Angel III: The Final Chapter (1988)

Wonderfully offbeat film!

Good idea lost in the noise

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Yes, we're in desperation stakes again. This almost has the feel of a lot scenes, bits, desperately pieced together. This pathetic excuse, (let's not even call it a movie) for a number three, sees Angel (played by yet another actress, then again, so are the Griswald kids) not a lawyer, a photographer now, who stumbles onto a story, that may'be hits too close to home, more so on a personal note, where she has tracked down her mother while working on a story, involving of course, prostitution. It isn't soon before she's butting heads with a cop (Roundtree, wasted again) while falling in love with guess who? Think back to General Hospital. We meet another cooky character, not seen in the last two Angels, who doubles as a clown and ice cream driver. Again the bold, brazen, and independent Angel, also learns she has a.... yeah, a sister, involved in.... yeah, prostitution. Her mother, an art collector, running a front for drugs is blown up, hence it's Angel on the revenge trail, while trying to rescue her younger hottie sister, who turns blinders to her. She goes undercover as a high class call girl, for a madam, played with convincing evil by Maud Adams (wasted, yes) while also getting into porn, and learning some ugly truths from other girls, soon to be escorted off to the real real slavery. Angel has a great line at the end when Nadine (Adams) gets locked in an ice cream truck, sopping with chocolate. If fans of the Angel series, apart from the nudity and hot broads in some lingerie, this one may run short of your expectations. But good news: There's a fourth.

Lt. Andrews will be spinning in his grave: after rescuing Molly Stewart from a world of vice (in the original Angel) and financially supporting her through law school (in Avenging Angel, the second movie in the series), she decides to go to New York and become a blinking freelance photographer instead. Now there's gratitude for you!But being a snapper doesn't prevent Molly (now played by Mitzi Kapture) from crossing paths with dangerous criminals: after realising that the L.A. art dealer in one of her photos is actually her estranged mother, who she hasn't seen since she was abandoned by her at the age of twelve, Molly returns to California in search of answers, only to find out that her mum is involved in a cocaine smuggling racket and her sister, of whose existence she was previously completely unaware, is in danger of being sold into white slavery. When her mother is killed in a car bomb, Molly once again adopts her Angel persona, entering the world of adult films to try and rescue the only family she has left from a lifetime of forced sex with sweaty foreigners.Considering all of the trashy possibilities open to an exploitation film-maker by such sleazy subjects as prostitution, white slavery, drug dealing and the porn industry, Angel III is a very disappointing film. Sure, there's plenty of T&A on display (the first pair of bare knockers appears on screen within seconds, and the nudity continues throughout), but the pacing is dull, the direction uninspired, the story pedestrian and the less said about the acting the better. Plus, it's kinda ironic that of the three actresses to play Molly, the one with the name that sounds most like a genuine porn-star or hooker is actually the least sexy (yes, Mitzi Kapture is pretty, but she lacks either the jail-bait charm of Donna '25 going on 15' Wilkes, or the sheer va-va-voom of Betsy Russell).

This third installment in the Angel franchise can be enjoyed as a stand-alone film.Molly Stewart who we have seen in two previous films as a teenager in high school and then as a college student in the second film now is an adult woman working as a photographer in New York.She goes back to Los Angeles when she discovers her long lost mother and finds out she has a half sister.It seems that her mother has become involved with international drug dealers who are holding her daughter hostage to force cooperation with them.When Molly's mother proves to be too troublesome she is killed.So Molly Stewart goes into her Angel persona to track down her mother's killers and find the lost half sister she discovered she has.The movie is so over the top that it actually works as a low budget action exploitation film.

Angel finds her mother, but she is shortly killed afterward in an explosion, but not before telling Angel that she has a sister. Now Angel goes back to being a streetwalker in order to find her and go head to head w/ Maud Adams.This piece of dreck is horribly made, and poor Maud who was once an extremely famous and respected actress is now stuck making crappy films like this.Rated R; Violence, Nudity, Profanity, Sexual Situations