Angel Town

Angel Town is an excellent example of a bad bad film: not just so bad its good, or so incompotent its funny, but so bad it is really, really bad. The action scenes are boring, the acting is elementary school level at best, and the production values are non-existent.

Olivier Gruner was being promoted as some kind of martial arts champion around the time this film was released here, but I've never heard anything about him since. I'm not surprised about that, really, because he has even less personality than Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal, which is saying quite a lot. Needless to say, Gruner has never made it to the A-list since then.

The editing on this film is attrocious. I think they used the same footage of Olivier and the gangbangers running down the same alley way at least six times. The cinematography is so flat and dry that it looks like it was filmed using an old Betamax video camera from the 1970s. The story is strictly by-the-numbers.

All in all, don't waste your time. Go out and rent a Van Damme or Seagal film instead. At least they appear in films where the director, editor, and screenwriter know what the hell they're doing.

Oliver Gruner is totally unknown to me. My friend showed me this film because he had seen Gruner in, what he called a pretty good sci-fi film, Nemesis. So as we watched this, we found ourselves fastforwarding through the BS drama parts just to get to the unbelievable action sequences. Gruner loves to kick and kick and kick. And kick! haha

Gruner character is a graduate student who is forced to stay in a ghetto close to the one that he grew up in. He finds himself watching after the boy who lives with him because he really wants to join in the Mexican gang that keeps tormenting his family. Instead of joining up, Gruner tells the boy to fight back (against a gang? too crazy). Gruner plays a typical Van Damme character who kills everyone (or maims them pretty bad) and works to rid his block of these gangmembers.

The plot was very cheesy and easy to think of. Gruner is probably not very well known because of his script-choosing if this movie is anything to compare possible choices to. This ghetto is pure hell and I enjoyed seeing the motley crew of characters go through it as if they have a chance against Gruner's character. The music was typical action music (thumping pianos and timpani, swelling guitars) which actually wasn't as bad as I make it sound. The director really needed to keep the action going instead of taking a break every 5 minutes for a tense family moment.

Ultimately, I gave it a 4/10 because it really tried to be an average action film for Oliver Gruner to star in, but the overall feel of the film leaves you wanting more closure on what you just saw.

Angel Town is an action karate film, you have pegged as an average typical actioner, if having watched Van Damme films, or other B films. But it does you one better, and I think you'll be sort of pleasantly surprised here. Granted, it isn't a great film, but at the end of it, it left me a pretty upheld opinion of a better quality movie. A lot of it, has to do with it's likeable lead, and of course another real life karate fighter, who of course is not an actor. French hunk, Gruner was a good choice for this. He plays an university student, really stuggling for attain good uni accomodation. With very limited choice, sadly, but gladly for many other people, he resides in a East LA, gang controlled neighbourhood. I will say this, as far as gang movies go, this one was pretty scary, and AT, becomes quite an intense, and exciting drama, with some tragedies, which is all too apparent in real life. Acting is standard, poor, but we have some better players like Saldana, who of course falls for Gruner, who's taken residence in her Grandmother's house, and has become more involved in her and her son's life. Another unforgettable, great acting performance is the guy playing the impossible, rude, very judgemental, and intolerable professor. I liked the ending too, though I have seen these endings before, but I really appreciated in this. Low acting ability aside, it would of been good to see Gruner in more stuff. Near the start, before taking off to LA, is one of the most comical, original funeral scenes you'll ever see. Before Gruner's entrance, a Chicano in a car is watching, gang bullying in process, but he only reappears near the end, in the gang fight. What gives?

Times are tough for Angel Town, gangs rule with an iron fist and for reasons mostly unknown (Mainly due to embarrassing writing) the gangs want a street kid, Martine to join the gangs, so they beat him up everyday. However due to the presence of an Olympic kick-boxer (Olivier "World's lamest actor" Gruner) named Jacques, hope is on the way. Angel Town is seriously one of the most inept message movies ever made (And I've seen my share) it seems to consist of the idea that all gang infested neighborhoods need, are French kick-boxers who can't act. Worst of all there are so many awkward moments it's just truly hilarious. Best of all comes from the exchange between Gruner and Aragon which basically sums up how ridiculous this thing is. To Wit: "You like the fighting? (Olivier grabs his Asian best friend in a headlock) I could kill him right? When I want him dead he dies! The reason why I don't want him dead is because i'm afraid of him, and I know that if I kill him his son and wife will kill me, that's why he doesn't die!"

Of course the fact that it's wrong to kill someone, let alone your best friend is of course left out of the equation. Odd.

However don't let me make this sound that I hated this movie, far from it, it's so terrible it's priceless. The biggest laughs come at the end in the disastrous finale which sees Grunner going one on one with gang-members who (the film's biggest logic gap)decline the use of pistols. Also a handicapped Vietnam vet helps out by shooting his machine gun at the gangs, while Gruner kick-boxes the rest. All of this set to the sound of horrible "Mexican" accents and surreal energy that make this one memorable for fans of cinematic trash such as this.

The other treat about this movie, is that for some reason Olivier Gruner never attends college despite that's the main reason he's here in the states and not in France getting it on with his girlfriend (In a graveyard in the film's awkward beginning) Angel Town is without a doubt a failure on all conceivable levels but if you laugh at moronic martial arts movies with insane levels of action that make no sense on any level, this is the perfect movie for you. On the other hand make sure to down tequila, like the laughable opening song details "Ain't no mercy in Angel Town"

* out of 4-(Bad)

Angel Town's DVD cover may be misleading....but martial artist Olivier Gruner is the star and central plot of the film. Gruner (who also starred in the excellent Nemesis) plays a foreign exchange student who has to protect a family from a nasty gang of hoodlums. Gruner shows off some excellent fighting skills and throws out some classic cheesy one-liners. But Gruner's acting is HORRIBLE! His English sounds like a drunk Van Damme. But you're not watching this for it's great acting and dialog...you're watching this for it's kick butt martial arts action....which it has plenty of. There is a great final fight scene and the gang violence scenes are pretty shocking and realistic. The soundtrack is early 90's gold and the film has a great 90's lowbudget vibe. Excellent rental for martial arts fans!