BASIC INSTINCT 
(MAX on BLACK AND WHITE 
(TMC on Comcast) James Toback’s film about rich white kids trying to be black rappers and black rappers trying to become showbiz power brokers has ambition, ideas, edge, and good performances by two athletes: boxer Mike Tyson and basketballer Allan Houston. But it can’t finish what it starts, and veers off into spiralingly inane melodrama. (R; runs through Nov. 5) DEATH AT A FUNERAL
(TMC on Comcast) A strained but often funny British comedy of embarrassment from American director Frank Oz (“Bowfinger’’), in which everything that can go wrong with the title event does, up to and including naked relatives on the roof. It’s painless enough, and once it gets going there are a few sublimely mortifying moments. Matthew Macfayden, Alan Tudyk, Daisy Donovan, Rupert Graves, and Peter Dinklage star. (R; runs through Nov. 5) TY BURR 
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