Angel and the Bad Man

Naturally, those who have practically deified John Wayne will not look with favor on any remake of his films, but this handsome color version has much more authentic period flavor than the original one of simple Hollywood hokum. Since I was never a great fan of Wayne's and was only favorably impressed by one performance of his (as the outright racist and sadistic bastard in "The Searchers") I can judge this film on its own merits without referring to Wayne's earlier version.

Phillips is convincing in the role of the hard-bitten gunny who unwillingly reforms when his head is turned by the esteem of a good woman. It gradually develops that his heart is eventually turned, too. Now that he has matured he actually achieves more gravitas than in some of his better known younger roles. The supporting roles are well-drawn, especially (Sam) Winston Reckert and the nasty one-eyed piece of work (Laredo) aptly played by an almost unrecognizable Luke Perry.

I am giving this a 10 because the voting score is unfairly low. Just to sum up I like movies such as Se7en, Old Boy, Fight Club, and Gypy 83. And this is a good movie.

Right away I was sucked into the atmosphere and cared about Diamond Phillips (Quirt). His acting in this movie is really good. Seriously underrated. Also the supporting actors are very good. The sheriff really sticks out in my mind when I say this. I'm am not writing about the story, you can read the description of the movie for that, but rather I decided to write about the feeling this movie gives people when they watch it. This is a hallmark film, something I am NOT used to watching, however I woke up one Saturday morn' and this was on. I saw Lou's and Luke Perry's name, and thought, "hmmm, if I don't like it in 5min I will watch ninja warrior or something", however I did not change the channel. this movie is not a sex driven, swear wording, extremely vulgar piece, but it reminds you of how a movie can be powerful and fun to watch with a little effort in iteration and translation. It is Enjoyable. I have read from others that Lou did a good job in redoing the classic in his own style, I have to say, though I did not see the original, I do not doubt that this may be better.

Anyone who is expecting a word for word remake of the John Wayne classic Angel And The Badman will not be disappointed. With one glaring exception this Hallmark Channel remake sticks very close to the original story of a gunfighter reformed by a Quaker woman's love.

The exception is that instead of an innocent young unmarried girl as Gail Russell played in the original, Deborah Kara Unger is a widow with a young boy to raise which she is doing with her parents. She's a good woman, but even good women have their needs and when Lou Diamond Phillips as Quirt Evans literally lands on her doorstep, wounded after a gun battle, he gets her mojo going good and proper.

Wisely Lou did not opt for an imitation of John Wayne in his interpretation of the gunfighter. If he had he would have been laughed off the small screen. He's still one deadly individual and this screenplay make it clear just why Quirt Evans and Laredo Stevens as played by Luke Perry are fated to tangle.

The role of the marshal that Harry Carey played in the original is cut down somewhat, though Winston Rekert is effective in the scenes he does have. I liked the Carey character though, wish there had been more of the marshal in this one. The Wayne family put their imprimatur on this remake with the casting of the Duke's grandson Brendan Wayne as Randy McCall the sidekick to Phillips and played in the original film by Lee Dixon.

Probably important the Wayne family did that because the Duke's The Angel And The Badman was the very first film in which he not only worked on the production end, but also directed himself. Of the films John Wayne directed, that was far and away his best effort. So you can imagine the family had a big personal interest at stake.

I think even the hardest and most loyal of the Duke's legion of fans will not be disappointed with this version of The Angel And The Badman.

Not only is this a bust, a grandchild of the great Duke Wayne plays the sidekick Randy in the film. By no means is this an endorsement by the Wayne family. If it was you'd be seeing an actual verbal or written endorsement by the licensing agent for John Wayne. And if you think this one is bad, wait until you see the remake of True Grit which is supposed to be in the works. It's almost like the Hollywood writers were all replaced with remake happy zombies.

All you see these days are sequels or bad remakes of past classics. As the other commenter forgot to say it is already free to watch since it was a straight to TV release, that's how bad it was. Not even worthy of the big screen. I have to say this is the worse the Hallmark Channel has ever done.

No one, and I repeat no one, can do a John Wayne movie other than John Wayne. I'll make a suggestion to anyone who thinks they can do a remake of any film done by Duke Wayne. Forget it... you'll lose your shirt. This is not even worth a $.99 download release.

Having seen both movies I would take this movie as the better one. True, John Wayne is a great actor as I am a fan,but the difference between the two movies is taking out "the Horseshit and Gun-smoke". This movie have more feelings in it. The moral of the story is what it was all about. There were many changes in this movie that made it different than the original..Lou Diamond Phillips did a great job and Deborah Kara Unger did a better job as "Temperance". T I don not agree with the critics given this movie anything below 6 stars, as a matter of fact I would give it a 9 or maybe even a 10. It was a movie that is rarely seen nowadays without all the sex,profanity. The rating is PG-13. If thay had the rating in 1947 it would have been rated "R".