Well Deserved Praise

It is a performances centric movie

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Sure, it won't win any prizes for technical achievement or (especially) acting, but it is what it is: lively female-empowerment action entertainment for the drive-in crowd. If you watch this for the stars involved, be warned that some of them were hired basically just for their name value. Still, cult director Greydon Clark ("Without Warning", "Joysticks") keeps this silly diversion racing forward. Some viewers may know this flick for its being lampooned on 'Mystery Science Theater 3000', but the fact of the matter is that this was obviously meant to be played for laughs to begin with.Playboy Playmate Susan Kiger plays Michelle Wilson, a successful singer whose kid brother is beaten up by "Sticks" (Clark regular Darby Hinton), a drug pusher. It takes Michelle no time to take a schoolteacher, April Thomas (the directors' wife, Jacqueline Cole), up on her offer to assist in destroying a processing plant used by dealers. Soon April and Michelle are recruiting other young women, including a stunt driver, Terry Grant (Sylvia Anderson), a martial artist, Kako Umaro (Lieu Chinh), a policewoman, Elaine Brenner (Robin Greer), and a model, Maria (Noela Velasco) to join in the fight against drug trafficking. Meanwhile, a student, Trish (Liza Greer), tries to tag along, wanting to be in on the action.The ladies are lovely and fun to watch, no matter how seriously they may be lacking in acting ability. The veterans & guest stars are likewise thoroughly entertaining, including Jack Palance as a goon and Peter Lawford as the drug kingpin, Jim Backus as a member of a right wing militia, Neville Brand as Elaines' boss, Pat Buttram as a van salesman, and Alan Hale Jr. as Michelles' agent. Legendary TV & radio host Arthur Godfrey appears fleetingly as himself. Palances' son Cody has a small role as a young thug.The movie is often uproariously silly, complete with goofy comedy bits like the one with Backus, and cartoon-like sound effects. The scene transitions are particularly amusing. And there's enough gunfire, explosions, and stunts going on to ensure that things never get boring.Just go into this thing not expecting anything remotely resembling high art, be prepared not to exercise your brain too much, and get ready to laugh, and one *can* actually enjoy this.Eight out of 10.

Unbearably awful "liberated sexy woman" action movie obviously influenced by CHARLIE'S ANGELS has a group of young women, from all walks of life(stunt woman, Vegas singer, school teacher)deciding to take up crimefighting focusing their efforts on drug smuggling/dealing. Jack Palance must endure a lackey role as the enforcer for kingpin Peter Lawford(who seems drunk for most of his screen time), but poor Jim Backus(GILLIGAN'S ISLAND)is stuck in the role of bumbling fool, some sort of fascist running a camp who the girls embarrass. Without some eye candy(let's be honest, these gals weren't hired for their acting chops), this movie would definitely be hard to stomach. Susan Kiger and Noela Velasco provide some delicious bouncing boobs to admire, while Lieu Chinh gets to hack Lawford's goons with her samurai sword. Liza Greer, as the teenage girl who wants to be a part of the all-girl heroine team, is particularly side-splitting with her performance. Pat Buttram stops by as a car salesman with an endless supply of redneck jokes symbolizing actions by the girls as they attempt to "negotiate" a bargain for a van they later turn into their superhero vehicle. Lots of explosions help, but ANGELS' REVENGE is a flick I want to eliminate from memory as soon as possible..that is except for Kiger in a bikini. Palance not only gets beat up by a woman, he doesn't fare well against Lawford's doberman either.

I've been watching a lot of MST3K lately, mainly because my girlfriend and I enjoy them and have thirty of them on DVD. We had been on a roll, blindly picking out some of the funniest MSTs ever (Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, Time Chasers, et al). Then along came Angels Revenge. (That's how the filmmakers title it -- it should be Angels' Revenge.) This is the epitome of bad film-making. The plot comes straight from what must have been a hormone-crazed, cocaine-snorting man with money. There are more holes in this movie than a particularly hole-filled piece of Swiss cheese. Seven completely unrelated women come together to overthrow a drug kingpin (Peter Lawford) and the most ridiculous plot points ensue. The movie opens with an hour long flashback featuring bad singing and dancing routines, "action" sequences riddled with cartoon sound effects (hearing a "boing!" and a "thwap!" during these scenes is pure camp), and it attempts to explain how these seven crime fighters came to be. It's really just a reason to show the T&A on these minorly attractive women. (I will say I laughed when Tom Servo said to the black stunt driving woman of this group, "Hey, Gene Shalit wants his hair back!") The acting is stretching the meaning of the definition of acting awfully thin, despite appearances by Alan Hale (the Skipper), Jim Baccus (Mr. Howell), and even Jack Palance as the middleman in this drug ring. The first time he approaches the teacher-cum-crime fighter character, Crow says (in Jack's voice), "I want to be teacher's pet," followed quickly by, "Hey, what's with this 'incomplete' crap?" Suffice it to say that the "acting" on display here is the reason they make acting schools. None of the leading women apparently attended.I really like MST3K, but even Mike and the 'bots struggled through this one. Some movies are just so bad that making fun of them almost becomes difficult to watch. This is a prime example of one of those movies.

Ow, it stings! Angel's Revenge is one of those movies that makes you smile, laugh, feel confusion, and extreme pain all at the same time. The makers of this one probably thought, "There's enough rubes out there who'd be fooled into thinking this is Charlie's Angels, so let's make a movie!" The result is a movie full of made-for-TV preservative preservatives. Some scenes are so laughably ridiculous like the drug compound and it's poorly defended facility. That's what Peter Lawford gets for hiring Jack Palance! After seeing a share of Bs, I have grown an appreciation of seeing Jack in low budget schlockers, but this film hurts so much that he's not even in the majority of the film! Probably out boozing it up with Pete backstage. Beware of Jim Bacchus in his role...be warned! This movie doesn't take itself seriously which becomes apparent really really soon.The gals are definitely eye candy...and that's about it! Acting was not a prerequisite nor was having any dignity for being involved with this film! Watch the action sequences and why no action choreographer was hired (that would blow the entire budget!). Just your stereotypical big explosions, car chases, A-Team rip-off wannabe van, a girl hanging on to the trunk of a car, bouncing on trampoline, and so much more. See this MST style and see Mike, Tom, and Crow boogie down to the sultry singing of Michelle Wilson!