Angel Town

At around the same time that Jean-Claude Van Damme was releasing LIONHEART, another European martial artist threw his hat into the ring of American action flicks. His name was Olivier Gruner, and his debut vehicle was ANGEL TOWN here. Though Gruner would be less content than many of his fellow action heroes with a simple "karate man" image and would quickly branch out to science fiction flicks, his debut film was a relatively typical martial arts flick, albeit with a surprising (but one-sided) emphasis on the ills of gangs in urban communities. It's not a great picture - I think Gruner's follow-up, NEMESIS, was superior - but certainly gave the former kickboxing champ a base to build on.

The story: A French graduate student and martial artist (Gruner) moves in with a family harassed by a local gang, and uses his physical skills to fight their oppression.

Thus far, Steven Seagal and Olivier Gruner are the only western action heroes I can think of whose first film was also a successful vehicle for them. Despite some difficulty with speaking English, Gruner is well-prepared for the part...but then again, it's not like he has many scenes that require strong acting. In general, everybody does alright, acting-wise, but there are no standout performances, including that of Golden Globe nominee Theresa Saldana as Gruner's landlord. More credit is to be given to one-time script writer S. Warren, who turns the fairly colorless Tony Valentino into one of the more despicable villains of my short-term memory. He also does a good job of showing the terrorist mentality of gangs and their intimidation tactics, but disappointingly doesn't examine the socio-political implications that cause their formation, making it alright for Olivier's character to nonchalantly transition from a position of anti-violence to pro-killing.

Of course, the killing allows him to show off his martial arts, so that makes it okay. Director Eric Karson doesn't have a particularly good eye for shooting or blocking action, but the fluidity of Olivier's many kicks and the occasional flair of the choreography helps make up for this. Gruner's style of on screen fighting is somewhat unique: though Van Damme was just as good at kicking, Gruner throws a greater variety of kicks, and while he routinely dominates his opponents, it's rare that he produces the typical one-hit knockouts. For the latter half of the picture, kung fu exponent and ally Peter Kwong occasionally gets in on the action, but both he and Olivier suffer from a lack of viable opponents they can fight one-on-one: though the cast also includes Mark Dacascos and kickboxer Stan Longinindis in bit parts, no one can hold a candle to Olivier, and the one-against-many fights eventually end up getting a bit boring.

Upon its release, the movie received some criticism for supposedly causing legitimate gang violence during a drive-in showing, but in retrospect, the film is so very cheesy in its exploitation antics that it's hard to take it seriously some of the time. Regardless, it's worth a look for general karate fans and definitely fans of Olivier Gruner who want to see more of him using his fists and feet at length. It's not quite as good as I had hoped for, but it's an entertaining enough time-waster.

Angel Town (1990) stars Oliver Gruner who plays a Jean-Claude wannabe who's on a college scholarship to an L.A. University (does USC have a Savate Team?). He rents a room from a troubled single mother who's son is constantly threatened by a local street gang. They want him to join them but they do a very bad job trying to convince him (daily harassments and beatings). His troubles remind Oliver of his life back home (he too had a trouble past as a youth). When the gang starts to mess with him (they affectionately call him "Frenchie") Oliver goes "Segal" on those tough punks. The movie has a cheap, sleazy feel to it (but it was shot on film). The acting is either horrible (Gruner makes JCVD look like a world class actor) or over the top and the fight scenes are ho-hum at best. Surprisingly, this film is strangely enjoyable. It has an eeriness that compels viewers of bad videos to sit down and watch.

Recommended for bad movie lovers.

Angel Town is an action karate film, you have pegged as an average typical actioner, if having watched Van Damme films, or other B films. But it does you one better, and I think you'll be sort of pleasantly surprised here. Granted, it isn't a great film, but at the end of it, it left me a pretty upheld opinion of a better quality movie. A lot of it, has to do with it's likeable lead, and of course another real life karate fighter, who of course is not an actor. French hunk, Gruner was a good choice for this. He plays an university student, really stuggling for attain good uni accomodation. With very limited choice, sadly, but gladly for many other people, he resides in a East LA, gang controlled neighbourhood. I will say this, as far as gang movies go, this one was pretty scary, and AT, becomes quite an intense, and exciting drama, with some tragedies, which is all too apparent in real life. Acting is standard, poor, but we have some better players like Saldana, who of course falls for Gruner, who's taken residence in her Grandmother's house, and has become more involved in her and her son's life. Another unforgettable, great acting performance is the guy playing the impossible, rude, very judgemental, and intolerable professor. I liked the ending too, though I have seen these endings before, but I really appreciated in this. Low acting ability aside, it would of been good to see Gruner in more stuff. Near the start, before taking off to LA, is one of the most comical, original funeral scenes you'll ever see. Before Gruner's entrance, a Chicano in a car is watching, gang bullying in process, but he only reappears near the end, in the gang fight. What gives?

Angel Town's DVD cover may be misleading....but martial artist Olivier Gruner is the star and central plot of the film. Gruner (who also starred in the excellent Nemesis) plays a foreign exchange student who has to protect a family from a nasty gang of hoodlums. Gruner shows off some excellent fighting skills and throws out some classic cheesy one-liners. But Gruner's acting is HORRIBLE! His English sounds like a drunk Van Damme. But you're not watching this for it's great acting and dialog...you're watching this for it's kick butt martial arts action....which it has plenty of. There is a great final fight scene and the gang violence scenes are pretty shocking and realistic. The soundtrack is early 90's gold and the film has a great 90's lowbudget vibe. Excellent rental for martial arts fans!

Oliver Gruner is totally unknown to me. My friend showed me this film because he had seen Gruner in, what he called a pretty good sci-fi film, Nemesis. So as we watched this, we found ourselves fastforwarding through the BS drama parts just to get to the unbelievable action sequences. Gruner loves to kick and kick and kick. And kick! haha

Gruner character is a graduate student who is forced to stay in a ghetto close to the one that he grew up in. He finds himself watching after the boy who lives with him because he really wants to join in the Mexican gang that keeps tormenting his family. Instead of joining up, Gruner tells the boy to fight back (against a gang? too crazy). Gruner plays a typical Van Damme character who kills everyone (or maims them pretty bad) and works to rid his block of these gangmembers.

The plot was very cheesy and easy to think of. Gruner is probably not very well known because of his script-choosing if this movie is anything to compare possible choices to. This ghetto is pure hell and I enjoyed seeing the motley crew of characters go through it as if they have a chance against Gruner's character. The music was typical action music (thumping pianos and timpani, swelling guitars) which actually wasn't as bad as I make it sound. The director really needed to keep the action going instead of taking a break every 5 minutes for a tense family moment.

Ultimately, I gave it a 4/10 because it really tried to be an average action film for Oliver Gruner to star in, but the overall feel of the film leaves you wanting more closure on what you just saw.