Angel Town

Summary

“Is he always that.. friendly?”

MVD Rewind Collection had already proven by 2018 its capability at reviving classic low-budget Nineties actioners like Black Eagle and Lionheart with lovingly done collectors editions. I had been paying close attention to their releases because I love that genre. I was excited when I saw that they would be releasing another Eric Karson action film from 1990 called Angel Town. I had not seen the film, honestly had never heard of it, but all it took was watching a trailer for the movie to know that it was my type of good time. The same day my copy arrived I watched the movie.

In East L.A., gangs fight with one another over turf and along racial lines. In Paris, Jacques Montaigne (Olivier Gruner) has been accepted into grad school in California. Before he can leave, his girlfriend has sex with him in a cemetery. Arriving in Los Angeles, Jacques is treated like a celebrity by the school for his intellectual acumen but, due to arriving in town a couple days late. the only housing he can find is in a rough part of town. Moving into his housing he meets his landlord – a sweet Grandmother (Lupe Amador) and her daughter Maria (Theresa Saldana.) They click well. Jacques goes to a grad school party where he meets a professor who calls him an intellectual Neanderthal. Walking home from the party, Jacques gets in an altercation with some gang members. He quickly kicks their asses. Jacques meets the landlord’s son Martin (Frank Aragon.) Martin is being bullied by the local gangs in town – especially the Mexican gang led by Angel (Tony Valentino.) Martin refused to join their gang and since Martin and his family won’t move out of their house, the gang is willing to do whatever it takes to force Martin to join. Jacques grew up on the hard streets of Paris and had a similar issue there. He turned himself into a champion kick boxer. With the help of his friend Henry (Peter Kwong,) Jacques begins to train Martin at a local gym to help him protect himself. When the gang steps over the line, a big brawl ensues that will force a final showdown between Angel’s men and Jacques.

This movie was right up my alley. If Lionheart is Street Fighter, Angel Town is Streets of Rage. If you can not turn your brain off and enjoy a cheesy action film, read no further. This film is not for you. This is not some well-written drama that reveals something great about the resilience of human beings. This is a kickboxing film on the streets of 1990 East L.A. Angel Town is for the most part incredibly inept in a way that never managed to do anything but make me smile. The Mexican actors are given some of the most inane and hilariously stereotypical dialogue, but it all seems completely unintentional. This is one of those cases where the hearts of those involved were in the right place and they really thought they were dealing with the crime issue in L.A. in a constructive way. Keep in mind that L.A. was about to boil over in two years when Rodney King was beaten by the LAPD. It was an incredibly dangerous time in that area. All of their good intentions poured into Angel Town, and created something cliche and fun.

Here are a few things I enjoyed during the film:

Olivier Gruner at one point delivers a message that made me ask myself,”Is the message that he gives to Martin to join a gang?”

There are painted cars emblazoned with the owner’s nicknames.

A guy in a wheelchair raises a toast with a bottle of Jack and later has a semi-automatic rifle.

The film has some hilariously bad DNR.

Olivier Gruner butchers the English language. Absolutely butchers it.

All this and more awaits you in Angel Town, a film with much more heart than brains. If you like this sort of thing, go ahead and put it in your Amazon cart now.

Video

MVD Rewind have provided a satisfying transfer of the film using an MPEG-4 AVC codec. This transfer comes from an older master and suffers from a couple issues that I didn’t feel affected my enjoyment at all. There is some noticeable specking and there are some color fluctuations that crop up occasionally, but given that this film was made on a small budget in 1990, I think it should be given a little bit of grace. Overall, fans of the film should be very pleased.

Audio

MVD Rewind has provided an English LPCM Mono Track for the Theatrical Cut from the original recordings. Given that this track is a mono track the sound field is pretty limited, but I didn’t notice anything that distracted from the enjoyment of the film. The music is really hilarious at times – especially the theme song by The Hot Heads. At times it is a little hard to hear what people say, but the track was pretty effective overall.

Supplements:

2018 Interview with Eric Karson – this extensive interview covers a lot of information regarding the film. This is a really well coordinated interview.

Interview with Frank Aragon – the actor who played Martin discusses how he got his start and his experience on the film. One of the highlights is when he discusses a stunt that didn’t go as planned.

Interview with Cinematographer John Leblanc – a good interview where Leblanc discusses some of the techniques used on the film including how they got an interesting helicopter-light shot at the end of the film. He also discusses Frank Aragon’s performance to hilarious effect.

Making-of Featurette – this promotional piece shows how hard they were trying to make Olivier the next Van Damme. Grunier is interviewed in the piece along with numerous clips from the film.

Archival interview with Eric Karson – another solid interview with Karson. This was for a German release of the film.

Interview with Olivier Gruner- this archival interview was filmed for the German release. Gruner discusses his experience on the film, his affection for Eric Karson, and his experience in the special forces. A good interview overall.

Three trailers for the film and TV Commercials

Trailers are included for: Lionheart, Black Eagle, Return of Swamp Thing, and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

Overall Scores:

Video – 4/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 4.5/5

Overall – 4/5

Angel Town is another enjoyable nostalgic release from MVD Rewind. I had a lot of fun watching it and think that fans of this type of movie will have just as much fun as I did, as long as their expectations are tempered towards viewing this type of film. MVD have provided some excellent supplements and a good transfer of the film. If you are a fan of these types of films, I would purchase without any worries. Recommended.

This review originally appeared on Blu-ray Authority in 2018.