Instinct to Kill

WANTED: Mercenary. REQUIREMENTS: (1) Must be able to hit his targets with a handgun, or at least come close to them. (2) Must be able to maintain emotional distance with his clients, or at least be able to control them to the point that the clients do not become a liability.

Too bad. I've always liked Mark Dacascos. This film just did not do it for me. It has a lot of good merits but certain obvious things were enough to turn me off to it. I expected more from the police detective. The lack of graphic violence is good, since the story involves lots of violence. I could see the ending coming too easily.

This movie is the PREDICTABLE Hollywood CRAP where the BAD GUY gets away with murder SO MANY times due to the inability of the GOOD GUYS to fire their weapon with even BASIC MARKSMANSHIP SKILLS!!!

This movie was SO frustrating that I "fast forwarded" through the BS after the first FIVE times the BAD GUY "successfully" dodged a hail of pistol fire being fired at him FROM JUST ACROSS THE ROOM!

The ONLY redeeming scene was where the BAD GUYS WIFE NAIL him with ONE SHOT in the end!

I would have LOVED to have the Director in my living room so I could "Bitch slap" this idiot every time he wasted my time with "unrealistic" scenes!

Lisa Gardner's novel, "The Perfect Husband", upon which this movie is stupid movie based, is a MASTERPIECE. This is knockoff GARBAGE, FULL of plot holes! Most of the events in the movie never even happened in the novel, and many key characters and sequences of events in the book were just plain not in the movie! Boooooooooo! If you REALLY want to experience this story the RIGHT way, you really OUGHT to just read the book. Lisa Gardner is the QUEEN of crime thrillers! And then read all the rest of her books in order in which they were published if you're intrigued by "The Perfect Husband" novel.

I recently watched "INSTINCT TO KILL" for the very first time... B-List cast? Poleeeeeez...GIVE ME A BREAK! The cast, directing, storyline, and all other movie-making essentials were SUPERB- PERIOD!

Given the choice to view the CRITICALLY acclaimed movies "Titanic", "Star Wars", "Austin Powers" and "Harry Potter" (consecutively and for free), or PAY to see "INSTINCT TO KILL", I'd pay to see the latter EVERYDAY of the week! HONESTLY!

By-the-way, in America's educational system we're taught A's are better than B's. Keeping this (nationally accepted 'Institution for Higher Learning' fact) in mind, why on earth are "INSTINCT TO KILL"'s cast members B-Labeled?, while the cast members of the other aforementioned movies are A-Labeled?

PLEASE! Give me "INSTINCT TO KILL"'s (UNDULY B-Labeled) cast and you can keep your (SO CALLED) A-List wannabes!

Loosely based on the book The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner, Instinct to Kill puts Tim Abell and Mark Dacascos back together for the first time since The Base. Turning the story round and telling it much more from the killer's point of view gives the film advantages over the book, not least of which is the fact that we get to see more of Abell. He is the saving of the film, bringing the murderer, his character, to life in a way that Dacascos and Cryder seem unable to do with theirs. Unfortunately interesting characters have been omitted from the book which would have improved the film, but the progress of Jim Beckett reminds me a lot of the Andy Robinson character from Dirty Harry, without the totally over the top acting. It is fervently hoped that Abell does not suffer the same fate as Robinson and remain typecast as the psychotic killer, he is too good an actor for that.

Some of the make up used to disguise the murderer is a little amateurish but other special effects and the fight scenes particularly are very well done. Especially touching is the scene between Beckett and his father. What intrigued me most was Beckett's ongoing murder spree which was conducted without the expected descent into madness or raving looney tunes. He remained the same calculated, in control character throughout, who if you passed him in the street you would have thought nothing of. No rolling eyes giving the insanity away or the dishevelled appearance crying out for the men in white coats to pick him up. Abell plays it straight and it works.

Overall I really enjoyed the film and would recommend it.