Angel in Training
Angel in Training
G | 13 April 1999 (USA)
Angel in Training Trailers

Thirteen-year-old Desi has two big problems: her cartoonist father is being duped by a sexy, money-hungry agent, and she needs to find a date for a friend's birthday party. An apprentice angel is sent to Earth to help Desi deal with the situation.

Reviews
NipPierce

Wow, this is a REALLY bad movie!

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Afouotos

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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Rio Hayward

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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Abegail Noëlle

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

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akevinisme

Once in a great while, a film comes along that completely redefines how you think about American cinema. That film may very well be "Angel in Training." First off, the acting is wonderful. The daughter is a gem, but the real show-stealer is the actual angel in training, Danielle Pessis. She often feeds the protagonist important nuggets of wisdom regarding being the "perfect age," something all teenagers can understand when they hear it from a space angel who shoots balls of light from her hands and uses the force to throw food at people. Gary Imhoff is great as the father character as well, who reminds me of the dad from Seventh Heaven mixed with Jon Arbuckle from Garfield.From a purely technical standpoint, the movie is brilliant. It introduces a new technique that, despite the film being released for nearly a decade, still has not been widely used at this point (I have no idea why). Essentially, the director often uses voice-overs and flashbacks of things that happened within the last 15 minutes so that the viewers won't forget about them. There are also two or three wacky and hilarious sound effects, all of which appear in the last ten minutes of running time (if you don't count the five minute long montage that recaps the entire film at the end).But really, what do things like acting and directing matter if the movie's got no heart? Well, don't worry about that here; "Angel in Training" has got so much heart that yours is likely to burst from your chest cavity and ruin all your limited edition "Spy Cat" cels. If you don't think this is the feel-good movie of a lifetime, then... well, you'd better watch it! So in conclusion, I highly recommend watching "Angel in Training" not once, but a dozen times. It will only get better.My father used to tell me, "A great movie is only great if it has dead people and cartoonists." Think about it.

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cynthia-futch

My mom bought this and lent it to my 5-year-old to watch on the trip back home. I let her watch it w/out previewing it since my mom is a Christian and the movie was supposed to be about an angel helping a girl in need. After hearing some of the dialog coming from the back seat on the ride home, I was not impressed and decided to watch it for myself. If the plot were meaty and the lessons rich I could overlook the poor writing and the bad acting. However, there is nothing in the text of this movie to recommend it to anyone for any reason. The best thing i can say is it has no profanity, but neither do a lot of other movies that are also intelligent, entertaining, and of high moral character. The character Peyton wears revealing clothing which I suppose goes with her role as the seducing protagonist, but is totally unnecessary. Rather than looking like a wily, intelligent con-woman, she comes off as a street walker with a phony accent. The father character is an idiot, which has become all too common in modern entertainment, undermining the role dads have in the life of the family. The daughter, Desi, is probably the best one in the movie but still is unconvincing. The role the 'angel' RJ plays is TOTALLY out of Christian context! I believe angels exist and I believe they do interact with us, guiding and protecting us. I've even seen one and have known other trusted people who have encountered them. None of them were insipid little girls sent down to play tricks on the 'bad' people. In several scenes, she causes playful harm to Peyton - the 'bad' person - sending mashed potatoes flying into her face, salad dressing on her head, being covered with cake and landing in a pool (twice). The second time Peyton is dunked, no one offers to help her out of the pool and they go on w/the birthday party like she's not even there. My daughter even cried out, "Are they just going to let her drown?!?" Not exactly Christian character in my book, and definitely not the work of Angels. I'm all for maintaining high viewing standards for my family, but I'd rather read a good book, go for a walk, color a picture, or sit and talk before watching drivel like this. Sometimes an innocent message - if it presents a distorted picture of God's creatures and his true nature - is not really so innocent as it seems. As Oswald Chambers put it, I demand the "utmost, for His highest" even in entertainment.

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wishesnz

Desi is a girl who's mother has passed on and shes just hit puberty. She is somewhat of a Tomboy and feels a tad left out as her friends have just started wearing makeup and girlie clothes. Her father is a cartoonist trying hard to make a living. The story is a happy family Saturday movie with a great moral about how an angel helps her deal with some unpleasant people (including her dads new girlfriend). Includes some great food fights, great quotes, and makes an excellent family movie. A tad on the bad acting 80s boring, but there is always the entertainment laughing at their clothes and big hair. Keep an eye out for Mrs Morningside and her great but not always intelligible quotes.

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Denard

This is a movie that's aimed mainly at a young audience, but it deals with some mature themes, like the loss of a parent and entering into adolescence. Although it is a low budget film, I think it is a good family film, in large part because of the performances, particularly the lead actress Laila Dagher. She shows great maturity and subtlety in her work for a child actress. I hope Hollywood casting agents take note and put her in more projects.

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