Angel of Destruction

Singer/stripper Delilah (Jessica Mark) is stalked by a creepy ex- mercenary (Jimmy Broome), who likes to leave severed fingers in her dressing room. Justifiably spooked, she hires private eye Brit Alwood (Charlie Spradling) for protection but that ends rather quickly when the psycho shows up in Brit's office minutes after the hiring and kills her. So it is up to Jo Alwood (Maria Ford), Brit's stepsister, to take on the job and stop this killer. Not only that, but she has to deal with sleazy mafia type and former adversary Sonny Luso (Bob McFarland), Delilah's funder who is upset she is too racy and wants her to be more "like Peggy Lee" (what!?!).

I can't believe how long this B-movie masterpiece has eluded me. I don't want to oversell it, but this is about as perfect an exploitation film as you can get with director Charles Philip Moore (DEMON WIND) cramming in everything he could. Essentially a riff on 1992's popular THE BODYGUARD (and essentially a remake of Moore's earlier BLACKBELT [1992], a BODYGUARD ripoff with Don "The Dragon" Wilson that went into production when news of Costner's vehicle hit and beat it to release by 6 months), the film ups the violence and nudity to insane levels. If a fight isn't happening on screen, most likely one of Delilah's nudity filled shows is. Moore reaches the pinnacle during a nighttime assassination attempt where Ford thwarts the goons with her kickboxing skills while clad only in a g-string. It is the type of thing you would expect from a HK production (ESCAPE FROM BROTHEL did it in 1992), but not readily seen in US stuff. The bloody shootouts (done in glorious slo-mo) also echo the HK style at the time. The production tried to get the Philippines to stand in for Hawaii but it doesn't really work.

I knew about this 1994 thriller titled "Angel of Destruction", though I never were able to track it down before now in 2023. And thus, as I had the chance to watch the movie, of course I did so. And let's just be honest about why you would watch it, solely because of Maria Ford.

The storyline in "Angel of Destruction", as written by Paul Maslak and Charles Philip Moore, was actually better than I had expected it to be. I was expecting some cheesy low budget rump, but the movie's script was actually turning out to be entertaining and enjoyable, especially if you enjoy the cheesy 1990s semi-erotic thrillers.

Personally, I found the movie to have a bit too much pointless topless nudity in it. It doesn't really make for good entertainment, and it sort of sleazes the movie unecessarily down a notch or two. And if director Charles Philip Moore had opted to cut out the nudity entirely, then the movie would actually have been all the more enjoyable and I would have been able to take it more seriously.

The acting performances in "Angel of Destruction" were fair enough, though I was entirely unfamiliar with the cast ensemble, aside from Maria Ford whom had the leading role here. She carried the movie nicely, though it was a bit difficult to abhor from her very insanely pale skin pallor.

Watchable and enjoyable for the cheesy action thriller that it was, I have to say that "Angel of Destruction" actually turned out better than I had believed it to be.

My rating of "Angel of Destruction" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Unlike the reviewers below (who are probably just looking for a larger set of knockers on display), I am GLAD Maria Ford took over the lead in this film. She plays tough undercover cop Jo Alwood, who is out to avenge her sisters death at the hands of a serial killer. This serviceable exploitation story is a staple of the Roger Corman studios (look way back to the early 70s and TNT JACKSON), but this film would not be half as entertaining if not for the infinite talents of the leading lady.

Aside from just being a gorgeous and sexy lady, Maria is one of most talented, most watchable B-movie actresses of all time. As adept at high kicks and convincingly kicking sleazy male butt as she is at dramatic moments AND delivering her Clint Eastwood-style bad-ass dialogue, one must wonder...Is there anything this lovely lady cannot do well? Ms. Ford is terrific with or without her clothes on and carries this entire picture from beginning to end. It is a true shame she has seemingly retired. I know she will be sorely missed by late night cable and video watchers. Does anyone know what happened to her?

The film in general? Well, I can promise you you won't bored! There's action, blood, lots of laughs, good one-liners, nudity, explosions, music video sequences, severed fingers and much much more.

Not a great film, but enough to waste a few hours pleasantly. usual storyline featuring a seriel killer and a high kicking karate kidette who is out to revenge the murder of her sister.

Maria Ford as the lead is OK and her fight scenes are adequate but not great - she even high kicks 5 guys topless at one point...but my beef with this is why her and not Charlie Spradling, who plays her sister, who dies early on whilst remaining fully clothed throughout! After all Charlie has a much better bod than Maria!

Anyway. Worth a rent but not a buy.

Spoilers included:

First things first, this is not as "good" movie by any stretch of imagination, but it's so campy and Maria Ford is so sexy in the lead that it holds tons of entertainment value.

It starts with one guy and a woman heading up to an apartment. He tells her he's left something in the car and she flashes her breasts out and says "You better be quick". That is just the start of the nudity, and the start of how silly this movie gets. This guy proceeds into a room of around 7 guys and proceeds to attack them, and says to the last one standing "You left me and my men in Angola, I didn't like that." or something along those lines and proceeds to throw him out a window.

It then moves onto showing 2 "controversial" female performers on stage. Shortly afterwards, Delilah (the main performer) receives a womans finger with an odd looking ring on it. She presumes it's a death threat, and hires female cop Brit Alwood as her bodyguard. However, the hit-man that her boss has hired for her, has followed Delilah to the location of Brit Alwoods office. After the 2 girls have left, Brit gets a phonecall from her sister Jo (Maria Ford) and she's thrilled to tell her that she's been hired as Delilah's bodyguard. However, while deep in conversation the hit-man comes in and strangles Brit on the phone cord. So now the work of the hit-man Robert Kell is PERSONAL! As usual, there has to be some personal insult against our hero(ine) to make a revenge movie.

After Delilah finds out Brit is dead, she decides to hire her sister Jo (Maria Ford), as her bodyguard. Meanwhile, Jo meets Aaron, Brit's ex boyfriend/partner and just notices the ring logo resembles that of a local sleazy bar. Together, they visit the bar, and Jo asks the barman for info, he's as you predicted, rude and unhelpful, she then asks a customer who tears the sheet of paper up. She explodes at this guy, and what follows is a hilarious barfight of a sexy blonde taking out a bunch of redneck thugs. The fight scenes aren't very convincing as she successfully takes out guys far bigger than herself with no problem, but it's great fun to watch and it is more believable than garbage like Charlie's Angels!

So later on, a bunch of guys appear at the door of Delilah and her performing parters house, while Jo is in the bathroom just getting ready for sleep. Just while their arriving, she catches on and proceeds to take them down while TOPLESS. I loved this scene, it really made me laugh VERY hard. The sheer silliness of it, and the fact it's so obviously exploitive.

In between her and Aaron checking out Robert Kell's hideout from the help of a mercenary friend of his and Aaron getting the crap beaten out of him by Kell, Kell kidnaps Delilah and blackmails Jo into going onto the stage naked or else Delilah dies. Oh please!

So afterwards, we get another bunch of guys failing to take out Jo, this time in a gun battle, in which her boss who hired Kell to get her killed dies. Afterwards, she heads to the house of Delilah and Reena (her performer parter) to find her tied to a chair, she then tells her where Kell has taken Delilah, which is to an old disused prison. What follows is a bunch of inept guys who fail to use their weapons properly and Jo finally reaching Kell, and Aaron checking himself out of hospital in order to help Jo take down Kell. In a brief fight between Jo and Kell, she comes off worse and then Aaron shoots at Kell, while Delilah unties herself and hits him over the head with a plank of wood. Now dazed and weak, Jo spin kicks him a few times, knocking him down a large drop and sending him to his death and says "That was for my sister." Yep, not a cliché in sight.

Overall, this is NOT a good movie but it sure is fun. The acting is over the top, the production values are simple, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. However, it gave me a great laugh, partly to see a sexy blonde bimbo taking out a bunch of redneck thugs, and partly because it was so stupid and campy. However, for a Corman flick it could be so much worse.

I'll let you work out a rating from your point of view. If your stuck in on a Friday night while all your friends are out and this is on TV, then go and watch it. If you're ever bored and there's nothing else, hell, just watch it. It'll be the greatest fun you've had looking at your TV screen in a while. If you've got something big planned on a night it's on TV, then don't bother.

I still can't figure out what rating I'd give it, it's badly made, silly and rather predictable, but it's fun, and I suppose that's all that matters in the end.

I'd love to see Maria Ford do more stuff like this!