Search - Instinct to Kill on DVD

Horrid adaptation of an awesome novel

Tracy Vest | Northern California | 07/27/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Horrible

morgoth | omaha, NE | 06/06/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"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."