Rage of Angels

The actors in this film were great. Although I can't see why she would want that senator. He is completely dull at least Armand Assante's character is entertaining enough to bring this movie to life. I can't wait to see the sequel.

Young hayseed lawyer Jennifer Parker (Smith) is drummed out of the New York District Attorney's office mere weeks after hitting town and is nearly disbarred after being set-up and making a mistake only a complete twit would make. She is able to continue to practise only after her legal reputation is all but destroyed.

Clawing her way back to respectability, then to prominence (Even while still making naive mistakes no lawyer with half a brain would make), she becomes romantically involved with erudite, altruistic but nevertheless married politician Adam Warner (Howard) and mafiosi attorney/thug/all-around creep Michael Moretti (Assante). Warner's wife turns it into a love rectangle pushing Jennifer out of the picture.

Further complications arise in the person of a nightmare client (Glover) who is able to escape with her inadvertent assistance only to kidnap her lovechild sired in her trysts with Senator Warner. Whom can she turn to for help? None other than Moretti - a diabolical man to whom one should avoid owing anything.

Dimestore pulp novel piffle featuring an almost brain-dead protagonist! One-dimensional characters in a derivative setting with laughably clunky dialogue and showy, night-time soap opera style scenes this goofy mini-series still proved very appealing to women (And real lawyers who probably laughed their heads off) who saw it in one of the more popular female-themed TV events of the early 1980s. The energetic main cast of this film generally had long, successful careers on TV and the movies and my sense is that they were the main draw.

The narrative presenting Jennifer Parker - the ambulance chasing poster girl for legal malpractice as a feminist heroine serves as a kind of document of North American feminism at a certain stage of its development. The times and circumstances shaped feminism as much as women did moulding it into what it now is.

My guess would be that back when this was made it was enough for women to be active in male-dominated professions and show occasional moxie but not necessarily be very good at them. Jaclyn Smith's interpretation of an accident-prone jurist makes Jennifer Parker appear so spectacularly and completely inept that this narrative could actually be interpreted as anti-feminist. I am in no way exaggerating as anyone who watches this production will see for themselves.

Smith had purportedly passed up on the Lois Chiles role in the Bond film 'Moonraker' which is evidently why she did not return to series television i.e. a belief that she was ready to do features. While she certainly wasn't on the Hollywood A-list she did carry with her a fan-base from having attained international stardom as Kelly Garrett, a beautiful but tough ex-cop turned private detective on the smash hit TV series Charlie's Angels.

Her performance provides the occasional pleasant surprise when her character is called upon to show an edgy kind of spunk she seldom showed in previous roles and never appeared comfortable with before. But it is a performance loaded with low points - including acting of a calibre one might see on a Mexican soap opera. Jaclyn Smith's best and worst is seen here. The screen comes alive whenever she is not on it.

The production team showed saavy in recruiting solid actors at bargain prices. Armand Assante, Kevin Conway, John Glover and Ken Howard are always undervalued. Assante could have had and perhaps should have had the career Sylvester Stallone did if not more of one. Of course the phenomenon of mini-series was not that far below the level of big-budget features at the time this was made.

I kinda miss the '80s actually, when it comes to television! They don't make miniseries anymore like they used to. This is a perfect example of why the '80s are so huge and bigger than the movies.

This major tv-miniseries based from the bestselling novel by Sidney Sheldon, catapulted Jaclyn Smith as the undisputed QUEEN OF TV MINISERIES. If I'm not mistaken, there was no other actress before her that was dubbed as the Queen. Yes, Richard Chamberlain, was the King of TV-Miniseries but no actress claimed the title of the Queen and you can see why critics and the viewing public bestowed the title to her. A big major event when it was released and ratings blockbuster, that the producers wanted to create a tv-series after it became the toast of tv town. Smith, did star in a sequel three years after and most hollywood stars wants to star in any Sheldon based movies right after!

This movie is full of exciting characters, shot in beautiful locales, wonderful performance by the players and seductively appealing performance by Jaclyn Smith. This is basically like reading Sheldon's books. If you're going to start watching it, make sure you don't do anything or you're not working the following day because you won't be able to stop. It's like an addiction.

I can't think of any actress in TV Hollywood, who can really glued viewers to their television like Smith does to her fans. Smith and Armand Assante should do more movies together.

Jaclyn Smith is at her best in this outstanding miniseries and this one is worth adding in your collection.

Her gorgeous looks can't hide Jaclyn Smiths embarrassing attempts at acting while being regularly employed in the 80s. Hilarious.

and this was before Oliver Stone's "Wall Street". Yes, every girl wanted to be living in NYC struggling to get ahead, and finds her success defending a prisoner who she gets off through several motions to the NY Appeals Court on Center Street.

Well, this is not a bad film, although Ken Howard (Senator Warner) seems less desirable than Armanda Assante (mafia don). Jaclyn Smith looks lovely as ever. Armand Assante as Michael Moretti. Ken Howard as a standard Senator Warner. John Glover (always a good character actor) as Scanlon.

If times are very bad, something like this is good escapism. Jaclyn Smith as struggling attorney Jennifer Parker, who eventually makes it to the top of the legal profession. Sidney Sheldon wrote "I Dream of Jeannie" as well, so take it lightly. 6/10.