Hey folks, Harry here with our second review of Luc Besson's ANGEL-A. The review I read in Variety, I believe, was a middle of the road - to negative review, this is a wavy hand kinda review too. However, you have to remember that when it comes to films about love and redemption - that those films, sadly are not for everyone. Personally, I have the utmost faith in Besson - and really hope we get to see this sooner rather than later. Watch out for spoilers, and cut the reviewer some slack - English is probably his second or fifth language. Try writing in Swiss.
Hi Harry, I just saw that there is only one review of the new Luc Besson movie Angel-A on the Ain't-it-cool website. This film has been showing for about a week in west Switzerland where I live, therefore I d'like to share my thoughts about the movie.
Now we already know that this movie was shot in total secrecy and no plot details were revealed. It was also chosen not to show to the critics, and with good reason, as neary all reviews in local French and Swiss press were not so nice with the movie. They said it was dreadful, Bessons worst piece of work, not worthy having his name associated as director to it.
Well, we all know Luc Besson was involved in a lot of productions lately, either as writer (Taxi series, Transporter), etc... or only as a producer with the company Europa. His aim is to make European financed films in Hollywood blockbuster style, for a younger target audience than the usual French or European film, as the younger people in Europe seem to snub the usual european arthouse movies. Therefore, one must deliver dumb plots with stereotyped villans, good guys with superhuman strenght, sexy women (topmodels please) and lotss of action. It worked for the Taxi series, for the Transporter and other turkeys like Yamakasi or Banlieu 13.
Now we got Angel-A and Luc as director has to make a more mature movie again. In order to achieve this goal, he choses to make it Black and White. This gives the viewer an impression of a real piece of art, even though the movie isn't. And Luc Besson knows his classics. He throws in a little bit of Wim Wenders "Himmel über Berlin" with the Swiss Hitler guy, a movie which was badly remade by Hollywood into the Meg Ryan tearjerker "City of Angels".
Till now, this sounds very unlikely to attract any viewer under the age of 25. The coup is to throw in one of the most popular French Stand-up comedians, "Djamel Debouze". Djamel Debouze is well known among the French suburban car-burning youth as he is one of theirs. Well at least he was one of them, nowadays he probably lives in a huge villa with swimming pool or in a parisian Duplex near Place Vendome. Anyway, he still has the same credibility among the youth as he speaks with his North African Magreb tough guy French accent. Next to him, Besson has the billant idea to team him up with a Femme Fatale. A blond scandinavian chick who is about 3 feet taller than our Algerian tough guy. Miss Rassmussen who plays this mysterious Angel-A is indeed an eye-catch. A dream for every man with balls. She speaks softely an unprobable French with a scandianvian accent, has an impressive screen presence and smokes a lot of cigaretts. But beware, the movie never goes beyond a PG-13 level. In one scene she can be seen lying on a hotel bed with only a tiny bra and she is about to pull off her slip and is yearning for sex, as in the last second she is stopped by the Djamel character. Bastard !!! Damn, no sex in this movie ! However, this scene is very erotic and nearly worth the admission price.
The movie is set in Paris and the most important touristical sights can be seen, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Pont-Neuf. Djamel plays a thug who has debts to several people who send out debt collectors who give him a 24 hour delay. If he does not come up with the cash up till midnight the next day he will be killed. Or thrown off the Eiffel Tower. In the first minute of the movie, Djamel explains to the audience that he does some business, but we do not learn what kind of business he does. He also explains that he is an US National since he has won a Green Card in the Lottery and does own an apartment in Manhatten. Still he prefers to hang out in Paris, because he probably does not speak a word of English. When running away from the gangsters, he gets into the American ambassy in Paris and tries to get refuge. The ambassador is not so nice, since Americans in a French movie are often silly or some dumb guys, but hey, isn't it the same with French guys in American movies ? Anyway, they find his criminal records on their CIA- connected super computer and kick him out. Next he tries to lock himself into a prison cell. He goes to a typical French police station where a 95-year -old deaf and blind policeman does not want him kicks him out. When he's being kicked out of the police station, it is goofy like in these old spaghetty westerns, where the guys fly out of the saloon. Then he wants to kill himself and jump off a bridge with is about 10 meters high. Well we know that will do the job. But there comes Angel-A, the blond scandinavian chick, who also wants to kill herself and she jumps. He also jumps and saves her from the wild "Seine" River, altough he does not know how to swim. Great dude. Then they talk a lot and very boring stuff. To be honest, their conversation gets on my nerves and I wanted to have a fast-forward button.
As in the Besson penned Transporter and the Transporter 2, Luc Besson throws in a character with supernatural strenghts. If you look at the Titel of this movie, you may guess who it is.
As usual, Luc Besson has very important messages for our youth. The first one is "Sex is bad, violence is good". In one scene, Angel-A is having sex with guys in a toilet in order to earn some money. Well we do not see in action, we only hear the sound. Later it turns out that she did not have sex but was beating the guys up. Good girl ! The other important message is to love yourself. Yes, Djamel is forces by Angel-A to look into at himself into a mirror and say "I love you" to himself. This must be very moving for some people I guess.
The best part of the movie is the ending. We gotta see some digital effects. It is simply breathtaking. I mean, how many black and white movies do you know with state-of-the-art digital effects ?
The movie is not as bad as the local press tries to tell us. However, there is something wrong with this movie. I tell you what it is, they talk too much. And they talk about things a mature viewer already knows. And they talk toom much banality. It's got a very christian sence of morality and probably still manages to piss off a christian. The movie wants to please youth and older audiences alike, but manages to displease both. Also to movie is too intelligent for dumb people and way too dumb for smart people. It is a movie for nobody. A failure.
Sorry for the mistakes in this text, this is my first review ever I write in English. Call me Jugulator.
