Sometimes a good concept for a movie comes along that makes me hit the play button. And sometimes, those good concepts aren’t executed as well as one hopes. That’s what happened with One Hell of an Angel.
In One Hell of an Angel, a demon is banished from hell and is forced to go to heaven where he must be a part of a rehabilitation program that will turn him into a guardian angel. The demon gets paired up with a guardian angel, which is his total opposite and must complete a mission of helping a washed-up rockstar write a song that will save the world.
The synopsis alone is interesting enough and seems to be worth a watch. It sounds like the CW had a love child with Bill and Ted and Kevin Smith is fathering it. But, within the first few minutes of watching the film, I realized that it had b-movie written all over it, and I was in for a ride…and one that I wanted to get off.
“The demon gets paired up with a guardian angel…must complete a mission of helping a washed-up rockstar write a song that will save the world.”
To be fair, the story was fine. It made sense (in the world of the film), and most of the characters had enough character development throughout the film, which is something that I would commend the writers on. You can see how the characters change. When the characters develop, it helps the story develop. It’s a win-win. But as far as the characters go, they are very stereotypical in the way they act. For instance, there are two demon henchmen that are mobsters. One is a deep-voiced muscle, while the other is a short jokester with a high-pitched voice. Where have I seen this before?… Now, if the stereotypes stayed with just the secondary players, it would have been okay. But it, unfortunately, hits some of the main characters.
Mezudio (Dietrich) is the angel that is assigned to pair up with the demon, Mr. Tyler (Sheppard). The Mezudio character gets jokes made towards him, implying that he is gay, which is funny a couple of the times, but not all of the time. I will say that Mezudio was the most entertaining character of the film and provided most of the comedy that did not revolve all that much around campy jokes or attempts at slapstick comedy. When it comes to one of the other main characters, Mike, it was hard to watch and to root for the guy that’s supposed to save the world.
“…it had b-movie written all over it, and I was in for a ride…”
Mike (Schauer) is the washed-up rockstar that has to write a song to save the world. He is a character that eats donuts in the shower while masturbating. It actually sounds funnier than it is. Without trying to be disrespectful, the character happens to be overweight and falls down in a very slapstick “make fun of the fat guy” kind of way. It’s not that I was offended by any of this, it’s just that it was not funny and that part was offensive. To be fair, it’s hard for anyone to be successful at that type of comedy if their name isn’t John Belushi or Chris Farley, who were comedy geniuses.
One Hell of an Angel does not have the best quality when it comes to production. But with an indie film, that is just how it works sometimes. With no fault of anyone making the film, it’s just that funds are hard to come by when you are not a part of a big studio, and sometimes you can tell while watching an indie film. There are times in this film where special effects are used, and instead of helping the film, it does the very opposite. The effects in this film just make it look cheesier than the film had to be. I get that this is a film that is not meant to be taken seriously, after all, it is under the comedy genre, but if that’s the case, it needs to have some decent comedy.
One Hell of an Angel (2019) Directed by Katie Damien. Written by Eruch Adams, Katie Damien, Dave Dietrich, Matt Shepard, Coco Adams. Starring Matt Shepard, Dave Dietrich, Kipper Schauer, Diane Tower-Jones, Darren Marshall, Dan Clancy, Brian Bagheri, Anna Nordeen, David Ostergaard, Keresey Proctor, Sage Lane.
4.5 out of 10.
