Fatal Justice

Title: Fatal Justice
Director: Gerald Cain

Released: 1994

Staring: Joe Estevez, Suzanne Ager, Richard Folmer, David Lee
Rating: 1 / 5

Plot: Mars (Estevez) is the CIA’s top assassin, however the CIA have decided that is time for him to retire and send his hit woman daughter Diana (Ager) the assignment, who is unaware that he is her father, while meanwhile a power within the agency pits Ted Harmon (Folmer) against section boss George Marshall (Lee)

Review: I should start by thanking (if that’s the right word) Patch over at the now sadly defunct “Welcome to the Drive In”, who originally mailed this disc over to me, which I only now have got around to seeing and no doubt will not be a huge hurry to watch again, which is kind of a shame especially when you look at the hugely exaggerated cover art, none of which unsurprisingly enough appears in this film, which I’ll admit is usually something I look for when, trying to find some obscure bad film to write about here, but what is even more worrying when one of the pictures on the back of the DVD case isn’t a film still, but rather a promotional shot, of a blonde Suzanne Ager scantly clad and holding a rifle….well it works for me, but does set off yet another major warning signal about the kind of movie, your about to sit through.
Produced by Fred Olen Ray, who some of you might already recognise as the director of such classics as “Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers” (1988) and “Bikini Girls From the Lost Planet” (2006) and judging from the introduction he gives to the film at the start of the disc, he seems like a pretty fun guy, who like Lloyd Kaufman seems to know that his films are awful, while at the same time proud to be part of the B-movie underground, which also makes it all the harder to sit here, knowing that I now going to have to write about how much I really didn’t like this film.

Right from the start you know, that this isn’t exactly going to be a high budget kind of production and it provides a suitable test for the viewer, as if you can sit through the first five minutes of this film, then the chances are that you will probably be able to make it through the rest of the film, which is certainly best watched soley for humorous value, as attempting to watch it for any other purpose, might be enough to bum out even the viewer with the lowest of standards, especially seeing how this film has all the production value of a low budget porn film, which funnily enough is what I thought I’d stumbled across when less then fifteen minutes into this film, we get a soft core sex scene, which is nice of Cain, as don’t you just hate it when those inconsiderate directors of equally bad movies hide these kinds of scenes, somewhere past the halfway mark, so for anyone hoping to see some nudity you’ll be happy to know that you get it pretty early on. (Wow I feel strangely sleazy having wrote that)

Ager's performance isn’t overly bad, especially when you consider some of the ropey acting on show here, with the prime offender being Folmer who is feels the need to exaggerate his evilness at any given opportunity, so he might as well be wearing a sandwich board with the word “I’m the Bad guy!” scrawled across it as he almost telegraphs every evil action and intention, yet no one bothers to do anything until he has had ample time to pull off his paper thin scheme. Still the same kind of criticism could be directed at Ager’s character Diana, which supposedly her code name, which isn’t bad but certainly out of place, when every other agent in the film has a code name based on a Greek god. Is it really that hard to come up with something similar for her, or maybe Cain had doubts about his audience being able to remember any of the female gods. Ager is however convincing enough as a hit woman, handling herself well in the few action scenes and only occasionally letting her performance slip into B-movie cheese.
Now if you saw the name Joe Estevez and thought that it sounded familiar, you’d be right seeing how he’s the brother of the more talented Martin Sheen and who like Emilio Estevez prefers to use the family name. As I said already he really is the less talented brother, though there are a few moments in which you can almost imagine that your watching his brother instead, especially during his training drills with a group of aspiring assassins, who rather than looking like Marines, look instead like a bunch of random guys dragged off the street in order to act in this movie and are almost as laughable as the fact that, they are sleeping in tents made from garbage bags, which really goes once more to show how low budget this film really is.
Despite the budget restraints, Cain still manages to pull out a few bangs for his buck, though I had the sneaking suspicion that some of these effects were stock footage carried over from other productions, only furthered while watching the previews for the other exciting titles being released under the same label as this film, but in a way it kind of added to the charm, that this film develops, once you release that its not to be considered high art in the slightest, though by this point your either just watching to know how it ends or just plain given up, depending on how much of a stomach you have, for films of this dire quality, especially seeing how this is now the lowest rated film review on the blog and rivalled only by the equally dire “Wrecking Crew” (1999) but in all honestly I’d rather sit through this film, than endure that again, which is really the kind of decision, that’s like asking someone if they want to be kicked in the crotch or punched in the face.

“Fatal Justice” is crammed with Cheesy acting and even worse dialogue and is only really best used as a time filler, when you’ve truly run out of things to watch, but if anything I’ve mentioned throughout this review sounds like your thing, then your no doubt be happy as a pig in shit, but despite this I still have a feeling that this won’t be the last time that I pay a visit to the cinematic garbage pile of Fred Olen Ray.