Angel of Destruction

In answer to the previous poster who felt Charlie Spradling should have been the star, Spradling was originally the sole female lead, but with miles of film in the can and on location, she refused to do the scene where she was required to kickbox several guys clad only in a thong. The producer Roger Corman promptly re-wrote the script whereby the Spradling character was killed off & Maria Ford was drafted in to take the lead as her avenging sister.

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.

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.

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!

This is the first Mario Ford movie i watch, but i read enough on her to know she is not afraid of taking her clothes off, and this movie seem to be a perfect example of it. She goes topless... well over 3 times for sure, including a strip tease scene that is as unnecessary and gratuitous as it can get, and she ain't the only one. Pretty much every female except one get naked in this. So yeah we can say that this movie ain't shy on going for gratuitous nudity and trust me, the plot didn't call for it either.

Then the fights, the reason why i bough this movie in the first place, is because I'm on a quest to get every martial art American movie released in the 90s, and if you like this style, you may see my name on quite a few reviews of those. Well lets just say the fight scene are not very convincing, but decent enough when it comes to the lead, who is not by any means a martial artist. The director opted for what he could, as Miss Ford is no Cynthia Rothrock both in fluidity and body muscle. She fights a more "realistic" approach which is not really martial arts except a few kicks, but there its still a bit hard to swallow due to her being not very muscular, looking very fragile and its also a very low budget movie, so there is plenty of times where you think "damn those guys would kick her head off".

But where Maria Ford extremely shine is on the acting, she got that attitude in her character that was very convincing, and she even deliver a couple "attitude" one liners that i tough where awesome. She ain't looking cheesy or anything, surprisingly, even tough she don't have the tough chicks look at all, she act it so well you can actually believe she is.

Overall the story is your typical stalker/bodyguard story with a personal touch of revenge, something very 90s martial art movies style, but effective.

So i will give a nice 7 to this one because i feel they tried, they really tried to make a good movie, Maria Ford make a good performance and I'm looking to watch some of her other stuff for her acting ability. Im surprise she never made it bigger, cause she is definitely a good actress.