source: Instinct

Not a bad movie, has some thought orovoking moments, the Stan Winston gorillas look great. I think the prison was believable it was just let down by writing, the story overall is nice has a bit of green mile cuckoos nest thing going on. Didn't hate it, had some tense moments worth seeing once.

Ethan Powell is a famous explorer who disappeared mysteriously into the mountains of Africa, when he was on a mission set to study the wild gorillas. After many years, Powell is found by forest guards living among the gorillas. He is brought to civilization, and a young psychologist will try to discover the reasons that made Powell abandon his family and friends in order to live closer to the nature and the animals. This intriguing film has as its main qualities the Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding, Jr's brilliant and memorable performances, the interesting story and the soft and affectionate way in which director Jon Turteltaub develops the friendship between Powell and the psychologist. Instinct was a box office failure, perhaps because the audiences of nowadays just want to see action and deaths on the screens, but if you give a chance to Instinct you will have a thankful surprise.

Possibly one of the best films ever made. acting is superlative, great cast, and wow what an amazing story. youll love, hate and laugh, feel anger , warmth, sadness and elation. hopkins is a natural science doctor that has spent time in the jungles of the congo, gooding jr the doctor minds, as they clash heads in a battle of minds the story of the ape man gets told from inside the walls of a badly ran home for the insane. dont read too much into this, forget watching trailers, know fine well if for nothing but the cast that this is worth your time, sit back and enjoy a really great movie with bumbs and twists and tears and anger and laughter! an amazing piece of cinema!

I don't know which was most offensive about this movie: the wretched 'acting' of Cuba Gooding, the appallingly inappropriate music by Danny Elfman, or the bromide-ridden script. Take GORILLAS IN THE MIST, cross it with ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, add a touch of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS,add heavy handed metaphors about Men in Jails being Like Animals In Cages, mix badly, and serve. Nothing made sense, nothing was resolved, and the only reason to go see this at all is to see Anthony Hopkins do his thing. I don't know how he kept a straight face when working with Gooding.

I watch this for one hour and think it was just a OK good formula movie, with cliches, predictible story. The last hour is simply awful! What it makes worst is that big fat ugly orchestral music that we hear all the time. We don't need that elevator music sounds to feel emotions. Cuba Gooding Jr is fine, but Hopkins seems so bored. I'm sure that when mister Gooding will be an old man and watch this, he will be thinking of the errors of his youth.

There's some very good acting in this movie and a great music score. Some of the shots are truly beautiful and the gorillas are very realistic. Yes there are some parts which are pretty typical and at least a couple of predictable moments but in general I'd recommend it.

This fanciful "human-interest" movie offers a somnambulant performance from Hopkins as a self-made ape man spewing anger and philosophical babble (in that loud, wonderful voice of his) to a miscast Cuba Gooding, Jr., playing a smug therapist working for another smug therapist (Donald Sutherland, in typical mentor form). Gooding goes unnoticed up against Hopkins, even when he does his big crying jag scene. This is the kind of relationship picture that makes cynics cringe and sentimentalists rejoice; there's even a gross cheer-out-loud-for-the-underdog scene that will cause acid reflux. A flop.

People who gave this movie a low rating because it didn't resemble Ishmael need to get over it. Ishmael is Ishmael and Instinct is Instinct and just consider that you've enjoyed two wonderful stories through two different mediums instead of getting all bent out of shape that the movie didn't resemble the book. Sheesh! The other pack that didn't like it, and the reason it didn't fare well with the public when it was released is simple: 1. No naked women; 2. No fast car chases 3. No bombs; and 4. Requires t

More or less, the only film with Sigourney Weaver which I rather liked was "Gorillas in the Mist". The fact that "Instinct" seems to copy several scenes from Ms. Weaver's film, obviously does not count in its favour. I usually like Anthony Hopkins in his films, but this one must have been for the pay-packet. In several scenes, when he was with the gorillas in the jungle - with or without mist - I was watching retakes of Dian Fossey in Sigourney Weaver's earlier production, and which, I must add, is far better than this film. The attitude and postures adopted by Hopkins with the gorillas are carbon-copies, pure plagiarism. The fact that Cuba Gooding in one of his dialogues even mentions Sigourney Weaver by name is, whether those responsible for the copy-cat version like it or not, a nod in the direction of recognising what was evidently the better story and better film. Shame on Messrs. Gooding and Hopkins for making such a silly regurgitation with unconvincing story to boot.