Avenging Angel

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.

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.

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.

I will agree that Kevin Sorbo has come into his own in the acting arena. He is quite the leading man in the made for television romance field. He does well with the material. In fact everyone one in the film did well with what they had. Cynthia Watros is lovely as usual as the ever present whore with the heart of gold. Nick Chinlund is always good whether he plays good guy or bad guy and what can you say about Wings Hauser. He is always wonderfully psychotic even if he is playing it low key. I got a little annoyed at the dialog between the male and female leads, they just did not have enough together time for me to believe that they were made for each other in that redeemed way these films have. All in all an OK way to spend 2 hours.

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.