When you count on some movie to be good and then first credits appear and RHI Entertainment logo pops out, you know, you are in trouble. This is exactly what I have experienced with 'Avenging Angel'. Western starring Kevin Sorbo? Why not? Wings Hauser as a main villain? More than awesome. Unfortunately the movie itself wasn't awesome at any point and even though it was watchable, I am disappointed. The biggest problem I have with it is a slow pace, I mean very slow pace. Barely anything happens on screen, it was made for TV so forget about any real violence, forget about tits, forget about bad language, forget about over the top performances. Kevin Sorbo is aways good to see but man, he doesn't have much to play with here. He never was a great actor, more like a decent TV name and he does a decent TV job here. He doesn't seem to be much in his character, he's still Kevin Sorbo. Wings Hauser is pretty much useless here. I mean, he's Ramrod (from 'Vice Squad'), he's top notch actor but he's wasted here. We can only see him in a 3-4 short scenes, most of them are useless for the movie, Hauser appears only to remind local sheriff that 'squatters need to be gone'and disappears for a long time.Set design is decent, It doesn't exactly look like an old wild west but they did the best they could with a budget. Some actors like the sheriff and a leading lady are highly annoying and pretty wooden. There are no real shootouts, Kevin Sorbo shoots dead a few people and that's it. He also has one(one!) fight in the whole movie and looses. All in all It's a cliché western without an actual action, without any thrills with some serious script issues(sheriff who killed Sorbo's family and burnt his church can't recognize him after a year or so even though he looks exactly the same as he looked then). It doesn't work as a cheesy movie and it doesn't work as a serious film either. It's OK to watch once and forgot about it.
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Deliberate_Stranger8 November 2012
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bkoganbing14 August 2013Kevin Sorbo borrows quite a bit from Clint Eastwood's classic High Plains Drifter in this rather incredulous western where he gets to play The Avenging Angel. Kevin's apparently trying very hard to get away from being typecast as Hercules because there's not a scene in this film with his shirt off.
What we're asked to believe here is that the local Ponderosa owner Wings Hauser has sold off pieces of his real estate giving no bill of sale and then just killing them if they don't get off his land. Now he has this group of pacifist type settlers led by Jim Haynie and son Richard Lee Jackson and if a group ever needed protection this one does.
Enter Kevin Sorbo whose church was dynamited and his wife and daughter killed by Hauser. Sorbo has gone away, but now is back as a fast draw bounty hunter who still is troubled by the tenets of his former profession.
That sets it up for you, an incredible piece of claptrap which God Bless 'Em the players all do with a straight face. -
skooshie14 July 2007I will agree that Kevin Sorbo has come into his own in the acting arena. He is quite the leading man in the made for television romance field. He does well with the material. In fact everyone one in the film did well with what they had. Cynthia Watros is lovely as usual as the ever present whore with the heart of gold. Nick Chinlund is always good whether he plays good guy or bad guy and what can you say about Wings Hauser. He is always wonderfully psychotic even if he is playing it low key. I got a little annoyed at the dialog between the male and female leads, they just did not have enough together time for me to believe that they were made for each other in that redeemed way these films have. All in all an OK way to spend 2 hours.
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wildbill01722 July 2007Having been a fan of "Hercules; the Legendary Journeys" and "Andromeda," I just had to see Kevin Sorbo in his first western.
The story follows a pattern set by popular westerns before, and I found a few parallels to Clint Eastwood westerns of the 1960's.
Just as "the man with no name," the character played by Sorbo is never mentioned by name anywhere in the movie. He is referred to as "the preacher" or "the bounty hunter." The sheriff (Nick Chinland) cannot remember when he had seen the bounty hunter before, until a climactic moment in the story. This reminds me of a favorite scene in "Hang 'em High."
The villain in the story is a character the audience is sure to find most hateful. Rich and greedy, even proud to admit it, he blows up the town's only church, kills innocent people, including women and children, all of them unarmed, after stealing from them the last of the money they had, even though he has more than enough for himself. Yes, "the Colonel" (Wings Hauser) is indeed an evil dude. He practically owns the whole town, and obviously owns the sheriff.
Kevin Sorbo gets the chance to prove he can play a western gunslinger just as well as a hero of Greek mythology or a starship captain. Then we get to see "Libby" from "Lost" again. Cythia Watros appears as Maggie, who comes to his aid, and adds the element of romance to the story.
Although stand-offish at first, the two work well together. It isn't until after she tells him about her past as a saloon girl who got pregnant without knowing who the father is, that the lead character confesses that he too has a dark secret. He used to be a preacher. It is never debated which is the lesser of the two evils.
Together we have all the elements of a western classic. Each character goes through a wide range of emotions, especially Sorbo, who is in constant conflict with his conscience. His Christian side wants to forgive, but his other side wants revenge. This is not just a shoot-em-up action adventure, but a sensitive tale of morality and personal values.
Ultimately, the hero saves the town and all the good people still alive, by ridding them of the evil of the colonel and his men. Then, just as the audience may expect, there is the promise of a new life for the preacher, Maggie, and Maggie's daughter, Amelia, an angel faced darling played by Joey King, in what I suppose is her introductory role. -
roman827 August 2007Wronged, silent hero thirsting for justice (and vengeance), finding a new purpose in life, a new family and saving the underdogs - and subsequently - a whole town from the evil, greedy, rich and powerful landowner aided by a corrupt sheriff and his hired guns...
Yeah, it's been done before, at times even better. But: There were some shots and scenes to be seen at times worthy of Sergio Leone.
Sorbo's, Watross' and Chinlund's acting is out of this world - and it captures the atmosphere of the old, bad, wild west marvelously. I do hope to see all of them in even more demanding projects. As well as the little girl playing Emilia, who did a really good job as well.
Highly enjoyable experience. -
FightingWesterner14 December 2009Preacher Kevin Sorbo's family is killed by evil town boss Wings Hauser's hired goons, after a family of homesteaders take refuge in his church. Not wanting to soil their memory by seeking vengeance, he instead becomes a bounty hunter in order to sate his desire for revenge, that is until he finds a real reason to take on the despicable Hauser and his villainous cronies.
A religion friendly movie, this is a bit familiar but it's well written with lots of comic book style action. Sorbo is surprisingly good as a western hero and Hauser is great too as an urbane, educated heavy.
In all, Avenging Angel is quite enjoyable but the climax is a little too tame. The final scene between Hauser and Sorbo is good though. -
renee052113 July 2007After watching this,I can only say that this was Kevin Sorbo's finest performance to date! He played The Preacher, a pastor who gives up his calling after his church is destroyed with his wife & child inside. He becomes a bounty hunter,seeking justice for the innocent. He then returns to his town, where he finds that those responsible for the loss of his family have taken over. After being injured by some of the rough goons, he is taken in by Maggie,a former prostitute and her daughter,Amelia. Through their company,he begins to yearn for the life he once had,but at the same time, vengeance for his wife & daughter weighs heavily on his mind. The Preacher went through a range of emotions-heartbreak,anger,rage,and Kevin played them all exceptionally well! If you love a good Western or are a fan of Kevin Sorbo,I highly recommend this movie!
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GI-Jane129 September 2008All the stars in the universe, could not fill my living room space for what I think of the movie!! I cried and cried and applauded over just how beautiful Kevin Sorbo's performance was in his first western role!! He gave an outstanding performance!!! His ability to clearly define the inner conflict of his character was visibly reflected on the emotions he showed throughout the film, it was extremely well done on his part to show the gentle wonderful sensitive loving servant of God and the man torn between love, hate and sorrow and the need to seek vengeance and justice!! In the end Justice and Love prevailed.
Throughout the movie, we watch this man struggle to come to terms of what he has done and what he promised his wife to become!! Sam Jenkins Sorbo was amazing in the opening scene with her husband, the two of them have a deep love and respect for each others work and it clearly shows!! The entire cast of the movie was incredible, great directing and photography, outstanding work from the entire production because they truly delivered in fine HALLMARK style!!! What a great honor to have ownership of this movie along with the rest of my new Sorbo movie collection!! I simply love them all, and each one of them has touched me in a very very big way!!! I adored little actress, Joey King (Amelia), she played the perfect angel in the entire movie!! Her mother played by actress Cynthia Watros (Maggie) was perfectly suitable for the role, fell in love with her character at first sight!! She was brilliant in letting us see just how hard her life has been and just her grace and beauty it was absolutely gorgeous and stunning performance by her!! Kevin Sorbo is so right on the money because there were two instances where you just want him to kiss her, its clear that a relationship was developing but yet you just knew that the kiss was going to happen eventually and that little girl Amelia running to Kevin in the last scene just stole my heart away!! Congratulations Kevin.........this was definitely without a doubt a Winner for me!! It was highly recommended to me and I strongly recommend it to anyone who loves a great western adventure and who love and value honor and strong passionate characters in heroes who never lets a bad deed go unpunished!!