Review of Avenging Angelo (2002) by Joe H — 24 Jan 2011

Wow.... Well... very strange movie. I agree with most of the reviews I've read that said that the movie can't decide whether to be a black comedy, slap stick comedy, romantic comedy, or drama. I think they were pushing mostly for comedy... but I think the problem is that they really try too hard to make it funny, so it ends up NOT being funny. In the whole movie there were only about 3-4 funny parts. I did like Bill Conti's score, though; it had a very fun main theme.

Sly did good for the most part, acting-wise, there were a couple parts that didn't really fit his personality. Madeleine Stowe seemed like she was way over-acting in the first half of the movie, but then either I got used to it or she got better as the film went on.

I think, again, the movie was just so strange I'm not even sure what I think about it. Interesting to note, though, that this was Anthony Quinn's very last film (he died of throat cancer just before the film was released), however it's pretty terrible that he gets bumped off in his very last movie...

Anyway, I don't think I would ever watch this again, but I'm not TOTALLY feeling like I want my life back. It was a weird movie, but I think the weirdness is what kept me watching, for some reason, because I'm just thinking 'what in the world is going to happen next?'. It definitely could have been a lot better and a lot funnier. But, oh well.

2/5 stars for this strange movie.