Fatal Beauty

Director Tom Holland attempts to bring the "Whoopi Goldberg caper comedy" into a new era by adding more serious, dramatic content, drugs and violence. The picture ends up being a murky hybrid of different styles, with Goldberg cast as a cop in Los Angeles tracking down a narcotics ring dealing in killer drugs (isn't that redundant?). Sub-plot romance between Whoopi and fellow cop Sam Elliott never gets off the ground (mainly because Holland keeps most of this story-thread off the screen), while Goldberg tosses in a few sassy asides to reassure us she hasn't become Dirty Harriet. The end result shows definite signs of post-production tinkering, and very little of it is successful. *1/2 from ****

Fatal Beauty has the advantage of allowing Whoopie Goldberg to bounce her keen and cutting wit off Sam Elliott's straight and penetrating gaze. The action is bone-crunching gang-banging blended with South of the Border stylized gun battles, Corporate money, and big drugs.

I particularly like this one for Sam Elliott's prominence. He portrays hired muscle for a corporate big wig, who has no idea what his boss is up to. He also has a hint of a love interest with the star, and I found that delightful. His down to earth personality is perfectly cast, and wittingly executed.

This one always surprises me.

It rates a 7.8/10 on the Buddy Cop Scale from...

the Fiend :.

Yet another cop who doesn't always "play by the rules". Not a bad movie, it just seems like such a superfluous one, full of cliche characters and excessive violence. As you watch you keep thinking you've seen it all done before - and better. It doesn't have the gravitas of "French Connection" or "Bullitt", nor does it have the subversive wit of "Lethal Weapon" or "Beverly Hills Cop".

Alas, the combo of Whoopi Goldberg and Sam Elliott just does not work.

You won't miss much if you skip this one.

Rita Rizzoli (Whoopi Goldberg) is going to put the drug king out of business who is producing a deadly drug that's killing people off at an alarming rate. The drug king's top security man, Mike Marshak (Sam Elliott), takes a shine to Rita, although we aren't sure why. I spent the entire film thinking he might be an undercover cop -not so. Had it been any other actor besides Elliott I think this flaw might have prevented the film from being believable. But Elliott, and his cool, understated style just swept me away with his obvious attraction to Rita. There are some very moving moments, some frighteningly real back alley scenes of drug dealings and shootout after shootout. I didn't know what to expect with this film, and was hoping Whoopi would sail with it. She did!

A good movie that was overlooked and deserves more recognition. A forgotten movies from the 80's. Especially when it was sandwiched between 2 other Tom Holland movies such as FRIGHT NIGHT and CHILD'S PLAY.