Review of Fatal Deviation

This Ireland low budget shot on home video film directed by Shay Casslerly & Simon Linscheid, is the best known as being their country's first full length martial arts movie. Produced in 1998 as a vanity show reel to Hong Kong Cinema of their real-life martial arts enthusiast Jimmy Bennett. The motion picture has Bennett starring as a version of himself looking & acting in a role very similar to his idol Jean Claude Van Damme in 1988 martial art flick 'Bloodsport', 1989 'Kickboxer' and last 1993 action movie 'Hard Target'; all in a European fighting tournament settling. The film also stars boy band member Mikey Graham of 'Boyzone' fame as a gang member also named Mikey trying to stop Jimmy from winning the contest, in order to gain control of their town of Trim. If this plot sounds very confusing; then you're corrected. The story is indeed utter nonsense. There is little to no reason why this Irish mob needs to win this underground fight to the death in the first place. There is no prize money. It is not like the monks are rich and powerful. They don't hold any office in the city. Also, I really don't get why the monastics there would host a very illegal fighting brawl in Trim Castle in the first place. Are they a secretly cult of past their prime fat & old Friar Tucks outlaws trying to recruit younger criminals? Who knows! They don't seem like shaolin kung fu types. Also why is one of them trying to help Bennett win? That's seems somewhat unfair to the others. To add onto that, the police is nowhere to be founded. It seems like Trim is lawless state. I'm deeply surprised that cops never shut these events down. The murder rate for this quiet town must be really high. After all Jimmy does indeed kill a lot of middle age men acting like young hoodlums. The action scenes in this movie are quite laughable with people being slowly timed kick into giant tower of toilet paper in the middle of the small alley in a grocery store and Jimmy unnecessary combat roll over and back across the bonnet of a car during a fight as it offers no tactical advantage whatsoever. Then there is the scene where the hero goes surfing onto a motorbike while shooting a gun that has odd sound effects and has a muzzle that smokes too much. The stunt work, the special effects and sound mixing during that sequence are really poorly done. Although some of the fighting moment in the film was somewhat decent. The choreograph bar fight was a highlight even if it was mindless filler. The real car crash scene toward the end of the film was intense although it wasn't really intended. That was crazy to see! However sadly that was then ruin by a pointless unfunny comedy bit where a man in a cowboy hat get naked in the public to take a bath in an old tub. His sudden presence in the film was never explained. I don't get why the producer who play the man Justin Harmon wanted to show his balls and butt so randomly. Is he secretly a flasher? It's so bizarre! As for the other performers. Jimmy looks great, but most of Bennett's acting is pretty stiff and wooden. However, he is far away from being the worst. Michael Regan as Mikey's drug lord father Loughlan is the definition of untrained local amateur. He is so discomfort with the language that he trips over the lines when he's reading them out loud. The heavy exposition sent off one liner exchange between Bennet & him in the climax take the cake of awkwardness. Surprisingly it's Mikey Graham the singer who does the best from all of them and this was also debut role. Nevertheless, the acting wasn't the only problem with this movie. The lack of proper microphones makes everybody seem like they're whispering in a public library. I can barely hear what they're saying. It's doesn't help that everybody already has a thin deep Irish accent; including actress Nicola O'Sullivan who played one dimensional damsel in distress Nicola who sounds like a guy. Along with the nonsensical heavy dialogue; the film also suffers from bewildering inappropriate music that doesn't match well with some of the visuals. To add onto that some of the scenes are so poorly lit that it makes parts of the film very unwatchable. The black and white flashbacks are just too pitch dark and blurry for my taste. To make it worst barely any of the location visuals were attractive enough to look at in the first place. Everything looks dirty. I don't know if that was the films intend, but it was certainly a turn off. The only one I really like was seeing the ruins of Trim Castle. That was quite beautiful. Even the dated 1990s window computer visuals title effects were nothing really worth looking at. No wonder why the movie went straight to video without a theatrical release at the time. The film really only gained its 'so bad, it's good' cult popularity status after Youtube came around. Overall: While 'Fatal Deviation' was indeed badly made. I can't hate this film. A lot of heart went into it. It seems like from the peculiarly placed bloopers that the people that made this motion picture had a lot of fun. Plus, I kinda dig the live life, love and survived song. Still it begs the question is the movie worth seeing? Not really, but it certainly evoked some laughter from me. In the end, it might not have the luck of the Irish. However, the film does have its charm.