Stylish but barely mediocre overall

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

In the small town of Beauville, California, something nefarious is afoot. A no-goodnik named Buddy Boyle (Leary) is dumping hazardous waste into the pristine countryside, and he's using the local goons to help him out. When a group of skydiving-mad teens inadvertently stumble onto what Buddy is doing, they at first try the local authorities, but of course they're on Buddy's payroll, so, led by girlfriend-boyfriend team Toni and Duane (Carothers and Esposito, respectively), and Toni's Uncle Jack (Burke), the pilot of their beloved plane, the group attempt to foil Boyle. But it's not going to be a Freestyle Formation in the sky for this group, especially now that we're dealing with FATAL SKIES (though to be fair, the skies are perfectly fine. Boyle is polluting the ground. But who's counting?)There is an art to casting your movie or TV show. It's a delicate balance that you don't want to get wrong, and it can make all the difference in your project. If you cast someone who is inappropriate for the part, it can ruin your movie, but if you cast the perfect person, it can tip the scales in your favor and can propel your movie to new heights of success. The Casting Society of America even has its own awards, honoring the best in the field, called the Artios Awards. Or you could just say, "screw it, we're getting Timothy Leary". The sheer insanity of casting the then-69-year-old Leary as the main baddie in your movie - who did indeed have an acting resume to fall back on, despite the fact that he was mainly known as a Harvard professor and LSD proponent - is, well...pretty insane. But it's all part of the magic of the video store era that never-to-be-replicated casts can be assembled. Not since Art Garfunkel had a Short Fuse or Steve Guttenberg went Airborne have we seen such an inspired casting decision. Mr. Leary is backed up with some great people as well, so he doesn't steal the show - Tim Burke as Uncle Jack is likable and comes off as a cross between James Doohan and Mike Ditka. Geoff Meed is a classic meathead, Melissa Moore has a very small part as one of the teens, Maureen Shannon is downright weird as Willy, and one Vernon Buckwald as the Don Knotts-like Sheriff Horne leaves a pretty strong impression. He even reappears after the end credits. But the main star of the show is, let's face it, Veronica Carothers as Toni. She started off her career as the production secretary on Deadly Prey (1987) and parlayed that into a pretty successful career as a so-called "scream queen". She can be seen in Mankillers (1987) and She-Wolves of the Wasteland (1988) as well. Her beauty is downright mesmerizing and the movie can be enjoyed just for her presence in it. She even pioneers a new slang word - not since Conflict of Interest (1993) and "Jerk Beef" and Bulletproof (1988) with "Butthorn" have we seen such creative use of language. At one point she calls Duane, and we quote, a "Dweezel". Not to be confused with the fine musician Dweezil Zappa, we assume. That was what was so great about the 80's and early 90's and DTV - there were no rules and lots of creativity, even when it came to the words people said and/or invented. You don't get that today. There is a lot of bizarre and silly dialogue like that. At times, it almost seems like the script was written in a foreign language and then translated by a computer, then presented to the actors. Even still, it seems like Steven Seagal - or, at least, On Deadly Ground-era Steven Seagal - would appreciate its environmentally-minded message. Maybe because it's the only directing or writing credit for one Thomas E. Dugan to date, but it's hard to tell the tone of this movie. One minute it seems like it's tongue in cheek, or possibly trying to be funny, but then the next minute it's serious-minded. There's no consistency there. There are shootings, stabbings, chases, blow-ups, and the like. And, once again proving DTV product is way ahead of its Hollywood counterparts, the whole thing predated Extreme Ops (2002) by a whopping twelve years! Honestly, you had us at "Skydiving Teens Foil Pollution Plot by Timothy Leary". Only in the video store era, we tell you. Only in the video store era. Sure, it's pretty dumb and all over the place, but one there's one thing you can certainly say about Fatal Skies: it's unique. So let's keep on the bright side and look at it that way.

Every once in awhile, AIP would cast a recognizable name in one of their movies. It wasn't always a big star, but it would be someone many movie-goers would know either from pop culture or from movie watching experience. This usually meant actors that weren't as big as they used to be, like Cameron Mitchell or William Smith. With `Fatal Skies,' they cast Timothy Leary, of all people. I decided to watch this oddity for a change of pace, since it didn't sound like the usual type of film AIP would make. And it isn't. Whether or not this is a good thing I haven't figured out yet. The plot is very minimal, yet not the easiest to explain, partly because it isn't easy for you to figure out completely when you watch it thanks to new characters and background facts being dropped at unexpected intervals. Jack is taking his niece Toni, her boyfriend Duane, and two of their friends skydiving in his plane. Duane and Toni parachute onto the quarry of Buddy (Leary), who is none too pleased with the intruders because they stumble in while he and his three hillbilly helpers are dumping two strange chemicals into the water. We know these chemicals are bad because they explode when combined together. Buddy pulls a gun on them, but the results are ugly as one of Buddy's helpers winds up dead before the teens escape and tell Uncle Jack. At first Jack doesn't believe them, but upon further thought, soon thinks that the police could be interested. They aren't; they are on Buddy's payroll. While Jack tries to find out who exactly Buddy is working for (a question whose answer really isn't addressed; I mean, we find out a character is having Buddy make the chemicals, but we don't know who he is or why he wants the stuff), Buddy's hick henchmen try repeatedly to kill off Duane and Toni. That's when it is time to take justice into their own hands.The rating I am giving this movie is not as low as it gets because I realized there was talent behind the camera. Thomas E. Dugan, who apparently wrote or directed no other film, handles his skydiving scenes and most of his other scenes with a careful hand, and his crew no doubt knew what they were doing, too, despite their shallow budget. Tim Burke, who plays Uncle Jack, is the best actor in the lot, but to my surprise, the teenagers really weren't that bad. It's everyone else that makes this a bad acid trip. Leary's mere presence demands attention. He doesn't just have a cameo like he does in other films, oh no, he is the main villain. Some of his scenes (and this I think has more to do with Dugan's pen than Leary's ability) are interesting, but most of the time he is dull. I find it strange that AIP would have hired him at all, as Leary's band of followers had shrunk by the time this was made. Still, Leary is a Robert De Niro compared to the actors playing the henchmen and the police. These guys overact or blurt out their lines like people just pulled off the street. They aren't exactly amateurs, which is very baffling. You would have to actually watch the film and hear the deputy talk to understand why I am stressing this point, but don't, trust me. There are a dozen things you could be doing with your time, much like I should be doing. One more thing, though. I couldn't tell what Dugan was trying to do. At first I thought it was a spoof, with all the overacting and silliness, but then the brutal death of one of the henchmen made me think it was a straight action thriller. Then more weird things happen that made me think it was trying to be funny (but I wasn't laughing) like the coroner hauling a charred body into the police station or the stripper visiting the head bad guy while Jack waited to see him. But then the hicks try to kill and/pr rape Toni and the spoof feeling was gone again. When the final confrontation happened, I was sure it was an action thriller, but then Leary got into fisticuffs with guys much younger than him (bringing an `Oh, come on!' from my mouth). Then there was a gruesome death involving the mysterious chemicals. Action thriller, yes? But then there is the parting shot, some ridiculous epilogues, and an end song called `There's Something in the Water.' At this point I threw up my hands and gave up trying to figure it out. Someone more experienced with consuming toxic chemicals can watch this and make the decision. Zantara's score' 3 out of 10.