, Hardison's entire role seems unnecessary, since he doesn't really do much while he's on the screen...but then again, nobody can hold a candle to the presence of Tim Abell's character, which quickly becomes the most interesting part of the movie. See, not only is he basically evil on two legs and a certified master of disguise (the latter is a huge part of the movie), but he kicks Mark Dacascos' butt...a lot. I'm thoroughly unconvinced that a man of his size could withstand what Dacascos deals out, but sure enough, not only is he grinning away after receiving blows that have felled many a movie bad guy, but he's promptly putting the hurt on the Hawaiian black belt as though it were easy. Ugh.

Speaking of putting a hurt on someone, I'm sorry to say that not only is there not a lot of hand-to-hand fighting (a total of three scenes, I think), but what's there is not very good. The fights were choreographed by B-movie staple James Lew, who's an amazing athlete but has apparently been in so many atrocious fight scenes that they've rubbed off on him: restricting camera angles and poorly-transitioned stunts put a damper on some cool moves by both men and the fight spectacle as a whole.

Missy Crider does well in her acting (with the exception of playing out the forced romance between herself and J.T., but Dacascos stumbles here, too), but the role she plays is clichéd and pathetic: I'm not unfamiliar with the psychological impact on spousal abuse, but the movie is at least half an hour longer than it would've been if she weren't such a wimp who needs to wait until the last two minutes of the movie to become courageous. As far as the mighty Jim goes...well, he's just not very likable. Yes, I know he's the bad guy - and a very advantaged one, at that - but as far as him being a core character goes, I just wanted to see him die. His death toll is surprisingly high, and he kills a lot of nice people; I almost turned off the film simply because I knew that he wasn't to get a proper comeuppance until the end, after all of the cruel things he's done. I mean, at least Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates were fascinating to watch; Jim just needs to friggin' die, man.

"Instinct to Kill" tries to be an action-packed take on Enough, but in the end, the action isn't good and the film itself isn't very likable. It's definitely not on the need-to-get lists of Dacascos fans. Rent it.

Okay, so this isn't the most genius work, and by far not Dacascos's or Crider's best, but the film works.

Loosely based on the book 'The Perfect Husband,' the plot is standard: pretty woman in jeopardy garners the help of a self-defense genius, a la the movie 'Enough'. Whereas 'Enough' was filled with idiotic plot holes and completely contrived plot devices, this was almost believable. Key word: almost. Like any film of this type, there was the standard disregard for realistic procedure and believable action. Also, this movie was lower budget than the J. Lo counterpart, and it shows (though in my opinion, it is for the better).

The actors do an incredible job within the parameters of their characters. Abell is creepy and sadistic as the serial killer husband. Dacascos brings to life a character I found a lot more sympathetic than his literary counterpart (sorry Lisa Gardner, but the book's J.T. was way too domineering for comfort), and Crider is believable as a woman who starts out too afraid to fight back even when her husband is trying to strangle her.

Dacascos doesn't get to show off his incredible martial arts skills like he does in 'Drive', but I think it would have detracted from the story, as well as adding an additional level of disbelief. Another issue not generally addressed in reviews is the really dark and violent nature of the story. The beginning scenes of abuse and rape are disturbing, and graphic (though they fit within the rating and there's not a lot of blood seen). VAGUE SPOILERS: The serial killer is basically on a sadistic rampage during the entire film, and he kills a couple of main characters in really brutal ways. That was the hardest part for me as a viewer. And while the romance and the ending may have been somewhat contrived, I liked it. It's hard to watch such a darkly themed film without wanting a little bit of happy fluff.

Overall, I liked the movie. I may even buy it as it is something that I would probably watch more than once (and that I can bring out when my friends want to watch 'Enough'). I wouldn't say it's a great or even good movie, but it's a decent film for what it is.

INSTINCT TO KILL is based on Lisa Gardner's "The Perfect Husband," although in this film one would never guess that. Tim Abell plays and quite well, a psychotic cop who has murdered nine women, and who failed in his attempt to murder his wife (the lovely if challenged Melissa Crider), and has been sentenced to an institution for the criminally insane. Needless to say, he escapes and begins searching for his wife for ultimate revenge. Ms. Crider is referred to a freelance defense instructor, played by Mark Dascascos, and he agrees to help her ready herself to defend herself against this psycho spouse. Kadeem Hardison (who worked with Dascascos in the excellent DRIVE) plays the former partner of Abell, who helps in rounding Abell up.
What follows is fairly predictable, and often times sadistically cruel.
Abell is the real star of this movie; his cool abandon in the murders is chilling.

If you like action movies, this is for you. It also has some psycolgical aspects to it. If you are a Mark Dacascos fan then this movie is also for you. This is one of his best films. It's an all around great movie.

The plot and story is pretty simple and straight forward and it never fails to amaze me how movies will ignore the obvious to get a product out there. Is that vague? Basically what I'm saying is that there are some obvious plot holes that could have been done away with.

There are some decent performances in here but they're kind of uneven and it feels like the cast isn't trying to hard most of the time. So why would I recommend this? Mark Dacascos of course!

On the acting side, Mark is trying to move into roles that require a little more characterization but unfortunately a movie of this type only allows a brief hint of that. Character study takes a back seat to action, which is also pretty sparse. I do think Mark put up a valiant effort, but it seems a little more emotion in certain areas would have made his performance more convincing. Tim Abell gives a fair performance as the protagonist, but as with Mark, there's some scenes that are played too detached for what's happening.

What we do have for action is pretty decent for the most part. There's a fight towards the end which shows off some new moves from Mark which are worth watching. But as with Drive, using a stunt double in certain scenes is both unnecessary and detracting from the experience. I believe it's James Lew, who's a great martial artist in his own right, but he's just not Mark.

I'd say this is something that hardcore Mark Dacascos fans might enjoy most. I still think casual watchers would be interested, but would probably do better to get Crying Freeman, Only the Strong, Drive or Brotherhood of the Wolf.

Good? Not. Corny? Yes. Predictable plot holes? Yes. The scene where the star and his "comedy" relief (KAdeem HArdison) are handcuffed and then left to die by the cops, is excruciatingly long. Does it take that long to be left on the side of the road? Did the director need to strettccchhhhh the scene to fill out the feature length run time? The implausible escapes and awful scenarios are putrid. The star is likeable, and just needs a decent script and a director who has actually made action movies. Two chop sticks down, baby.