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.
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.