First of all, I feel I should mention that I have no problem with any ethnic group telling their own stories - in fact, I encourage diversity in movies, and the predominantly African American cast of this movie gave it some instant novelty. Also, I feel that I understand that certain ethnic groups often find it hard to get the money and resources to tell their stories properly. By my feelings do not excuse the fact that the movie "Fanatic" is pretty terrible filmmaking. Reports say that the budget was only $1.2 million, but it looks even cheaper than that, with most scenes looking like they were filmed in basements, back alleys, empty warehouses, and obvious soundstages. Believe me, there are a lot of other signs of the low budget throughout. It's possible the movie might still have been saved with enough care put in other areas, but it doesn't look like enough effort was made. The cast shows some talent, trying hard with what they are given, but the direction often holds them back from having enough impact. Worst of all, their characters are often given terrible dialogue to recite, and often have their characters making decisions nobody with a lick of sense would make. Speaking of the writing, the plot twists near the end are ludicrous. If you are wondering, the shabby script often gets close to making the movie so-bad-it's-good, but not close enough. Hopefully the actors' next projects will be better... and better future projects for anyone else involved in making this movie, for that matter.
