In the opening moments Fatal Conflict appears as if it might hold some promise as a low budget homage to futuristic 1980's sci-fi thrillers with it's trailer style fade in, fade out opening, synthesizer soundtrack, and shots of buxom babes in their underwear polishing green gem stones.  Enter Kari Wuhrer as Sasha Burns an gun for hire sent in undercover to try and sniff out whose been feeding mobster Conrad Nash (Robert De Niro's long lost brother Leo Rossi) intel.  She witnesses Conrad shove some gems down a guy's throat in a hilariously bad De Niro routine because Conrad's crackpot sister insinuates he tried to make a move on her, which is followed by a raid on the installation by the cops and Sasha getting knocked out in the firefight.  If the film was as action packed and campy as the first ten minutes Fatal Conflict would have been something worth watching.

Instead of going down the sexy psychological thriller avenue you've likely come to expect from a Kari Wuhrer vehicle, Fatal Conflict plays out like a bad 90 minute Sliders episode without the help of the supporting cast.  Sasha is sent up to space to stop Conrad from crashing into Los Angeles after he and his sister take over the prison cargo vessel they were being held on following their capture in the raid.  After a quick pit stop to a prison planet which once again seems to be filled with sweaty babes in their underwear, Sasha is off to catch up with the prison cargo ship where she spends the rest of the film attempting to sabotage Conrad's plans.

Fatal Conflict goes from mildly entertaining and amusing to quite boring pretty quick.  Someone missed an opportunity to capitalize on Wuhrer's "will doing anything" attitude during this erotic thriller phase in her career, and at the very least they should have grounded this film and centered it around the prison planet full of women.  Instead Fatal Conflict is a stale low budget action film that looks like it was filmed in the 80's, with a guy who can't turn the bad De Niro impressions off, starring an actress whose real assets go unused in a story Van Damme would likely even turn down.

4/10