Angel of Fury aka Triple Cross (1990)

With Cynthia Rothrock's birthday coming up on March 8th, I figured we'd review a movie in celebration, and this is one that's been on my to watch list for some time. How long you ask? When Ty and Brett at Comeuppance reviewed it in 2010, I said then that it was on my to watch list, so I guess almost 12 years. (I think as a Gen Xer, I'm supposed to make an obligatory "can you believe 2010 is 12 years ago!" comment, and now by saying I'm not going to make it, I've effectively made it... better to get on with the review...)

Angel of Fury is a recut and redubbed version of an Indonesian action film called Triple Cross, which has DTVC Hall of Famer and all-time great Cynthia Rothrock as Nancy Bolan, head of security for a technology company that is sending a super secret computer to Indonesia, and it's up to her to make sure it gets there safely. Bolt, a terrorist who's a cross between a poor man's Sly Stallone and a poor man's Miles O'Keeffe ("Feet O'Keeffe" then?), also wants it, and will stop at nothing to get it, including killing children. Then we have Bolan's ex, played by a poor man's Gary Daniels, who seems to be helping Rothrock, but considering the original title was "triple cross," can we trust him?

This is a rip-roarin' good time. Yes, it has its share of goofy moments, but they only add to the charm. There is no shortage of great fight scenes, and great Rothrock fight scenes at that. In one scene where Rothrock is taking a woman and her daughter to the mall, we get this meandering, almost real-time wandering the store thing where we wonder why we're having to sit through this, only to have the baddies show up, toss a sack on Rothrock, and throw her down the escalator straight into a fight and foot chase sequence, which culminates in the daughter being kidnapped and tossed in an SUV, and Rothrock, giving chase on a dirt bike, eventually jumping off the bike and supposedly kicking the driver through the windshield ("windscreen" for my UK readers). I say supposedly ("supposably" for my American readers), because all we see is her jump kicking, and then a man with a bloody face, then the SUV flipping over. However it comes, we'll take it, and this film is ready to give it.

We're now at 38 films for Rothrock, two shy of the 40 Club. It's only a matter of time, but when I see that the last Rothrock film I did was Santa's Summer House 8 months ago, I realize it's more on me to make sure that happens by reviewing more of her movies more often. This Asian productions pre-China O'Brien part of her career we haven't delved into as much, in part because movies like this were tougher to come by, but through the advent of YouTube, we're seeing more of them. It would be nice though if companies like Vinegar Syndrome got a hold of these gems. Considering the Tiger Claws and Martial Law films have been released by them, hopefully her Asian productions won't be far behind. Rothrock is a national treasure, and while we often use that term in a tongue and cheek way, here I'm serious. She's one of the best to ever do it, and this film is another one that shows us why.

In order to mitigate the shirtless male bondage plus torture trope that was popular for male action stars of this period, this film goes for the wet-T-shirt female bondage approach instead, that way Rothrock didn't need to be shirtless. It's funny how instead of just not doing it at all, they had to do it by tweaking it. It's a great scene though, as the Indonesian Mr. T makes an appearance, which adds to the scene's overall ludicrosity. I also loved how they got her there: the classic blow dart tranquilizer. The thing I don't understand is, if this is so effective--and it seems to have 100% success rate--, why don't the baddies use it more often? Like in the final battle scene, where is this blow dart guy? He should be tranqing folks left and right. Was he using his PTO? I get it, you want your employees to take time off when they need it, but during a big hostage trade-off where you're swapping Rothrock for the computer you've been after all movie, maybe this isn't a good day for him to be out. I also get that, maybe the blow dart guy put in for it well in advance, and then this swap thing came up suddenly, how can you tell him that needs to come into work now? Well, it couldn't have worked out any better for Rothrock, because without the blow dart guy, the baddies didn't stand a chance.

This is not the first time we've seen Rothrock in Indonesia, the Lady Dragon films and Rage and Honor II were also shot in Indonesia. Now with Iko Uwais as one of the biggest current martial arts stars, Indonesian action is an area I've barely scratched the surface on, but one I need to get into more. I know Jacob Gustafson in his Awful Awesome Action Vol. 1 mentioned Indonesian action films, and he said they can be a bit brutal, which may explain why I haven't seen as many. This movie didn't really have a lot of that in it, it was more just a fun actioner, which I'm always a fan of. In the trivia on the IMDb page, we find out that Rothrock got food poisoning after she swallowed water during the wet T-shirt bondage torture scene, which not only sounds like a uniquely Indonesian work hazard, but shows again how trying to conform to these action movie conventions can do more harm than good. Hopefully no one was hurt during the car into helicopter explosion--which was too sweet and so necessary.

Finally, in our latest installment of "why movies from this era are better than their modern counterparts," we have this guy. Here he's fantastic, with his blond hair, suit, and sunglasses. Today, he'd probably be bearded, tatted, with hair shaved on the sides and long on top, maybe back in a man bun or ponytail, and oozing with modern American jack ass-ery. Maybe he has a T-shirt with a busy pattern on it, TJ Maxx-style designer jeans, and says things like "bro" and "man" a lot. He'd be presented to us as some who's as cool as the rest of the movie, when the rest of the movie isn't that cool either, we'd just be waiting for the Danny Trejo or Vinnie Jones appearance and wonder why we even watched it, as that "Wildfire in the Streets" song is playing over the credits. Anyway here's to you that guy above, you're one of the good ones.

And with that, let's wrap this up. I had to go the YouTube route for this one. You might be able to find a used VHS as well, and I think this is the rare movie where I'd say that's worth it. Great Rothrock action, and she's the kind of star whose films are worth collecting.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106279

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