Angel Town

I thought this was a good movie, and even if the acting was bad..If you are a true martial arts fan..Then you should definitely get this movie if given the chance..And just a little more information Is the star Olive Gruner ( Was a kick-boxing Champion at one time). Every martial arts fan should own this movie...I think the action was good..And i have seen this movie and been trying to find it for years and now after all this time iam going to be able to add this great, low budget, martial arts movie to my collection..And even though it does have its down faults It is still one of the best martial arts films I have seen...

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!

At around the same time that Jean-Claude Van Damme was releasing LIONHEART, another European martial artist threw his hat into the ring of American action flicks. His name was Olivier Gruner, and his debut vehicle was ANGEL TOWN here. Though Gruner would be less content than many of his fellow action heroes with a simple "karate man" image and would quickly branch out to science fiction flicks, his debut film was a relatively typical martial arts flick, albeit with a surprising (but one-sided) emphasis on the ills of gangs in urban communities. It's not a great picture - I think Gruner's follow-up, NEMESIS, was superior - but certainly gave the former kickboxing champ a base to build on.

The story: A French graduate student and martial artist (Gruner) moves in with a family harassed by a local gang, and uses his physical skills to fight their oppression.

Thus far, Steven Seagal and Olivier Gruner are the only western action heroes I can think of whose first film was also a successful vehicle for them. Despite some difficulty with speaking English, Gruner is well-prepared for the part...but then again, it's not like he has many scenes that require strong acting. In general, everybody does alright, acting-wise, but there are no standout performances, including that of Golden Globe nominee Theresa Saldana as Gruner's landlord. More credit is to be given to one-time script writer S. Warren, who turns the fairly colorless Tony Valentino into one of the more despicable villains of my short-term memory. He also does a good job of showing the terrorist mentality of gangs and their intimidation tactics, but disappointingly doesn't examine the socio-political implications that cause their formation, making it alright for Olivier's character to nonchalantly transition from a position of anti-violence to pro-killing.

Of course, the killing allows him to show off his martial arts, so that makes it okay. Director Eric Karson doesn't have a particularly good eye for shooting or blocking action, but the fluidity of Olivier's many kicks and the occasional flair of the choreography helps make up for this. Gruner's style of on screen fighting is somewhat unique: though Van Damme was just as good at kicking, Gruner throws a greater variety of kicks, and while he routinely dominates his opponents, it's rare that he produces the typical one-hit knockouts. For the latter half of the picture, kung fu exponent and ally Peter Kwong occasionally gets in on the action, but both he and Olivier suffer from a lack of viable opponents they can fight one-on-one: though the cast also includes Mark Dacascos and kickboxer Stan Longinindis in bit parts, no one can hold a candle to Olivier, and the one-against-many fights eventually end up getting a bit boring.

Upon its release, the movie received some criticism for supposedly causing legitimate gang violence during a drive-in showing, but in retrospect, the film is so very cheesy in its exploitation antics that it's hard to take it seriously some of the time. Regardless, it's worth a look for general karate fans and definitely fans of Olivier Gruner who want to see more of him using his fists and feet at length. It's not quite as good as I had hoped for, but it's an entertaining enough time-waster.

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 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?