Angel Town
Angel Town
| 23 February 1990 (USA)
Angel Town Trailers

A graduate student and martial-arts expert rents a room in a house owned by a single mother who lives there with her son. A local street gang is trying to recruit the son, but the new tenant tries to help the boy's mother keep him out of the gang. When they learn of this, they target both the mother and her new tenant.

Reviews
VeteranLight

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

... View More
UnowPriceless

hyped garbage

... View More
Fatma Suarez

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

... View More
Juana

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

... View More
Frank Markland

Times are tough for Angel Town, gangs rule with an iron fist and for reasons mostly unknown (Mainly due to embarrassing writing) the gangs want a street kid, Martine to join the gangs, so they beat him up everyday. However due to the presence of an Olympic kick-boxer (Olivier "World's lamest actor" Gruner) named Jacques, hope is on the way. Angel Town is seriously one of the most inept message movies ever made (And I've seen my share) it seems to consist of the idea that all gang infested neighborhoods need, are French kick-boxers who can't act. Worst of all there are so many awkward moments it's just truly hilarious. Best of all comes from the exchange between Gruner and Aragon which basically sums up how ridiculous this thing is. To Wit: "You like the fighting? (Olivier grabs his Asian best friend in a headlock) I could kill him right? When I want him dead he dies! The reason why I don't want him dead is because i'm afraid of him, and I know that if I kill him his son and wife will kill me, that's why he doesn't die!" Of course the fact that it's wrong to kill someone, let alone your best friend is of course left out of the equation. Odd.However don't let me make this sound that I hated this movie, far from it, it's so terrible it's priceless. The biggest laughs come at the end in the disastrous finale which sees Grunner going one on one with gang-members who (the film's biggest logic gap)decline the use of pistols. Also a handicapped Vietnam vet helps out by shooting his machine gun at the gangs, while Gruner kick-boxes the rest. All of this set to the sound of horrible "Mexican" accents and surreal energy that make this one memorable for fans of cinematic trash such as this.The other treat about this movie, is that for some reason Olivier Gruner never attends college despite that's the main reason he's here in the states and not in France getting it on with his girlfriend (In a graveyard in the film's awkward beginning) Angel Town is without a doubt a failure on all conceivable levels but if you laugh at moronic martial arts movies with insane levels of action that make no sense on any level, this is the perfect movie for you. On the other hand make sure to down tequila, like the laughable opening song details "Ain't no mercy in Angel Town" * out of 4-(Bad)

... View More
stan_majors

I thought this was a good movie, and even if the acting was bad..If you are a true martial arts fan..Then you should definitely get this movie if given the chance..And just a little more information Is the star Olive Gruner ( Was a kick-boxing Champion at one time). Every martial arts fan should own this movie...I think the action was good..And i have seen this movie and been trying to find it for years and now after all this time iam going to be able to add this great, low budget, martial arts movie to my collection..And even though it does have its down faults It is still one of the best martial arts films I have seen...

... View More
Chris Barry

Angel Town (1990) Things I learned from this movie:1) Don't move to East L.A. 2) French Graduate students are surprisingly lethal. 3) If you're white and have to live in the ghetto, it helps to make friends with the disabled Vietnam vet next door who keeps an M-16 in his house. 4) Every Spanish person is either called 'Holmes' or 'Essy'. 5) If you're a gang-banger, the top thing you can do is drive-by frat parties on university campuses in front of tons and tons of witnesses. 6) The more people you commit a violent crime in front of, the less likely anyone will phone the cops. 7) If you're in LA and you phone 9/11 they won't come until the end of the movie. 8) During a gang fight in the woods, always have your people appear two to three at a time until the middle of the fight then have some other guys pull up in vans. 9) Machine guns solve everything. 10)Chicks love getting naked in the cemetery.Needless to say, another classic from Oliver G. Don't miss this remarkable slice of early '90s mayhem.

... View More
Joseph P. Ulibas

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.

... View More