Angel of Destruction

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.

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.

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.

Not really that bad of a movie, mild T & A in it. The acting was not the greatest as usual in most B movies. The continuity in the fight scenes was a little off. But most of the action was there, and I was able to watch it all the way through so it couldn't have been all that bad!