Tracy T I'm getting a little ticked seeing some user reviews with lines like, "People who don't like this movie just don't get it, are too dumb to get it. You have to be smart and emotionally sensitive to enjoy this!" Well, a big Italian flick of the chin to all that. I'm smart enough, emotionally sensitive, and think this movie is dreck.It's a Rousseauist fantasy about the evils of civilization as contrasted with the wondrousness of gorilla life (if you think the great apes aren't violent, you're wrong. Cf, especially, chimpanzees). This morality tale is told through the character of a man who loves gorillas but can't love his own daughter. Still, he's the hero somehow.Anyway, the hero is played off of by a shrink who ends up giving us some serious schmaltz. The "Great Tearing-Up Of the Playing Cards Scene," with the swelling music was supposed to move us to tears and, for those who'd make such a gesture, perhaps fist-pumps, but ends up feeling crazily contrived. Same with the "you taught me how to live!" stuff, which simply didn't have the chemistry between the two characters or the plot build-up to make it remotely believable. And same, too, with the almost-final shot of said shrink standing in the rain with outstretched arms, face toward the Heavens in some sort of exaltation.I don't know about you, but I'm really tired of hearing the messages that man is bad, we all suck, civilization's made us insane, society forces us to live lives that are "fake" (most folks outgrow the Holden Caulfield stage of life after they turn 16 or so), and that if we lived like animals, everything would be great (go talk to some lions and gazelles about that. If you can get them into a room together, I mean.) What's funny about that line of thought is that it's typically expressed by folks who think of man as nothing but an animal anyway, just another great ape and nothing more, so they're not logically consistent on that, but whatever. The thing is, though, that even if I were to agree with the message, which I most assuredly don't, I would think this movie fails to send it effectively because of pacing, lack of chemistry, a bad script, etc. I think it could've been a good movie if it hadn't been trying to send that big message and had treated it as the story of one man with moral failures who, because of those failures and his own weaknesses, can only live happily with gorillas. That could've been interesting. But as it is, it's a 7-cheese pizza without the crust, if you know what I mean.The actors were fine, though. Anthony Hopkins is usually cool to watch, and I thought Cuba did a decent enough job with what he had.

chrissyt1986 I picked up this movie on DVD for a very reasonable price, I'd heard of it but didn't know anything about they plot or who starred in it. I was sold on the fact Anthony Hopkins is in it and curious about how Cuba Gooding Jr would play alongside an incredible actor like Hopkins.Hopkins for me in this movie once again proves how brilliant he can be in a challenging role, he is effortless, natural and subtle even when he doesn't speak, his eyes, his movements pour out emotion and feeling. He raises what could have been an average movie into something heartfelt and inspiring. I really wanted a big scene with Hopkins in-which he verbally took his performance over the top and blew it out of the water with intensity and drama but I was more than happy with the softer more subtle side of his performance.I soo wanted to love Cuba Gooding Jr performance in this movie, he has a very easy to watch and enjoyable quality about him which iv found in all they other movies iv watched starring him, however in this movie at times I felt as though at times he was a little bit out of his depth. To go up against an actor the calibre of Anthony Hopkins you really need to be able to stand your ground and bring more to the table as far as depth and intensity and I didn't feel that from Cuba. At times it felt as though he was trying to hard and was trying to match Hopkins in the performance stakes. Don't get me wrong he did a great job and was enjoyable and I commend him on his efforts but it felt as though there was something missing in his performance.The plot wasn't my cup of tea but it won me around and totally had me engaged me. The scenes with the Gorillas and Hopkins, were touching and beautifully directed.Overall, this movie is definitely worth watching, its easy-going, warm and touching but at times brutal and harrowing. Its an engaging mixed bag of emotions that rolled up make for an inspiring and entertaining movie which delivers ultimately an important message

elshikh4 This is an awfully sentimental movie, with nice acting and promising script. But, sorrowfully, it's also one of the movies which you find yourself asking after its end; what does it say ?! The problem is within this script. It's not only promising, it rather has so great factors : The thrilling psychological investigation about the truth of strange murders, exploring a vague yet interesting man, a despotic reign vs. oppressed people, the animal vs. the rational human who became more beastly, the love and family vs. money and position. The tragedy though is that this movie didn't pick out well what to say out of all of these beautiful meanings. Or maybe it picked out saying them all in the same time (!), to end up with nothing complete.(Anthony Hopkins) is an excellent actor but I longed for someone who's physically bigger, such as Nolte, Hackman, or Connery (who I knew later that the role was written for him). The chemistry wasn't that palpable between him and (Cuba Gooding Jr.) as well. (Cuba Gooding) gave only 90 % of him for the role, and the script embarrassed him already with inconsistent aims; does he have to be more concern about love (the mentor himself forgot to express his love to his daughter !!), does he have to be more human and less beastly (that was the problem of the prison's managers, not him !), was he after the wrong goals all along ? (then what he got from that man to get right ?!). So the moment in which he tells Hopkins, so teary and desperate, "You taught me how to live" was undoubtedly the highest peak of sentimental crap this movie could achieve !The soft piano score got on my nerves since it made the movie's soundtrack as the same as any other Hollywood movie with romantic feel. I thought I was watching (Patch Adams – 1998) for god's sake! It was boring score and surely it obliterated big part of the movie's singularity. On the contrary, the sound effects worked highly. They incarnated smartly many important emotions and turning points. The end with the lead runs away made it kind of mix between (Scent of a Woman – 1992) and (The Shawshank Redemption – 1994). So was it about how the people became so inhuman therefore the only available freedom would be by living with the animals?! That's the closest meaning it could reach, however by unsettled script and after nonplused time. What makes you sad is that it had real original factors to be one-of-a-kind movie, but it blew it. If something (Instinct) missed, and extremely needed to be true magical, then it's the instinct of being focused.

Peter Hayes Ethan Powell (Antony Hopkins) is deported back to a US mental facility after his scientific work in Africa ends in a murder conviction. There he builds a wall of silence that needs to be broken down by new-boy shrink Theo Caulder (Cuba Gooding Jr).The central problem with worthy topics is that, while I salute their seriousness and gravity, that doesn't mean I automatically enjoy any product that wants to wrap itself in it. This film (a why-dun-nit) takes a small age to say anything or go anywhere and even when it does it is clearly a hodgepodge of other films best bits.(Let us not bother mentioning them again!)Hopkins is a fine actor and wonderfully intense - but wasted in this chewing-the-curtains epic. Yes, the prison system is wrong, but what should a prison for the criminal mentally-unstable look like? The Ritz? Equally here in the affluent West it is easy to sit back and condemn those living an uneducated hand-to-mouth existence in some jungle clearing.(Doesn't make them right though!) To be frank I was totally bored before the movie had reached the half way point and - by which point it had said everything it had to say and show - and I was hoping for the thing to finish as quickly as possible.Hollywood is part of most of the problems of this world (grab it, take it, snort it, ignore the safety of bystanders, solve-it -by-violence night-after-night) so when it gets preachy my ears tend to close. For the record the message is right - the medium is wrong. Thrillers have to thrill - this doesn't.