Angel Town

Plot synopsis:
Jacques Montaigne is a French college student who heads to Los Angeles not only for school, but to help train an Olympic team of fighters. He shows up a few days late (for a rendezvous with a girlfriend in France) and is given a list of houses where they may have rooms for rent. He comes across to a house where single mother Maria Ordonez lives with her son Martin and her mother. Maria tells Jacques that they were supposed to have taken their house off the listings due to being in an unsafe neighborhood. However, Maria decides to let Jacques stay.
That night, on his way to a college mixer, Jacques finds himself confronted by two neighbors, Chuy and Jesus. Brandishing a small knife, Jacques warns the duo not to mess with him. At the mixer, Jacques gets the attention of fellow student Sarah as well as the graduate dean, who is unimpressed with him. As Jacques walks Sara home, they are stopped by Jesus and Chuy, who are with their gang boss, Angel and other gang members. When some of the gang members start to cause trouble, Jacques intervenes and uses his martial arts skills. This scares Angel and the gang away. However, when Jacques returns to the Ordonez home, he is met again by Jesus, Chuy, and more of Angel's gang. An attempt to ambush Jacques lets them to a nearby bush, where the gang members beat themselves up while Jacques walks away. This impresses Frank, a former war vet who lives across the street, but is also upset at the fact that he's paralyzed from the waist down from the war.
It's been revealed that Angel wants to recruit Martin to his gang. When Martin constantly rebuffs Angel, it only makes him even more mad and threats soon pose. Jacques decides he must help Martin out of his ordeal. During an attack at the house, Martin's grandmother passes out from the stress and is taken to the hospital. With Maria working, Jacques decides to take Martin to a local martial arts school run by good friend Henry, who is the one who convinced the Olympic Committee to bring Jacques to L.A. Henry knew Martin's father Pedro, who had protested vehemently against Angel and his gang and was ultimately murdered by Angel, which Martin doesn't know. Jacques decides to teach Martin some self-defense along with Henry and tells him the ramifications of what can and will happen should Martin decide to join Angel's gang.
Upon returning home, Martin is in shock to learn his grandmother had passed. It was because Angel's goons once again started trouble and Frank tells Jacques that she ended up having a massive heart attack, yelling for Martin. Maria has learned what Jacques had been doing and she realizes that she can trust him and divulges the truth about Pedro's death and why the streets are no longer safe. When Maria and Jacques are shot at by Angel and his gang, Jacques turns to Henry and his wife to help protect Maria and Martin. Henry finds a connection with Mr. Park, a Korean gang boss who knows of all the gangs. He warns Henry and Jacques that Angel can be intimidated, but it is his gunfire that gives him his power.
On his way to campus, Angel sends men to get rid of Jacques but they fail. Jacques has had enough and wages war on Angel and his crew. He goes as far as killing Angel's female driver to send him a message. However, Angel declares war and begins with a vicious assault on Maria, who is taken to the hospital. Martin, having had enough, goes back to his house and arms himself with a shotgun. With the help of Frank, who arms himself with a machine gun, the duo begin to shoot at any of Angel's gang who invade Martin's house. When Angel and the rest of the gang show up, they begin to slowly begin their assault. However, just when Martin runs out of ammo, one gang member throws a stick of dynamite but is stopped by a returning Jacques.
Jacques has also brought Henry and some of Henry's martial arts student. They begin their own assault, using their martial arts skills to dispatch most of Angel's gang. Jacques puts dynamite in Angel's car and Angel narrowly escapes when the car explodes. Jacques and Angel begin to fight and just when Jacques is about to knock Angel out, Henry convinces him that it should be Martin who should fight Angel. Angel puts up much of the fight but Martin, finally having the advantage, beats Angel and kicks him while he is on the ground repeatedly until he is unconscious. Jacques finally tells Martin he did what he had to and the police show up, including a copter whose light shines on Angel.

Tags: revenge, murder, violence

Review:
"They may have gotten your legs, but they sure didn't get your balls".
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..
Great low budget action from the guys who brought you Lionheart!.
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!.
A low rent Jean-Claude wannabe takes on an East L.A. Streetgang!.
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..
I like this movie.
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....
Oliver Gruner kicks and kicks and kicks to get out of this movie..
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!
hahaGruner 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..
One of the worst movies I've ever seen....
Angel Town is an excellent example of a bad bad film: not just so bad its good, or so incompotent its funny, but so bad it is really, really bad.
The action scenes are boring, the acting is elementary school level at best, and the production values are non-existent.Olivier Gruner was being promoted as some kind of martial arts champion around the time this film was released here, but I've never heard anything about him since.
I'm not surprised about that, really, because he has even less personality than Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal, which is saying quite a lot.
Needless to say, Gruner has never made it to the A-list since then.The editing on this film is attrocious.
I think they used the same footage of Olivier and the gangbangers running down the same alley way at least six times.
The cinematography is so flat and dry that it looks like it was filmed using an old Betamax video camera from the 1970s.
The story is strictly by-the-numbers.All in all, don't waste your time.
Go out and rent a Van Damme or Seagal film instead.
At least they appear in films where the director, editor, and screenwriter know what the hell they're doing..
Olivier Gruner stars as Jacques a foreign exchange college student who takes on and single handedly wipes out a Mexican street gang in this obnoxious and racist film which is so horrible that it's laughable.
Bad acting, bad plot and bad fight choreography make Angel Town a Turkey..
Turkey shoot...# 1.
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).
Yes!.
Yes!.
Yes!.
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.