Fatal Beauty is a 1987 American action comedy thriller film starring Whoopi Goldberg and Sam Elliott, directed by Tom Holland. The screenplay was written by Hilary Henkin and Dean Riesner. The original music score was composed by Harold Faltermeyer, of Top Gun fame. The film was marketed with the tagline "An earthquake is about to hit L.A. It's called Detective Rita Rizzoli."

The film was unpopular with many critics (though Roger Ebert gave it a positive review of 3 stars), some of whom considered it a rip-off of Beverly Hills Cop (which Faltermeyer also scored); others cited a lack of chemistry in the romance between Goldberg and Elliott's characters.[3] Movie historian Leonard Maltin called it "inexcusably awful, with gratuitous violence and mind-boggling dialogue, using an anti-drug message to rationalize its excesses."[citation needed] Fatal Beauty holds a score of 25% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 12 reviews.[4]
Director Holland later admitted that Fatal Beauty was an effort to expand his range as a filmmaker beyond the horror genre, but that FB was a mistake. "Initially," he says today, "they planned to cast Cher as Rita. But she bowed out early on, which is what I should have done."


Release Date: October 30, 1987

United Artists

Domestic Total Gross: $12,046,526

2016: $26,527,000