ANGEL TOWN
A violent revenge fantasy that is not recommended.
Should You Watch It?
The answer is no. The source review describes a film built around a vicious street gang terrorizing a landlord and her young son, while a visiting karate champion becomes their protector. Its central moral idea is worse than its violence: revenge is lifted up as noble and as the way a boy can earn manhood.
The film also includes violence and obscenities throughout, along with child gang warfare, extortion, blackmail, murder, rape, nudity, and fornication. Even the story's apparent rescue of a family is entangled with retaliation and brutal street fighting.
Skip this one; it is not recommended for your family or for your conscience.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESJacques Montaine, a visiting French university graduate student and world-class karate champion, rents a room in a rough part of Los Angeles. There he encounters a vicious Chicano street gang terrorizing a landlord and her young son, Martin.
When the gang leader pressures Martin to join the gang, Jacques becomes the boy's protector. He hides Martin at a friend's karate school while confronting the gang's escalating threats.
Is It Any Good?
The source lists the film at 6 entertainment-quality stars, although its rating scale is presented as 4 stars. The review provides no positive craft observations to explain that number.
Instead, its judgment is emphatically negative. It describes violence and obscenities as littering the film and concludes that the revenge message is “a thoroughly repugnant notion.”
The Worldview
The film presents Jacques as a protector who uses martial-arts skill and violence against a gang terrorizing a family. But the source review says the movie also encourages Martin to fight back and avenge his father's murderer. Revenge is treated as a noble cause and as the means by which Martin can earn his manhood.
That worldview departs sharply from Scripture. The film's moral framework makes retaliation a virtue, while biblical wisdom calls God's people away from personal vengeance: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God” (Romans 12:19). The presence of child gang warfare makes the message especially troubling.
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Obscenities and profanities; nudity and fornication; violence, rape and murder; and, extortion, blackmail and revenge.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
What does the film suggest makes someone a man, and how does that compare with the character God desires?
Micah 6:8 · 1 Timothy 4:12Why is revenge so attractive in stories, and why does Scripture warn us not to take vengeance into our own hands?
Romans 12:19 · Proverbs 20:22How should adults protect children from people who pressure them into destructive groups?
Proverbs 1:10–15 · Psalm 82:3–4Can fighting evil ever make a person morally righteous? What does Scripture say about overcoming evil?
Romans 12:21 · Ephesians 6:12The Final Word
The source review finds violence, obscenities, sexual content, child gang warfare, and a repugnant revenge message. This is not a difficult family decision: SKIP IT. Choose something better for your family instead.
