Angel of Death is about an assassin, played by everyone’s favorite stuntwoman turned actress, eternal badass Zoë Bell, who gets a head injury in the middle of a job. She decides to make things right by doing what she does best. Angel of Death feels like a magnificent origin story of an action vigilante hero. Words cannot describe how much you need to see Angel of Death if you love solid action movies.
Angel of Death is what Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire should have been. Gina Carino, call Angel of Death’s director Paul Etheredge. He’ll treat you right. Angel of Death is visually beautiful, and the action sequences are remarkable and realistic. When you have a gorgeous professional stuntwoman as your star, it behooves you to do your best. Etheredge even says in the bonus features that he did his best to shoot the sequences in Angel of Death like Fred Astaire shot dance sequences. Finally a movie director who gets it!!! There are two action sequences that are worth the price of admission: Bell versus the mob heavy and one that reminds me of the one in Indiana Jones when the titular hero is confronted by someone with better fighting skills.
Angel of Death’s atmosphere, style and story harkens back to the 40s and 70s. Ed Brubaker, whom I know little about, created Angel of Death, and he is apparently a reknown comic book writer. Angel of Death may use well-known tropes, but they feel fresh and exciting.
Bell always gives me my required dose of chick kicking butt vitamins, and she is a better actor than past amazing female action heroes like Cynthia Rothrock ever were. Without Bell, there would be no Xena: The Warrior Princess. Double Dare, a documentary about stuntwomen, helped viewers to realize what a cool human being she was. I loved her in Deathproof, Raze and now Angel of Death. She has officially never ever disappointed me, which is high praise indeed. I give Bell a blank check. If she is one of the leads in a film or a TV show, I’m going to watch it because it is probably going to be awesome sauce. I need Bell to be in everything.
After watching Angel of Death, I decided to add every movie with Zoë Bell and every movie directed by Paul Etheredge in my queue. I did not watch any other movies that evening because I knew that Angel of Death dropped the mic that Friday night.
Before watching it, I did not know that Angel of Death was shot with two things in mind. Angel of Death was simultaneously going to be released as the first season of a web series and be released as a feature length movie. I’m impressed that Angel of Death is so versatile that it works on both levels. Please give us a second season!