Rating: 
Summary: Good movie
Review: The whole concept of what freedom actually is and the examination/questioning of our collective mindset as well as the status quo of our culture are done some justice in this movie. Yet I find that the original book from which this movie is inspired, Daniel Quinn's Ishmael, far more successful at this.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly good!
Review: I'd heard some criticism of this movie, basically that it was the same thing they did with Hannibal Lecter, same actor, so why bother seeing it, yadda yadda. Not so! I was expecting a different type of movie, and was VERY pleasantly surprised by Instinct. I agree with some of criticism of "stereotypical" prison guards, "eccentric" inmates in the psych wing... yet it works. It's worth your while!
Rating:
Summary: You do not need to watch this movie to figure it out
Review: As is more and more often the case the trailer for "Instinct" provides what you need to know about this movie. Noted anthropologist Ethan Powell (Anthony Hopkins) was reported missing in the jungles of Africa and lost for almost two years. It was said that he was walking amongst the gorillas that he was studying. Then he murdered a couple of game wardens with a wooden club. Now he has been returned to the United States and placed in the mental ward of a prison where he refuses to speak. The case is discussed by a pair of shrinks: Dr. Ben Hillard (Donald Sutherland), who is old and wise, and Dr. Theo Caulder (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), who is young and smart. Hillard engages briefly in deep thought and then muses: "He lives with the animals, takes on their behavior, and becomes one. How does that happen?"Of course that is what the movie is about, and young Dr. Caulder is going to go have a series of confrontational sessions with Dr. Powell in prison, get him to talk, and eventually find out the answers to the big question. But as soon as Hillard articulated the big question I had my hand up because I was pretty sure I knew the answer. I mean I saw "Gorillas in the Midst" but even without that big clue common sense would pretty much tell you why somebody studying primates in the jungle would favor the apes and side with them against human beings. There might be some surprises in terms of the details, but certainly the general idea here is clear even before we actually "learn" the answer. However, to be fair, this film gets credit for not having a sexual relationship develop between young Dr. Caulder and Powell's daughter Lyn (Maura Tierney), Will Anthony Hopkins staring at an inquisitor in a prison setting it is hard not to see parallels between "Instinct" and "Silence of the Lambs." Caulder admits at one point that he has become a student as well as a therapist and this 1999 film is one where the patient may well do more for the doctor than the other way around. Added to this film are your standard roster of prison goons, apathetic doctors, and eccentric prisoner-patients in a simplistic combining of "The Shawshank Redemption" and "One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest." Consequently Caulder not only has to bring Powell back to sanity and his family, but has to fight to reform the corrupt system that he finds. The extras on this DVD consist of the trailer for "Instinct," as a reminder that it was a lot better than the actual movies, and then pictures of other movies you could have watched instead of this one. Apparently someone in a decision-making capacity recognized that most people watching this movie were probably to hit the eject button as soon as the credits, so why waste time and money adding extras nobody was going to want to see?
| 
