# Angel's Dance (1999)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    ANGEL'S DANCE
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

    Ah, the power of books.

One day Angel is a sometimes shy, sometimes explosive woman who acts like a mental patient who forgets to take her medicine. The next day, she's a killing machine, thanks to the local library.

As Angel, Sheryl Lee, who was marvelous last year as the hooker in VAMPIRES, gives her character just the right blend of frightened frenzy and confident swagger. Angel, a strange character who "works the graveyard shift at a mortuary," sees books as the answer to everything from how to repair her own refrigerator to how to stand up against the mob. The writer and director of ANGEL'S DANCE, David L. Corley, who was at our screening, said that Rosanna Arquette was the first choice for the role of Angel, which ended up going to Lee. He also said that the studios wanted a even bigger star in the role, but eventually they agreed to go with Lee, whom he thinks, correctly, is perfect for the part.

The story starts when the hit man that Uncle Vinnie uses is run over by a truck. He needs a replacement fast and turns to the cocky but unproven Tony (Kyle Chandler) as the man to kill an accountant who is scheduled in one month to testify against the family. First, however, Uncle Vinnie sends Tony for training to a murder master who lives out in sunny California.

As vegetarian, Zen philosopher Stevie Rosellini, James Belushi plays a character who is everything you expect a hit man not to be. As the director told us, he took everything you assume about tough killers and did just the opposite in the design of the character. Stevie is a surfer dude who thinks studying Nietzsche provides the perfect training for an assassin. When we first meet him, he's in disguise as a limo-driving slob. As in most of the movie, the director cannot resist the urge to telegraph the punch lines to his jokes. We know from the moment we see Belushi that he is the movie's Yoda figure and isn't a limo driver at all. "Remember, nothing is as it seems," Stevie warns Tony. The director takes this so much to heart that the movie is too predictable. Assume the opposite, and you are almost always right.

As part of his training, Tony has to choose a victim at random to kill, and Angel is the unlucky one selected. The movie, which is heavy on the sight gags, has them using a tiny MEN IN BLACK-sized gun with a nipple from a baby's bottle for a silencer. For target practice they shoot water-filled balloons with smilies. The movie's proclivity for such excessive "cuteness" may begin to wear on your nerves after a while, but, whenever it does, Angel reappears and the movie picks back up again.

The movie ends with a twist that is satisfying and only partially predictable. Even if it produces few significant laughs, ANGEL'S DANCE is an entertaining motion picture that will leave you smiling.

ANGEL'S DANCE runs 1:42. It is not rated but would be an R for some sexuality, profanity, nudity and comic violence and would be fine for most teenagers.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com

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