Bullet Points: Angel Town
Long before Olivier Gruner became an action movie hero, the Paris native joined the Marine Nationale (the Special Forces of the French Navy) and saw some real life action in Djibouti and Somalia. When his days in the military were over, Gruner began training to be a kickboxer. Three years after his training began, Olivier Gruner became the French Kickboxing Champion and would eventually go on to become the World Middleweight Kickboxing Champion.
After retiring from competitive kickboxing in 1987, Gruner did what many champion kickboxers/martial artists were doing at the time… he transitioned into the world of action movies. Considering Gruner’s acting career has spanned more than two decades, it is safe to say Gruner’s decision to get into movies was a smart one.
In this edition of Bullet Points, we are going to go all the way back to the beginning of Olivier Gruner’s acting odyssey and his first film ever, 1990’s Angel Town…
- First Impressions: Olivier Gruner in his first scene, in his first movie makes one helluva first impression… The first time we see Gruner’s character Jacques, he’s driving his car listening to some smooth Terry Plumeri jazz as he pulls into a cemetery. There is then a sentimental moment as Jacques says goodbye to his deceased family before he leaves his homeland and heads to the airport to begin his new life in America. But before Jacques can leave to catch his flight, Jacques’ girlfriend shows up wearing nothing but a fur coat and it is then implied the two fornicate right there on top of the graves… this incident causes Jacques to be late to his first day of college at an unnamed university in Southern California. Now I am not sure if Jacques and his girlfriend made love at the cemetery for two days straight or if they eventually found a more private location for Jacques’ “going away party”, what I am sure of is that thinking with his dick set off a chain reaction of events for Jacques…
- College 101: French graduate student Jacques, who was recruited by the unnamed university in Southern California for his athletic skills, is not exactly welcome with open arms by everyone at the college. Between being a jock and a Jacques, there are those who turn their nose up at him. So that’s a problem. An even bigger problem for Jacques is that since he arrived in California two days later than he was expected to his housing choices are extremely limited. He ends up renting a room from Maria, a single mother in a rough part of town played by Theresa Saldana.
- There Goes The Neighborhood: Jacques doesn’t just have his share of detractors at the college, it is quickly established that the predominately Latino neighborhood is not a fan of a Frenchman living among them. It is also quickly established that fights can break out at any time. For example, we see Jacques spring into action after he escorts Sara, one of his fellow students back to her dorm. On their way some of the gang members crash a frat party that is taking place outside and start beating the crap out of some college dudes until Jacques saves the day. We also get to see Jacques thwart a home invasion better than ADT! But why was the gang trying to invade Maria’s home?
- Big Brother: Maria’s son, Martin, is getting harassed by the local gang led by a thug named Angel Diaz (Tony Valentino). In fact, if this movie is to be believed, the entire future of Angel’s gang hinges on recruiting Martin into the gang so they relentlessly pursue Martin and terrorize Martin’s family with their intimidation tactics. Fortunately for Martin he now has a world class kickboxer living with him. Jacques ends up taking Martin to his friend Harry Lee’s gym… it is here Martin gets to see just how skilled Jacques is and where Martin begins to build the confidence he is going to need to stand up to Angel!
Angel Town was in no way the breakout performance for Gruner like Bloodsport was for Jean-Claude Van Damme, but for for a first timer Gruner did an admirable job and Angel Town is still one of the most enjoyable Oliver Gruner movies I have ever seen.
Now it is time to step into Bonus Bullet Points turf…
- Familiar Faces: Angel Town features some faces you may remember from other action films, like Mike Moroff, who plays Maria and Martin’s wheelchair bound neighbor Frank. Moroff played Jack Romero in Death Wish 4: The Crackdown and one of the criminals who had a run in with Robocop in 1987… Harry Lee, Jacques’ old kickboxing comrade was played by Peter Kwong from Big Trouble in Little China and Never Too Young to Die fame.
- Spelling Fail: Bulletproof Action favorite, Mark Dacascos has a small part in Angel Town, where he gets to have an alley fight with Olivier Gruner’s Jacques. Jacques beats up Dacascos’ character almost as badly as the credits beat up the spelling of Mark’s last name… Dacuscos!?!?
- Unsung Villain: While the gang members are the main villains, Tom McGreevey’s character of Dr. Rice would be crucified today on social media if he were an actual professor at a college spewing his views on women, athletes, etc.
- Imperfect Attendance: By my count, graduate student Jacques actually went to the university twice during the entire movie. His first day and then to one class that he left abruptly after answering one question correctly and then being disrespected by a classmate.
- A Star is Born: The story goes that Gruner did some serious self-promotion at the Cannes Film Festival one year when he decided he wanted to be a movie star. Gruner plastered posters of himself around Cannes, this caught the attention of a producer, who was no doubt looking for the next Jean-Claude Van Damme, and days later Gruner was flying to Los Angeles to do some screen tests. He passed those tests (my sources tell me he got a 74%) and his next stop was Angel Town.
