Friday 26 April 2019

Retro Review: Angel Of Destruction (1994)

Angel of Destruction
1994
Cast: Maria Ford, Charlie Spradling, Jessica Mark, Jimmy Broome, Antonio Bacci
Genre: Action 

Plot: When a controversial rock star is stalked by a psychotic fan, undercover cop, Brit Alwood is set to avenge her sister's murder





'An Action Angel Of Mines' 

Starring softcore porno actress Maria Ford in the lead role, she is one of the few performers, who when given sufficient material and screentime, Ford can deliver as an actress and not just be known for parading around in skimpy clothing or be fully or partially naked. Angel of Destruction is a low-grade straight-to-video style action movie in the vein of a cop film. 

Whilst it is not particularly grand or amazing, it pretty much revels in its B-movie action status along with the added sex scene. Filmed mostly in the Philippines, the plot is set in Hawaii and was produced by Roger Corman and Ciro H. Santiago. Corman is one of the connoisseurs of low budget B-movies, with notable titles such as Chopping Mall, Death Race, Stripped to Kill and several Don 'The Dragon' Wilson offerings. 

Jo Alwood is a cop from Hawaii, who is after the scumbag who murdered her sister, Delilah along with several women. The bad guy, Kell kidnaps Delilah's girlfriend and demands that Jo take Delilah's place. But Jo isn't taking it lying down and seeks to bring down Kell.

Angel of Destruction is at times tacky, silly, and but also revelling in its so-bad-it's-good status with some decent fight and action scenes and Maria Ford (who strangely enough has a very extremely white looking face) demonstrating she can pass for a legitimate action star heroine. She can definitely cut it in this department and looks far more composing in scenes where her character is required to put up a fight, rather than Shannon Tweed in 1995's Die Hard fest, No Contest

The B-word is uttered several times, which was a little offputting and some of the dialogue will elicit groans from people. But for the most part, for being nothing more than a B-movie, low- budget actioner, this movie succeeds more within its limitations and whilst it isn't earth-shattering, Angel Of Destruction wasn't also unwatchable. Far from it. 

It's essentially a remake of Bloodfist with Don 'The Dragon' Wilson, or be it a gender-flipped version of Bloodfist: the woman is the good guy who sets her eyes on avenging her sister's death, and she can beat the crap out of several men, without pulling their hair but actually and literally relying on martial arts style kicks, punches and moves to take them out. Acting-wise, Ford convinces without coming across as being corny and she makes an effort to make me buy her as a kick-ass cop in Jo. Antonio Bacci plays Jo's cop boyfriend in his one and only onscreen role and there is one sex scene in the movie also. 




The hand-to-hand martial arts are good for a U.S Filipino based production and at times, it's kind of brutal and hard-hitting in a low-budget actioner sense: one scene has Maria Ford in a topless fight scene and taking out around 4 or 5 goons. Even with its typical and generic plot that has been rehashed so many times in other films and cheap-looking, low budget values. This one also has hints of an Andy Sidaris flick. 





Final Verdict:

Maria Ford has shown she is capable of doing action movies and thus, it made me wished she'd taken up more of these opportunities and less of the erotic movies she is predominately known for and thus, show more of her range and variety, both as a performer and filmography-wise.

Angel of Destruction isn't bad for a B/Z-movie actioner and for Maria Ford fanatics, it's one they should add to their collection. 


Overall: 

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