Fatal Pursuit

Fatal Pursuit is a poorly executed attempt at the erotic thriller genre. While suffering a number of faults it is primarily undermined by it's script.

Gang boss Bechtal (Malcolm McDowell), his moll Giselle (Lydie Dernier) and muscle Franco (Robert Z'Dar) steal $8 million in diamonds in a violent New Orleans kidnapping/robbery. British insurer Pinkrose (Michael Ensign) sends in Jill (Shannon Whirry) to investigate. She is teamed with local "good old boy" private investigator Deghy (L.P. Brown 111) and his sidekick Herbert (Charles Napier). They trace a witness to the crime through bad cops (Larry Manetti as Gersi), good cops (Obba Babatunde as Trindad, Joe Estevez as Morier) and subsequent witness Shelby (Larry Linville). Regarding the latter, Major Frank Burns in the MASH TV series, I should just note that this was his second to last credit before passing away. RIP.

L.P. Brown is believable as a "bad boy" private investigator and, as a co-producer of the movie, seems to have made sure he gets the best one liners. Unfortunately this leaves less for the other characters. This is especially notable with Shannon Whirry, who starts out with a reasonably strong and independent character but, through the script, ebbs into the "girl" in awe of our "hero". Charles Napier looks ready to have some fun, of course with that grin when didn't he look like he was ready for some fun, but the script leaves him nothing to do. Malcolm McDowell career has unfortunately descended into playing villains in B movies. The best that can be said here is that he's energetic, the man can snarl with intensity, but unfortunately that is all the performance entails. Lydie Dernier' s character is described or seen as "on the street" (prostitute?), thief, gangster's moll, killer and tourist shop operator. No wonder she just decided to play it as psycho. Robert Z'Dar has physical presence but isn't called on to do much (acting wise).

Once the romantic antagonism between Deghy and Jill peters out there isn't anything left but the plot. It would be unfair to say there is no plot; there is one and within its own context it is logical. The problem is that the plot is fundamentally stupid. First there is the witness to the jewel theft. Then there is the witness to the death of the first witness. It is nothing but coincidences related to the gangsters' amazing proclivity to leave witnesses. You've just killed a couple of people, stolen $8 million in diamonds and then you just glare at the witness and walk off! As for the erotic I would say that Shannon Whirry' s shower scene more than makes up for the fact that her British accent keeps coming and going. If they had expanded that to ninety minutes and cut the rest of the film we might have to revise our vote to 9 out of 10.

On the positive side the movie has a few good one liners, initial romantic tension between the leads and it moves along. It may make passable viewing for viewers in a non-demanding frame of mind. However I honestly couldn't understand why people just don't rent The Big Easy instead (same ambiance much more successfully executed).

Bad Acting!!! Bad special Effects... and I thought Witchcraft V was bad. o_O 2 out of 10 stars.. Avoid! Even if your as dumb as me for renting it, probably better to rent one of the Emmanueale movies..

"Fatal Pursuit" opens with some unconvincing violent scenes, with punches that sound like a cushion being whacked with a ping pong paddle, and someone getting their hand off and burnt alive.

B-movie stalwart Robert Z'Dar (he of the huge face) appears wearing a wig that makes him look like a housewife on steroids.

Malcolm McDowell, whose presence in a movie at this stage of his career was certainly no mark of quality, makes an appearance, and so does Charles Napier.

The movie is set in New Orleans. Shannon Whirry plays some kind of career woman who is there investigating something or other. She meets a private eye played by Charles Napier and his coworker, a leisure-suit-Larry type.

You get the feeling the movie wants you to like the mullet-headed, moustachioed, leisure suit guy, which is funny, because he's so sleazy you recall from him. In one scene Shannon gets drunk and he takes her back to her hotel room. Probably nobody in the audience would not be wondering if sexual assault isn't on the cards. And yet, the scene is light-hearted.

Shannon comes to naked, and assumes she has indeed been raped. She gets a little cross with her sleazoid partner, but then they're friends again pretty soon. You'd think he showed her he can fart the national anthem or something, not that he made her the victim of a hideous violation.

You realise about half way through the movie that McDowell is the bad guy. They should have established that better, but the movie's opening scenes, with its unrealistic punches, hands getting lopped off, gunshot wounds, spontaneous combustion and exploding cars, were just too confusing for me to be able to tell what was going on.

Ferret-face himself, Larry Linville, shows up as a guy who can apparently afford a really babin' prostitute with a killer rack, though the filmmakers are dumb enough to not turn the lights on in the scene where she takes her top off.

I've said it already, but it bears repeating: this movie has perhaps the least realistic fisticuffs I've ever seen in a movie. The sound effects are particularly bad, so over the top that they make you realise the people in the scenes can hardly be considered to have struck each other. They look like they're wiping tears off each other's faces with their fists.

Shannon Whirry surprisingly only gets naked twice, with a long lull in between scenes.

I still found myself enjoying "Fatal Pursuit". It may not be a good movie by any measure, but it was still pretty entertaining.

One late Friday night/morning in the blistering Australian summer, I found myself unable to sleep and with nothing to do besides willing on a cold front, I turned on my T.V and found a film called 'Fatal Pursuit'. With my only other option being a Chuck Norris informercial, i settled in and watched quite possibly the worst movie i've ever seen (although 'Overboard' still holds that mighty crown). There is no intelligent way to describe how bad the film is, so i'll simply say this: It Sucks. It Just plain Sucks. The only possible reasons for watching this film are: the main Character's moustache, the big chin guy from Tango & Cash, and the refreshingly large amount of full body female nudity. Chuck Norris' Total Gym never looked better.

This has to be one of the worst movies of all time. The characters are completely unoriginal, acting is terrible and offers no belief in the story what so ever (also the actress doesn't keep her English accent for the whole movie, it seems to fade), the story is as bad as it gets and the scenes are just stupid. One of the first scenes it the movie shows people getting shot up. some guy somehow gets caught on fire and falls into death next to a parked limo. he is about a meter away and the limo explodes. this is the highpoint of the movie and it wasn't even good. I cannot believe that this was made in 1998. By the looks of this movie you would think it had to be a terrible movie from the early 80s.