Instinct

Rating:
Summary: i realy like this movie
Review: This is another one of those movies where Anthony Hopkins makes the movie very good. This is a movie with a lot of diversity to it, there is great character development and the plot is interesting as well. Cuba Gooding Jr. in my opinion does his best work as an actor and Anthony Hopkins is his usual brilliant self. This is a movie that i can't realy find anything wrong with and it might deserve five stars but it just didn't seem like a five star movie when i saw it. This is a movie that any Anthony Hopkins fan should see, and any movie fan should see.

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Movie of the Year
Review: Most people criticize or try to downplay the sheer brilliance of Instinct, not only the superb acting but also the riveting cinematography. It's an emotional piece of work that weaves in truths about our way of life and certainly is one of the best movies this year. I would have to say anyone who doesn't like this movie doesn't get out much!

Rating:
Summary: absurd psychodrama
Review: The bottom of the pop-psychology barrel is scraped with "Instinct," a bizarre, pointless amalgam of "The Silence of the Lambs," "Gorillas in the Mist" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" that represents a major stumble in the careers of both Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr.

Hopkins stars as a research anthropologist who abandons family, home and, eventually, sanity to take up residence, Sigourney Weaver-style, with a family of apes that, of course, just welcome him fully into their ersatz anthropoid family unit. While he's making nicey-nice with the gorillas, a band of hunters attacks the camp, killing most of their number, a crime for which he is returned to the states in a strange state of self-imposed silence. Gooding jr. plays the crack psychiatrist assigned to work with this violently deranged man and attempt to draw the truth from him about what really happened in the deep dark jungles of Africa.

Any movie that begins with the cerebral Hopkins singlehandedly demolishing an entire airport terminal, while scores of armed guards struggle to subdue him, is not destined to register high on the credibility meter. The screenplay, in fact, degenerates into a snail-paced series of increasingly ludicrous confrontations between the deranged killer and the doctor, wherein the psychiatrist, predictably, is set straight on some eternal verities by the psychotic truth teller. How often must we be subjected to this idiotic notion that all therapists are really only trying to work out their own redemptions and that the deeply emotionally disturbed patients somehow possess the requisite wisdom we mere rational mortals do not to help them achieve this? The film trods this tried-and-true path right up to a thoroughly wretched final scene that defies all credibility and lapses completely into the absurd. At one point, to achieve his redemption, Gooding Jr. rallies the psychotic prisoners to band together and stand up against the tyrranical prison forces arrayed against them - in a scene filled with the kind of phony emotional uplift that is always backed up by a swelling, sobbing orchestral composition and endless shots of characters looking meaningfully upward in teary-eyed pride and determination. If only Jack Nicholson had had such an advocate!

Cuba Gooding Jr., though he certainly tries hard, lacks the gravitas necessary to carry off a leading role of this magnitude, and Hopkins provides his customary grating mannerisms as he lectures us about the virtues of uncivilized, primitive Man. "Instinct" is thoroughly derivative yet it does have the chutzpah to make momentary fun of itself by including Sigourney Weaver as the butt of a one-liner. It is the one moment of cleverness, honesty and courage in an otherwise dull, incredible and utterly uninteresting film.

Rating:
Summary: not a great film, and yet...
Review: This is not a great film, but perhaps it could have been. The actors are, of course, excellent. And I enjoyed seeing Cuba Gooding Junior getting the chance to play so much and so often one-to-one with Hopkins; what a great learning experience that must have been for him; and he held his own, or rose to meet Hopkins very admirably: good for him.

There is something about this movie for me: I feel like I'm sensing the seed of something very, very good that didn't quite come to fruition, despite what on the surface seems to be a season filler kind of movie. There's something more there (I wish the people involved could give it a few more tries--oh well). But that not yet really well developed "something," the promise that seems to be inherent in this movie, is compelling enough for me to buy it.

I also highly recommend the other movie I logged on to buy, now that I heard it's been re-released: "Never Cry Wolf" with Charles Martin Smith, based on the true story of a biologist's 6-months in-the-field study of the Artic wolf--now that's a movie, a story, that has *fully* come to fruition (in art *and* in life). And for anyone interested in a story based on a real-life experience with the mountain gorillas, I'd highly recommend *Gorillas in the Mist*, based on Dian Fossey's experiences.

Anyway, I will be placing *Instinct* alongside those two for that promising *something* that it seemed to be trying to reveal to me and that I did indeed sense in some way as I watched it...

Rating:
Summary: Pants
Review: By my own reckoning Anthony Hopkins presence alone can transform even the most dreary and tedious of movies into an eminantly watchable drama. However, so awful was this film, that the most Hopkins can do is perhaps persuade a few poor souls who have had the misfortune to rent it, to actually watch it all the way thru to the final credits. The basic storyline is weak and unlikely, whilst the script itself produces corn of the most unpalateable and off putting variety. The few plusses of this film include some spectacular scenery and some very professional camera work and direction - but I feel that if the average person actually notices and starts to observe the cameramans talents during a film, as I did, then the film must have become well and truly ,mind numbingly boring! Give this a miss!

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This movie is great. Anthony Hopkins plays another psycho in a mental prison. This movie was intense and sad all in the same time. It has a great story and plot to it. Cuba Gooding,JR does a good job in it playing Hopkins psychiatrist. So if you want a great movie with great performances and a great story to it watch Instinct.

Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking Experience
Review: Based on Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" the experience pits the illusions of freedom offered by civilization against natural order. The movie has an excellent star base with Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Donald Sutherland. "Instinct" is and excellent movie for those looking for intellectual stimulation or for just entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: Great and very emotional psychological thriller
Review: "Instinct" is one of the best psychological thrillers of the year.

First of all, the movie begins with the best openings sequence I have ever seen in a movie. Then there is the very good performance of Anthony Hopkins. He plays his character very realistic. It's almost as good and intense as when he played Hannibal Lecter. Cuba Gooding jr. is also pretty good as the psychiatrist who tries to cure Anthony hopkins.

But one of the best things of this movie is the music of Danny Elfman ("MIB", "Sleepy Hollow") and the scenes with the apes.

If you like psychological thrillers, or if you are just an animal lover, you just have to see this movie!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Movie
Review: I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie....I half expected another Silence of the Lambs...what I got was so much more. 3 excellent performances from Cuba Gooding Jr., Anthony Hopkins and Donald Sutherland. This movie has a great and very gripping story. I highly recommend a purchase of this movie. You won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most compelling and thought provoking movies ever
Review: While I was watching "Instinct," I noticed that it wasn't anything like any other movie I've ever seen. It's one of the most emotional and powerful movies ever made. I can't think of any others that even come close to the emotions that it has. I also haven't ever seen any other actor that can make just a typical drama or suspense movie feel like a compelling adventure like Anthony Hopkins accomplished in this movie. I can't say who I think the best actor is because there's so many great ones, but I have to say that after watching movies such as "Instinct," "Silence of The Lambs," and "Legends of The Fall," Anthony Hopkins is the first name that comes to mind when someone asks me who I think the best actor is. Cuba Gooding, Jr. is also a great actor and does one of his best jobs in "Instinct."

If you're looking for an action-packed action movie, don't get "Instinct." But if you like drama movies with a lot of suspense and you would like to hear a tale of how people can live (with animals) peacefully and without worries, then "Instinct" is definitely for you. It shows how a man is sent to prison for just taking care of his 'family.'

The only reason I can think of anybody not liking "Instinct" is that they either don't like this kind of movie, or they didn't understand it. Watch this movie closely and listen to every word and it'll grasp you and never loosen its grip until the last scene of the movie.