Angel of Death DVD: Review By B. Alan Orange

Director Paul Etheredge has brought comic book writer Ed Brubaker's Angel of Death to crackling life with some of the most astute, brutal fight sequences ever rendered for a film. If there is a reason to watch this first exciting episodic chapter in what is sure to become a successful franchise, its for the fist-to-fist combat found peppered throughout its hurried seventy-eight minute runtime. Zoe Bell proves her worth as a stunt performer, as she goes up against one opponent after the next, taking full on face hits that are tossed off with enough force to bust open a jaw. On top of that, she also proves to be quite an amazing dramatic actress too boot. Bell stars as Eve, a sexy, rough-knuckled assassin without a conscience. On a botched assignment, she gets stabbed in the head with a rather large knife. It's a brilliantly executed moment of gruesomeness that plays into setting up the mythology here. With the blade protruding directly out of her skull, our heroine accidentally shoots an innocent young girl. With some very cool, inventive cuts, Etheredge plunges forth with a gritty paranormal take on the usual crime thriller. He's masterfully taken the episodic segments from the original web series and woven them into a quite proficient blur of kicking and punching. After Eve recovers from here gruesome injury, she begins to see past victims in visions that push her towards a new destiny. She begins to feel a bit of remorse about her past assignments, thus becoming a liability to her employers. Most of the film finds Eve trying track down her ruthless boss before his new hitman can rip her limb from limb. It's an incredibly jaunty ride that will leave you clinching the arms of your easy chair. This is definitely a DVD you'll want to check out if your love unabashed boxing scenes and cool blasts of fun cinema. It's a keeper.

Sony has done a nice job of putting their Crackle.com properties onto DVD. This particular disc comes with a great audio commentary from Ed Brubaker, Zoe Bell, and director Paul Etheredge. There is a nice behind the scenes featurette, a look at Ed Brubaker's writing style, the casting of Zoe Bell as Eve, her original screen test, Eve's "Tips for Killing", and an extensive look at the stunts that went into making this such a kick-ass movie.

The film is presented in its original direct-to-Internet aspect ratio of 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The feature runtime is one hour and seventeen minutes. In color. It has not been rated, but sure is gloriously violent.

The film is presented in English Stereo. Subtitles are in English only.

The cover art is a photo-shop botch job that makes this look like a cheap direct-to-DVD toss off. The picture of Zoe is less than flattering. And the background is quite generic. There's no indication of the quality or coolness that awaits the viewer inside. Why not show her with the knife sticking out of her skull? Where's the old fashion Grindhouse art that would make this a sure fire snatch-and-grab in the isles of Best Buy? The back cover isn't any better, as Zoe's high kick in the air makes this look like some sort of lame exercise video. I'd pass on this one if I didn't know any better.

If you like watching actors actually pound on each other with brutal force and exalted glee, this will land right up your alley. Angel of Death has some of the best action sequences seen in quite some time. And its storyline is one that is sure to fuel a number of sequels. In fact, I do believe this may even become a TV series. It's a great little number that all action fans need to check out immediately. Buy it!