Waste of time

Load of rubbish!!

good back-story, and good acting

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Rita Rizzoli (Whoopi) is an L.A. undercover cop with a sassy attitude.  So far, so Whoopi. Things get very un-Whoopi-like when a shipment of a hot new drug called Fatal Beauty hits the streets. Its mixture of cocaine, PCP, and God-knows-what-else is so deadly and destructive, it's turning obese men of color into unstoppable zombies. When the Whoopster traces the drug cartel back to criminal mastermind Conrad Kroll (Yulin) - and you know he's evil because his name is Conrad Kroll - she wants answers and justice. Kroll's head of security, Mike Marshak (Elliott) at first tries to keep Rita away from his employer, but soon is following her around town on her adventures like a puppy dog. Eventually, the two unlikely heroes team up to fight under-baddies such as Leo Nova (Dourif) and Earl (Jolly). What hijinks will Whoopi come up with next? Will it mix well with drug-fueled violence? Find out today! Much like how in the great Collision Course (1989), Jay Leno shot people and beat them up, here fellow comedian Whoopi Goldberg does more of the same. The 80's were the golden time for the action comedy - Red Heat (1988) and Action Jackson (1988) come to mind as parallels here, but the obvious comparison is Beverly Hills Cop (1984). There are many comparisons to be made, right down to both having a Harold Faltermeyer score, and we won't bore you by running down the list of similarities, but let's just say this: Fatal Beauty is a surprisingly entertaining and fast-paced jaunt with a great cast, wonderful 80's vibe, and a wisecracking Whoopi. That's a pretty nice package if we do say so ourselves. As regular readers know, we always enjoy when an unorthodox star tries their hand at action, and we applaud Whoopi for playing against type as an Italian-American (?) cop with her finger on the trigger.Speaking of unorthodox, the main baddie, played by Harris Yulin, is mainly known to us as co-star of Short Fuse (1986) - remember when Art Garfunkel had a Short Fuse? We certainly do, and if you think Whoopi was an unusual choice, that's nothing compared to that inspired casting decision. John P. Ryan is a sort of under-the-radar fan favorite of ours, having appeared in Avenging Force (1986) and Delta Force 2 (1990) among many others, and here he plays the WYC (or White Yelling Chief) who is always riding Whoopi but knows she gets results. Sam Elliott's mustache is comforting, Ruben Blades is wry, Brad Dourif is unhinged, James Le Gros and M.C. Gainey are in the mix as well, and Cheech Marin has a cameo as a bartender. We haven't seen a cameo like that since Whoopi was in Beverly Hills Brats (1989). Maybe we should say Fatal Beauty is a cross between Beverly Hills Cop and Beverly Hills Brats.It all ends with a pretty cool mall shootout, and it should also be noted that there are plenty of racial slurs that most likely would not be in the script today. That's just one extra element that preserves the 80's vibe. Director Tom Holland does indeed keep things moving, and that may come from a background in horror movies - he's probably best known for Fright Night (1985) and Child's Play (1988). Interestingly, in further comparisons with Action Jackson, they both have an end-credits song by Madame X.Fatal Beauty, at this point in history, could fairly be called (what we have termed) a 'Video-Store Classic'. You know how we're always asking about the more obscure titles, "who actually rented this?", well, we know people actually rented Fatal Beauty. And they probably had a good time watching it, as we did, and you more than likely will too.

Whoopi has been in plenty of good films and a very little bad films. Fatal Beauty is not a bad film but it's not the best Whoopi can give you. I loved Jumpin Jack Flash but this movie doesn't have the appeal that Jumpin Jack Flash did. Fatal Beauty is still worth a look despite its flaws.Plot: Fatal Beauty is in reference to a drug that kills its users within a few hours of its use. Whoopi Goldberg plays Rita Rizzoli, a cop who constantly goes undercover to find crooks and bust them. She stumbles unto the lethal drug called "Fatal Beauty" one night during a bust and is bent on finding out who is supplying it. She has to put up with a corrupted millionaire who she believes is in on the whole operation and his bodyguard Mike Marshak(Sam Elliot) who is attracted to her.Opinion: Fatal Beauty has its share of positives as well as negatives. Positives: Its funny(even though the laughs are sometimes sporadic), there are serious moments in the movie that sometimes work(like Rita revealing why she does what she does), the action scenes are decent, and the movie as a whole is a decent watch. Negatives: The laughs are sporadic, there is no chemistry between Whoopi's character and Sam Elliot's character(hell, there is more chemistry between Boris and Natasha of Rocky and Bullwinkle than these two), Sometimes there are more unintentional laughs then genuine laughs, sometimes the movie feels like a Beverly Hills Cop knockoff(Rita gets so deep into a case that it costs her her job just like Axel Foley). Other than that this movie is still worth watching. Its far from the best movie that Whoopi has been in but its also far from the worst(Theodore Rex and Burglar). Its still worth being in your Whoopi Goldberg collection.

Cher was supposed to play this part and left to be replaced with Whoopi that is probably why this is an odd film. She(Cher ) and Sam Elliott became friendly doing the film "Mask" and wanted to work again. For some unknown reason Cher left at the last minute. Whoopi was "hot" at the time(box office wise) and was offered the part. She should have turned it down. Although she is a good actor,to use her for a part that was tailored for Cher is a bit silly. Proof,once again, that Hollywood producers can make some strange decisions. These events become legendary.Marlon Brando for the "Sundance kid". Thank God cooler heads prevailed.Or,Robert Evans fighting for Alan Delone for the part of Michael in the "Godfather"

Rita Rizzoli is an undercover cop working in the narcotics section. When a job goes sour she loses her lead on a high ranking middleman she suspects deals for `legitimate' businessman Conrad Kroll. When the same guy turns up dead later that night in what looks like a large raid on a drug deal she realises that Kroll may have other players involved. When the same drug starts turning up cut into a lethal mix Rizzoli confronts him but finds that another group may be responsible. Rizzoli continues her investigation but has the help of Kroll's chief of security who has been assigned to keep an eye on Rita.Clearly designed as a vehicle to do for Goldberg what the Beverly Hills Cop movies did for Eddie Murphy, this sees the traditional mix of wise cracking cop and action mixed up in a plot that scores as few points for logic as it does for originality of genre. The plot seems to barely keep moving forward and feels like it was added to on a scene by scene basis rather than developed as a story – hence whole scenes just lead to other scenes in a very disjointed way. Also it asks us to accept a lot of big plot holes as well as some things that are just plain silly (businessman Kroll coming into a gunfight and pulling out on Rizzoli even though she has nothing on him!).The film has dated badly and feels very 80's. The original Beverly Hills Cop may be 80's as well but it is good and hasn't dated so badly – this film is very much of it's time and is full of clichés that typify the period. The action is very basic and there is no real tension at any point, this was a surprise considering there is a 15 minute shoot out at the end which surely could have been done with much more suspense rather than just shooting up lots of extras. Aside from this the film adds an almost unnecessary string to it's bow by including the romantic subplot with Mike. Now the fact that he doesn't suspect his boss does anything wrong, the fact she lets him get close and the way he always seems to turn up in the nick of time, suggested that the film could really have done without him. He isn't around long enough for the romance to really develop and I just assumed it was a way to bring the film into the `mismatched bickering partner' stable that was very popular at the time.That said, Elliott does do quite well in the role – he has an easy charm and the two stars do have some chemistry going on. Goldberg works hard with the wisecracks but really the material isn't there for her to do anything with. Her style of exaggerated clowning doesn't really fit with the hard edge either turning this into more of a standard thriller than an action comedy. Brad Dourif is on form as the bug eyed drug dealer, he has little screen time but makes a good impression. Yulin is a by-the-numbers bad guy that the film doesn't even know what to do with once it creates him (hence the lazy dispatch he receives). Blades is comical but underused.Overall this has dated quite badly and is probably only of interest to real fans of Whoopi Goldberg. Compared to the film that that this is clearly trying to emulate, Fatal Beauty is low in excitement, low on laughs, low on plot logic and sadly lacks it's own style. A fatal combination that almost kills off the film.