Customer Reviews

Fate

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What do you do with once popular actors who fell on hard times? Answer. Put them in a B movie.
Fate is so awful I can barely rate it with one star. I ask myself; "How could I watch this movie completely!" While scanning the movie rack I recognized the names of the main characters: Michael Pare and Phillip Michael Thomas of Miami Vice fame. Not bad actors in their time. How bad could this movie be? The cover of the DVD looked very convincing with its nice packaging and explanation of the plot, so I rented it. What a mistake that was.

The plot follows these two detectives (Pare and Tubbs) team up to track a serial killer. The serial killer is played by Lee Majors (Six Million Dollar Man) and known from the beginning of the film. I guess the audience is supposed to figure out why he is killing all of these people. The scriptwriter should be given his walking papers after this script. I should give it away to save you some time, should you ignore this review.

The audio and dialogue is really, really, bad. The soundman was missing in action during filming. I had to laugh at times at the mistimed sound tracks. (Think Ashlee Simpson's performance on SNL!) Hopefully the director Ace Cruz can learn from his mistakes.

Forget this DVD and think about all of the actors looking for work. They must make a living too.

In my opinion I do not see why this movie has gotten such a bad rating for.Although I did not like the nudity. That is the only bad thing i can say about this movie. Michael Pare' whom I adore was great in this .HE is a superb actor.THe story plot wwas good.Lee Majors and Philip Michael Thomas also did a good acting job. me for one really liked this.

Poor Lee Majors...after seeing him in this really bad movie, one can hardly believe he's the SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and T.J. HOOKER. Ditto to Phillip Michael Thomas who virtually disappeared off the cinematic earth after MIAMI VICE left the t.v. waves. As for Michael Pare' (no one has ever accused him of being an actor), he just wallows in his own ineptitude. FATE had some potential, but it's poorly conceived and illogical script shanghais any possibility of coherence or sense. Where's Majors' wife during all this? Why doesn't one of the lead characters recognize his own "closeness" to the case? Why is the soundtrack so loud that when the girls are imprisoned in the mine, you can't even understand a word they are saying? And did two actresses play the same character? And what is it with the "history" between Pare and Thomas' characters? When it's explained, it makes little or any sense.
Shot on a shoestring somewhere in Georgia, FATE is one of those direct to video releases that sounds better on the box than it actually is. So beware! You might meet your FATE if you buy this one!!

Get past the B movie filming and you have a great story.Give it a chance.The stars from the past and up and coming.Locally Keith Walker played the cop hostage and did a great job.

I was a little leery about previewing a film shot in the Atlanta suburbs, because only the great films are shot in the large film markets like NY and California, right? Wrong !! I was pleasantly suprised by the well charactered cast, which includes Michael Pare (TONS of other movie roles) and Lee Majors (no explanation needed) and Philip Michael Thomas (great actor that doesn't get enough credit) and other great newcomers to the screen. I was also pleasantly suprised by the overall imagery that I came away with by an up and coming director, Ace Cruz. This film kept me on the edge of my seat at times, as I didn't know what was going to happen next- which is a good thing for a movie watcher. The details that came through in the film from the variety of locations chosen also struck me as a positive. Eerie gold mine scenes, a comfortable and cozy boarding house, and a wacky carnival warehouse ending made just enough hair on the back of my neck stand up to tell me that this movie has got something going on. It is my understanding that this movie was shot with a relatively low budget, yet the quality that comes from it is quite surprising, so hats off the the cinematographer and editors for capturing a small town feel and all the vivid details associated with that concept. I think a majority of the scenes were shot in Alpharetta, Georgia, as I was told through my research that the city officials there bent over backwards to allow them to do this movie, and they also accomodated the film crew with lots of Southern hospitality.

My suggestion: it is the perfect "Halloween" time of year for this movie's release, so go rent or buy this movie for its great actors, and at a minimum, for capturing the essence of great Southern imagery.

My wife and I have been on a Miami Vice kick lately. The DVDs of Vice are phenomenal. So we wanted to see what Vice's actors have been doing lately.

Unfortunately, Philip Michael Thomas (despite his talent and good looks) hasn't been doing much. And, equally as unfortunate, he appeared in this God-awful movie.

Fate looks, feels, and most importantly *sounds* like it was shot by a college film student. The actors sound like they're talking in the next room. The acting is mostly labored. And the script is pedantic and predictable.

Philip Michael Thomas still looks good. Very good. And we still enjoy his acting. He's the only reason why my wife and I watched this movie all the way to the end. If it weren't for him, we would have (a) never rented it in the first place, and (b) bailed after the first 10 minutes. The quality of the movie is obvious less than 10 minutes into it. But we kept watching to see PMT. He's a stand-out in everything in which he appears, even a movie that's "bad."

That reminds me of what some critics said of Bela Lugosi. They said Bela gave his all to every role. Even to roles that were beneath him, even in movies that were sub-par. They said Bela Lugosi always acted as if he were starring in an Academy Award-winning movie. I could say the same for Philip Michael Thomas. Even when the movie he's in isn't up to his level, he still gives it his all. He's a natural actor, with untapped talents. Fate didn't deserve him, frankly.

There's no way I can recommend Fate -- unless, of course, you want to see what Miami Vice's Philip Michael Thomas has been up to lately. If you never liked Vice, and don't care for PMT, then skip this horrendous movie.

Repeat after me: "Friends don't let friends watch Fate."