Revenge (1999)

I have the dubious honour of actually owning this film on DVD (don't ask; it was the a case of a bottle of red wine, credit card and amazon.com). Well, it's not the worst money I have ever spent, but it does come close.The story is a stock "revenge" story, which actually tells you all you need to know. Woman wronged seeks retribution on the guilty parties. The movie tries to be clever with a "surprise" twist at the end, but if you have ever seen any movies like this in the past, it won't be that much of a surprise.As for the cast: Alexandra Paul (Laura Underwood) is way too butch as a woman (actually she is probably the most masculine officer in the Police House). The whole beginning "fantasy" arrest (as commented on by a previous reviewer totally NOT realistic) sets the mould for her character. No nonsense, no romance, no personality.Vlasta Vrana (Dan McCartney) plays the role-reversal as Laura's partner. Although being male and older, he plays dumb to her clever cop. And yet has the dubious honour of extolling pseudo-Confucius like gems of wisdom and witticisms (on the death of one guy he utters the immortal line "guess he was coming as he was going" - how did this escape the Oscar nomination panel!?!).Anthony Michael Hall (Brian Cutler) Laura's "love interest" (bit of a misnomer) is hardly seen through the film and doesn't really have the chance to shine. Oh and the surprise.... is not a surprise (you'll see what I mean).Michelle Johnson (Vicky Mayerson) the eponymous "Fallen Angel" again another character given no opportunity to develop and flesh out. Suddenly appears, does the deeds and then goes. The motive is given but to say it's weak is an understatement.So, in summation, a poor movie, not unwatchable but only just.

The other comments that rave about this pathetic attempt at filmaking must be members of the cast's families. I had to view it till the end, hypnotized by disbelief. It's a serial killer story like Clint Eastwood's "Sudden Impact". Typical of poor writing, it requires the good guys to have a collective IQ under 20 otherwise the feature would be ten minutes long. Everything is telegraphed from beginning to end. The detectives are continuously behind a very stupid criminal who would have been caught by the lowliest real detective. People are dropping like flies under the most suspicious circumstances, they know the originating incident and everything is virtually lying in front of them, but they just can't figure it out. Also indicative of very poor writing, the characters ore full of attitude without anything between the lines. I would use this film to show film students what not to do as it contains all the errors a filmmaker can make. To top all this, It has that glossy stilted, commercial, TV, Canadian, Kodak film stock look. There is a complete lack of attention to any kind of detail. It's really hard to know where to start on this lemon. It always amazes me that you can actually finance such crap without anyone noticing.

Reviewer Chris had it about right, it's ok but about the level of a network TV movie. It's about being double-crossed by your spouse, and moves along ok, without any real plot twists. If you're usually happy with TV movies you'll probably like this, but if you're looking for more, skip it. -Bob

Alexandra Paul surprised me in this movie. She was a lot better than what she was in Baywatch. The story is simple and interesting and isn't boring. I think this movie went straight to video which I can understand but rent it if you see it.