I had to track this film down because it stars two of my all-time favorite actors ever, Robert Patrick & Roy Scheider. Having these two greats starring together & sharing scenes together is to me more exciting than when De Niro & Pacino faced off in Heat!!!
Roy Scheider I've been of since little & growing up watching Jaws & Jaws 2 & always loved his iconic role as police Cheif Brody. I also watched Scheider in the early 90's Saturday evening sci-fi show Seaquest & of course loved him in the 70's Cop Thriller Classic, The French Connection & the 1983 Cult Classic Cop Thriller, Blue Thunder. Scheider has always been there in my movie-loving-world since i was little & consider him a legend of Cinema. Robert Patrick was also a favourite of mine since his iconic role as the T1000 is the Classic action sci-fi film T2 & the best Die Hard film that is Die Hard 2: Die Harder & then i absolutely loved him in the X-Files series & the excellent underrated action-horror sequel From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money & from there i checked out anything Patrick was in such as The Faculty, Cop land, Zero Tolerance, Tactical Assault, Rogue Force & many more, he's one of my favourite actors ever. To have these two underrated "Character Actor's" share scenes together & have their names side-by-side & top-billed on the cover of the film is so exciting for me.
Anyway these two greats aren't the main characters here but they do have alot of great scenes. This is the only film by Paul Cade!!! A one-off directed film & a very well directed B-movie thriller it is.
I actually remember seeing this film on the shelves of my local Blockbuster, i miss the video days.
Also this Direct-to-video Thriller (Nostalgic for this type of Thriller as they used stacked up the shelves of Blockbuster video back in the day) is called Backflash 2: Angels don't sleep here but it's a name only "Sequel" to another Robert Patrick film that came out a year before this one called, Backflash & it was a Direct-to-video Road Movie Thriller where Patrick played a completely different character (a lonely but nice video store owner looking for adventure) & i think because that cheap flick did well as it was a twisty, weird Noir style Road Thriller that they used that title for a sequel but in name only. Here this "Backflash 2" is about a young man who returns to his home town of Los Angeles to investigate what happened to his twin brother who vanished ten years ago & is supposed to be dead but no body was ever found. The main guy is played by Dana Ashbrook & he's a young forensic specialist, a fine performance. We have a bunch of characters all mixed up in a type of Conspiracy, we have the beautiful Kelly Rutherford as a Lawyer type who is an old friend of the twin brothers & also the daughter of the corrupted politician played by Roy Scheider in another villain role like he played many times in the later part of his Career with many low-budget B-movies (an easy paycheck for Scheider) & we have another forensic/ autopsy specialist played by the beautiful Kari Wuhrer & a corrupted Cop played by Robert Patrick in another villain role like he's played many times in his Career but he's great & is the most interesting & complex character in the movie. Patrick has some great scenes with Scheider as he's protecting the politician's dark secrets. The film was abit confusing at first with so many twists & turns & definitely needed another watch to fully get it all as it's a good complicated Thriller full of Conspiracy & lies. "Angels don't sleep here" is very well filmed & very well made for a very low-budget production & even the score is great.
This may not be an excellent film but for a cheap Direct-to-video film it's damn good, well acted & surprisingly unpredictable.
I liked & enjoyed this little Thriller & it's cast.
