''Avenging Angelo'' is a 2002 American

action comedy film The action comedy is a film genre that applies to action films where humor plays a much more central role. While early films feature stuntwork and humor, academic Cynthia King wrote that the genre only came into its own as a mainstay of the Americ ...

starring

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Gardenzio "Sly" Stallone (; born July 6, 1946) is an American actor and filmmaker. In a Sylvester Stallone filmography, film career spanning more than fifty years, Stallone has received List of awards and nominations received by Syl ...

(who also directed), Madeleine Stowe, and

Anthony Quinn Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known as Anthony Quinn, was an American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental virility" in over 100 ...

. The film follows bodyguard Frankie Delano (Stallone) who vows to protect Jennifer Allieghieri Barrett (Stowe) after her father,

mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

kingpin Angelo Allieghieri (Quinn) is gunned down. The film was the second straight-to-video U.S release for Stallone after ''

D-Tox ''D-Tox'' is a 2002 American thriller film directed by Jim Gillespie and starring Sylvester Stallone. The supporting cast features Tom Berenger, Charles S. Dutton, Polly Walker, Robert Patrick, Stephen Lang, Jeffrey Wright, Courtney B. Vance ...

'' (2002). Quinn was suffering from terminal throat cancer while ''Avenging Angelo'' was being filmed—and died before it was released. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics.

Plot

Years ago, a mob boss named Lucio Malatesta (George Touliatos) pinned the murder of rival Sammy Carboni (Gino Marrocco) on another rival named Angelo Allieghieri (

), which led to Sammy's son Gianni vowing revenge. Frankie Delano (

) has spent his life safeguarding Angelo as well as Angelo's daughter, Jennifer Barrett ( Madeleine Stowe), whose unsavory husband Kip Barrett ( Harry Van Gorkum) has had their young son Rawley (Ezra Perlman) placed in a boarding school against Jennifer's wishes. Jennifer was raised by her adoptive parents Whitney Towers (John Gilbert) and Peggy Towers (Dawn Greenhalgh) and is not aware that Angelo is her father. After Angelo is killed in a restaurant by a hit man named Bruno ( Billy Gardell), Frankie introduces himself, tells Jennifer who he is and what he has been doing. A neurotic mess, Jennifer can barely handle the news that Kip is a philanderer, let alone the revelation that she is a gangster's daughter. But a DVD prepared by Angelo in the case of just such an event convinces Jennifer that it's the truth. Jennifer certainly doesn't want a full-time bodyguard, even Frankie. She ditches Kip and then falls for Italian romance novelist Marcello ( Raoul Bova), who lectures at her book club. Frankie has suspicions about Marcello, but his job is to stay on the sidelines. Frankie rescues Jennifer from a string of attacks. With many of Angelo's enemies, including Lucio Malatesta, terminated, Frankie allows her to visit Italy with Marcello. But it turns out that Marcello is actually Gianni Carboni, who had Angelo killed. And now Gianni plans to kill Jennifer. It is up to Frankie to protect her one more time.

Cast

as Frankie Delano * Madeleine Stowe as Jennifer Allieghieri Barrett *

as Angelo Allieghieri * Raoul Bova as Marcello/Gianni Carboni * Harry Van Gorkum as Kip Barrett * Billy Gardell as Bruno * George Touliatos as Lucio Malatesta

Production

Filming

The film was shot in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada and

Castellammare del Golfo Castellammare del Golfo (; ; or ) is a town and municipality in the Trapani Province of Sicily. The name can be translated as "Sea Fortress on the Gulf", stemming from the medieval fortress in the harbor. The nearby body of water conversely tak ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

Reception

Critical response

The film was met with mostly negative reviews by most critics. Scott Weinberg for eFILMCRITICS.com wrote that "Sly - despite his seemingly unquenchable desire to prove me otherwise - deserves better than this".

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gives it a 13% approval rating based on 8 reviews, with an average score of 4.41/10.

References

External links

* {{Martyn Burke 2001 films 2000s English-language films Films shot in Hamilton, Ontario Mafia comedy films Films scored by Bill Conti Films directed by Martyn Burke 2002 crime comedy films Franchise Pictures films Films produced by Elie Samaha 2001 comedy films 2002 films 2000s American films English-language crime comedy films