Almost an angel

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Movie
German title Almost an angel
Original title Almost on Angel
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1990
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director John Cornell
script Paul Hogan
production John Cornell
music Maurice Jarre
camera Russell Boyd
cut David Stiven
occupation

Almost an Angel is an American comedy film from the year 1990 by John Cornell .

action

Terry Dean is an ingenious art thief who cannot be protected from any security system. The only problem is that everyone knows that they can crack any system and that they are always quickly suspected and convicted. He has to think of a new scam to get some money and so he successfully robbed a bank, disguised as Willie Nelson . When he then saves the life of a boy on the street by pulling him off the street and being run over by a car himself, he ends up in the hospital. He was lying half unconscious in his bed when he heard someone pronounced dead. He thinks that he is meant, but is wrong, because what is meant is his roommate. Later he dreams how God tells him that he belongs in hell as a notorious thief, but that he is sent back to earth as an angel on probation because of his good deed in saving the boy to do good deeds. When he wakes up he is only alone in the room and is therefore even more convinced of his assumption that he is an angel, which is further strengthened by the series An Angel on Earth , which is currently on television .

But Terry thinks it's a joke and tries again to rob a bank, this time disguised as Rod Stewart . Only his weapon is stuck in the boom box , which he uses as a hiding place, which is why he instead becomes a victim of a bank robbery that is taking place at the same time. When he wanted to flee shortly after the perpetrators, he was shot at by one of the robbers with a 44 magnum and apparently not hit. But while the other teenage bank robbers quickly explain to their shooter that they gave him a gun with blank cartridges because he always loses his nerve so quickly, Terry believes that God is watching over him and that he is now immortal. However, he has little idea about religious matters, which is why he begins to study the Bible as an amateur and henceforth does good things by giving his stolen money to the church and stealing food for starving homeless people. But Terry also discovers the Ten Commandments , which is why he stopped stealing and let God's signs guide him. So he leaves Los Angeles and, thanks to the Moses Bros. , a haulage company, drives to Fillmore , where he meets the wheelchair user Steve. Steve is generally respected, but very demanding. He gets into an argument with Terry in a pub and he beats him up a bit, but sits on a chair to make up for Steve's handicap. Both become friends after this argument in which Terry previously referred to Steve as "you're a man in a wheelchair who acts like an idiot in a wheelchair".

Terry learns that Steve has an incurable fatal back market tumor and that his sister Rose gave up her much better job at an advertising agency to take care of him. She also runs a youth recreation center, where Terry now makes himself useful by repairing the slot machines, teaching the kids how to box and driving off drug traffickers. However, the center needs money too, so they ask wealthy old George Bealeman for it. Bealeman, however, prefers to donate to the TV preachers, which gives Terry the idea to successfully fake some miracles and signs of God for him, so that Bealeman is convinced to donate to the leisure center. Terry pulls out all the stops of his technical skills and also lets the cross of a half-ruined old church next to the youth center steal in the spotlight. However, he triggers this effect with a remote control, for which he previously asked Steve about batteries, to which he replied that there was none. Terry seems to find some. In any case, Bealeman completely succumbs to the show and now donates to the leisure center.

In the meantime, the police have realized that Terry disguised as Willie Nelson and Rod Stewart may have been an accomplice in the two bank robberies, which is why they are looking for him. When they make inquiries in Fillmore, they find Steve, who has long since learned of Terry's criminal past through himself. Steve therefore flees from the police in a wheelchair. Although he manages to shake off the police officers, he is so badly injured on his knees by a broken glass from a glass bottle that he only makes it to the leisure center with the last of his strength. His blood loss is too great and he cannot feel the wound in his paralyzed legs. But he feels and knows that it is coming to an end for him.

At the leisure center, Rose is so overjoyed for the time being that Bealeman is planning a completely new building for her center that she falls on Terry's neck. But luck doesn't last long, because Steve reaches her and bleeds to death in his sister's arms. He's afraid of dying, so Terry uses his trick again, the light of the cross on the church tower by remote control to make it easier for him. Steve dies happy and convinced of heaven.

After Steve dies, Rose doubts Terry's insurance. She knows the tricks he used to convince Bealeman and she is also grateful that he used these tricks to help her brother to a happy death, which due to his tumor was soon to come. However, she begins to lose her faith and accuses Terry that this is all not true and only the result of a remote control, for which he just by chance found batteries just in time, without which his tricks would not have worked. Furious, she snatches the remote control from Terry. Terry, however, assures her that he is not a weirdo and that he has to leave now that his job is done.

After his departure, Rose tries to light up the cross herself by using the remote control and is amazed when she does not succeed. She opens the remote control and notices that the batteries are missing, so Terry hadn't found any. She realizes that these seemingly faked miracles like the shining on the cross of the ancient church were actual miracles. And when suddenly the cross begins to glow without using the remote control that is obviously completely inoperable, she finally understands the truth. She rushes after Terry, who has long been anything but indifferent, and calls him. He tries to turn around to look at her, but stumbles and falls down a slope onto a street. She realizes with horror that Terry is hit by a speeding truck, but the truck only drives through him, whereupon Terry and she also realize that he has really become an angel and he says he'll be back soon , adopted by Rose.

Reviews

The film received mixed reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes website counted two positive out of seven professional reviews, which corresponds to a value of 29 percent. The film was also received with average reactions by the general public, because at the same time 40 percent of 5775 users rated the film positively. This in turn is more than confirmed by the online film archive IMDb , another platform on which normal users can submit their film reviews, because there 3637 users gave the film a mediocre 5.5 out of 10 possible points. (As of August 2, 2019)

It would be a miracle if this "hopeless [movie] with only two gags" were as successful as Crocodile Dundee , said Janet Maslin in the liberal New York Times .

Although he didn't like this “cheesy fable at first sight”, renowned film critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times was surprised that he liked the film, probably because of the “sincerity of the actors, the subtle humor and the tremendous feeling of good will ”. Paul Hogan in particular would show [real] star qualities through his “instinctive good mood”.

The "always lovable, slim and leathery Hogan" plays in a film that "starts out lively and inventive, but then gets worse," said Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times . However, the good supporting actors and Hogan's "undeniably easy-going attraction" would save the film, although it was intended for television rather than cinema.

In the Washington Post , Hal Hinson said that almost an angel is almost as exciting "as watching someone have their afternoon nap." The film tries to be "heartwarming", although it is too "harmless [,] gentle and modest".

For the lexicon of international film , Almost an Angel was just a “lightweight comedy”.

publication

Almost an Angel opened in US cinemas on December 19, 1990 and, on its opening weekend, came in at number 14 on the cinema charts with 1.6 million US dollars behind the newly started Kindergarten Cop , Das Russland-Haus and Purgatory of the Vanities land. In total, he brought in only 6.9 million US dollars. In Germany it was released on November 7, 1991 directly on VHS .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Almost to Angel (1990). rottentomatoes.com, accessed September 21, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Almost an Angel (1990). imdb.com, accessed on August 2, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Janet Maslin : Almost an Angel (1990) on nytimes.com, December 19, 1990 (English), accessed September 21, 2011
  4. ↑ Roger Ebert : Almost An Angel (PG) on suntimes.com from December 19, 1990 (English), accessed on September 21, 2011
  5. ↑ Kevin Thomas: MOVIE REVIEW: 'Almost' Is Almost a Good Film on latimes.com from December 19, 1990 (English), accessed September 21, 2011
  6. ↑ Hal Hinson, 'Almost an Angel' on washingtonpost.com, December 20, 1990, accessed September 21, 2011
  7. ↑ Almost an Angel in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on September 21, 2011
  8. ↑ December 21-25, 1990 at boxofficemojo.com (English), accessed September 21, 2011
  9. ↑ Almost an Angel at boxofficemojo.com (English), accessed September 21, 2011