Avenging Angel

Kevin Sorbo borrows quite a bit from Clint Eastwood's classic High Plains Drifter in this rather incredulous western where he gets to play The Avenging Angel. Kevin's apparently trying very hard to get away from being typecast as Hercules because there's not a scene in this film with his shirt off.

What we're asked to believe here is that the local Ponderosa owner Wings Hauser has sold off pieces of his real estate giving no bill of sale and then just killing them if they don't get off his land. Now he has this group of pacifist type settlers led by Jim Haynie and son Richard Lee Jackson and if a group ever needed protection this one does.

Enter Kevin Sorbo whose church was dynamited and his wife and daughter killed by Hauser. Sorbo has gone away, but now is back as a fast draw bounty hunter who still is troubled by the tenets of his former profession.

That sets it up for you, an incredible piece of claptrap which God Bless 'Em the players all do with a straight face.

This film opens with a young man known simply as "the Preacher" (played by Kevin Sorbo) arriving to minister at a new church just outside a small town. Naturally, since it's his very first sermon, the preacher's wife and young daughter are also in the congregation. Meanwhile, a ruthless cattle baron named "Colonel Cusack" (Wings Hauser) has sent an armed group of cowboys to murder some settlers occupying land that he wants for himself. While the massacre unfolds, a couple of settlers manage to temporarily escape by riding to the church a short distance away. Unfortunately, no sooner do they enter the church than these same murderous cowboys ride up and demand that they be handed over. Upon refusing to do so, the church is set ablaze, and the preacher's wife and daughter are killed in the fire. The scene then picks up a year later, with the preacher now an extremely skilled bounty hunter. As it turns out, he is bringing the bodies of three wanted outlaws to that same small town to collect his reward. Upon obtaining the bounties at the local sheriff's office, he ventures to the saloon for a beer. While there, he observes a young barmaid being mistreated by some cowboys and tries to help her, but he is ultimately beaten unconscious for his efforts and dragged outside into the middle of the street. Having observed the entire incident, a young woman working in the saloon named "Maggie" (Cynthia Watros) takes pity on him and lets him stay at her small home until he regains his health. What neither of them realize, however, is that the same scenario the preacher encountered a year earlier is about to be played out again, with the new victims being another small group of settlers who have settled on land that Colonel Cusack wants for his own. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a fairly entertaining Western that benefited from good performances by Kevin Sorbo and Cynthia Watros. Admittedly, I would have preferred a bit more chemistry between the two of them, but since it was a made-for-television production, I guess that's to be expected. In any case, I enjoyed this film for the most part, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Preacher Kevin Sorbo's family is killed by evil town boss Wings Hauser's hired goons, after a family of homesteaders take refuge in his church. Not wanting to soil their memory by seeking vengeance, he instead becomes a bounty hunter in order to sate his desire for revenge, that is until he finds a real reason to take on the despicable Hauser and his villainous cronies.

A religion friendly movie, this is a bit familiar but it's well written with lots of comic book style action. Sorbo is surprisingly good as a western hero and Hauser is great too as an urbane, educated heavy.

In all, Avenging Angel is quite enjoyable but the climax is a little too tame. The final scene between Hauser and Sorbo is good though.

Modest but decent. The old flavor of fair western, sure, in sketch form but not so bad ( only pretty unrealistic and didactic ) for define it as real dissapointment.

For me, the option to see it was result of the presence of Kevin Sorbo in cast. I appreciated the presence of large themes, from the corupt sheriff to the single mother with a dark past, I appreciated the portrait of lonely revenger and, I admitt, I do not expected more.

So, difficult to recomand it ( if the nostalgia about old Hercules series is absent ) , unfair to be too critic about it.

In short, a simple story of justice, a pastor and his new beginning, his new family like in a kind of version of job story.

All the stars in the universe, could not fill my living room space for what I think of the movie!! I cried and cried and applauded over just how beautiful Kevin Sorbo's performance was in his first western role!! He gave an outstanding performance!!! His ability to clearly define the inner conflict of his character was visibly reflected on the emotions he showed throughout the film, it was extremely well done on his part to show the gentle wonderful sensitive loving servant of God and the man torn between love, hate and sorrow and the need to seek vengeance and justice!! In the end Justice and Love prevailed.

Throughout the movie, we watch this man struggle to come to terms of what he has done and what he promised his wife to become!! Sam Jenkins Sorbo was amazing in the opening scene with her husband, the two of them have a deep love and respect for each others work and it clearly shows!! The entire cast of the movie was incredible, great directing and photography, outstanding work from the entire production because they truly delivered in fine HALLMARK style!!! What a great honor to have ownership of this movie along with the rest of my new Sorbo movie collection!! I simply love them all, and each one of them has touched me in a very very big way!!! I adored little actress, Joey King (Amelia), she played the perfect angel in the entire movie!! Her mother played by actress Cynthia Watros (Maggie) was perfectly suitable for the role, fell in love with her character at first sight!! She was brilliant in letting us see just how hard her life has been and just her grace and beauty it was absolutely gorgeous and stunning performance by her!! Kevin Sorbo is so right on the money because there were two instances where you just want him to kiss her, its clear that a relationship was developing but yet you just knew that the kiss was going to happen eventually and that little girl Amelia running to Kevin in the last scene just stole my heart away!! Congratulations Kevin.........this was definitely without a doubt a Winner for me!! It was highly recommended to me and I strongly recommend it to anyone who loves a great western adventure and who love and value honor and strong passionate characters in heroes who never lets a bad deed go unpunished!!