Warrior Angels

In 1190, the knight Elizabeth (Joanna Pacula) leaves her young son Peter (Sander Kolosov) in England and battles in the Holy Crusades. She is wounded and returns to her village, where she is informed by the local priest that Peter was abducted by the wicked tyrant Grekkor (Ruther Hauer) and his army. Elizabeth decides to build an army to fight against Grekkor, but all the local men are afraid and she only counts with the support of Hunter (Molly Curver) and her bow and arrows; the prostitute Eve (Charlotte Avery); and the gypsy Sybil (Rimante Valiukaite) and her powders and herbs. Later, the strong Luke (Arnold Vosloo) helps them against Grekkor.

"Warrior Angels" is a very reasonable low budget action movie. The story is predictable, but has a good premise and good performances of most of the cast. Unfortunately, the ridiculous and expressionless Sander Kolosov and his permanent smile on his face spoils one of the most important and key character. This boy irritated me, and probably he is a relative of a producer or crew of this movie, otherwise I do not know why he was not replaced by another actor. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Anjos Guerreiros" ("Warrior Angels")

Joanna Pakula as the leading warrior angel, home from the third crusade with Richard the Lionheart, finds herself at home bereft of her son, who has been abducted by the wicked Grekkor (Rutger Hauer), a perfect Hollywood villain, with no mercy and nothing but scheming cruelty. It is all made up, like a fairy tale, touching both fantasy, Tolkien, medieval romanticism and Hollywood swashbuckles and with a regular happy end, although the film is littered with casualties, mainly on the bad side, while Eve (Charlotte Avery) is a regrettable loss. The fighting is fierce and regular, while as usual in modern films like this it is impossible to grasp all details, since everything just keeps wildly flowing by like a fierce flood of havoc. Nevertheless, it is worth watching although but once, and the boy Peter's constant change of loyalties is not quite logical and understandable, which character is the only flaw of the film: a better director would have been needed. Another confusion is the many different titles the film has been shown under, like "Vengeance of War", "Crusade of Vengeance", "United in Vengeance" and others still, making it difficult to find it and look it up; but the best role and actor is Arnold Vosloo as Luke, who has a constant bad time surviving many hard blows.

Lady Elizabeth (Joanna Pacula) has proved herself a more than capable warrior ,doing valiant service in the Crusades when she is wounded and compelled to return to England .There she finds that major changes have taken place on her manor.A local warlord ,Grekker (Rutger Hauer) has gathered together a formidable band of outlaws ,is exacting tribute from the local peasantry ,and has taken her only son prisoner ,raising him in the outlaw way.She tries to raise a force to tackle the outlaw and recapture her son but the locals are too cowed and fearful to take action .Instead she assembles a small group of women ,all outcasts ,who are willing to fight on her side .There is the formidable Hunter(Molly Culvert) a skilled archer and sword fighter ;the prostitute Eve (Charlotte Avery)and the gypsy Sybil ,an expert on spells and potions .

Also in the brigand's camp -albeit reluctantly -is Luke(Arnold Vosloo) ,an enigmatic individual with a chequered past and who is uneasy at the actions of Grekker ,and his part in perpetuating his reign of terror.

The action is lively enough ,although budget restrictions don't help ,and the cast is better than usual for such fare .Sadly,the movie does not follow through on its themes ; for instance in the clearly implied sexual attraction felt by Hunter towards Elizabeth .This movie could have been so much better given the talent on display but is mired in the "adequate time passer " category .Watchable but a missed opportunity

A vehicle to an old Joanna Pakula, let's say in last breath of beauty, but if the production is a low profile at least three woman who were casting for supporting role is fine, the Hunter, the virgin warrior which lives in a cave, the Gipsy that lost all relatives and has a reason to fight and the Tramp, really gorgeous girl who wants an easy life, all them worth the picture, Voslo and Hauer were acceptable, the story not quite, bad cheap sets, enjoyable movie but easy to forget!!

Resume:

First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 5

The defenders surrender and open the gates of the castle. Their enemies are riding into it. Only one person is left to fight them, a woman about 40 years old with a broadsword in her hands. The leader of the enemies, a huge guy in black armour, looks down upon her and says: `I've never seen such bravery – and foolishness.' She is staring at him, ignoring the whole army behind him, and replies stonily: `I'm going to kill you, Grekkor.'

Great idea to open the movie with the final confrontation, as it makes every watcher curious. How did these two characters get into such a situation? The rest of the movie is a flashback which explains why it had to happen. Cheaply produced in Lithuania, `Warrior Angels' is a movie with pros and cons. On one hand, the idea to make Elisabeth, a woman over 40, the central character, is brilliant. Instead of the cute princesses you know from countless other fantasy movies or those Charlie's Angels (remember the title!) kind of girly fighters, we are introduced to a tired, but very experienced fighting lady here who goes into her last battle for personal reasons, trying to rescue her abducted son. The cast is marvellous. First we have Rutger Hauer as Grekkor (he looked old to me for the first time – but then I realized it was 20 years ago I saw him at the cinema in `Blade Runner', so I wouldn't mind him saying the same about me), a villain with a cause, not just evil for the fun of it. He explains how his land was taken from him and he wants to use the time while the king is abroad to steal it back. His motivation for the kidnapping of Elisabeth's son is plausible as well, since he wants to teach a boy how to become a warrior, which his father never did for him, he thinks. Second, we have Arnold `The Mummy' Vosloo who gets the best part. A permanently drunk loser at the beginning, he becomes Grekkor's right hand man, but then realizes he may be on the wrong side, so he thinks a lot over his loyalty, his duty, his inner feelings, torn between despair and reborn courage – not a plain cliché role at all! Last not least, we get a team of 4 ladies when Elisabeth teams up with a huntress, a thief and a witch. Their totally different characters make the movie entertaining.

On the other hand, `Warrior Angels' makes a few mistakes. Every historian will burst into laughter at the introduction of Elisabeth as a woman who has been fighting as a knight in the crusades with Richard Lionheart. Just like Ivanhoe or Robin Hood, they are trying to give her a certain historical background. Now, a woman as an equal fighter in a Christian army didn't even exist 1890, let alone 1190. The writer must have watched too many Xena episodes and thought female warriors are a normal part of life in the middle ages. They should have omitted that reference to the year 1190 and make `Warrior Angels' a timeless fantasy movie. Also I wonder why the villain is named Grekkor, not George or James, as he is supposed to be British. Where did he get that typical fantasy name from? Apart from these inconsistencies, I also wonder why the people of the towns around (who outnumber Grekkor's bandits by far) never attack him. The movie simply suffers from the budget limitation, I suppose, hence there are a few not so spectacular battles and obviously cheap set design. Nevertheless, I think `Warrior Angels' is definitely a better choice than `Amazons And Gladiators' for example, since there are good actors involved and a couple of original ideas along the way. Voted 7/10.