Tank Girl

One of the films I anticipated the most during my time as a projectionist was Tank Girl, Rachel Talalay's dystopian comedy based on the comic book creation of Jamie Hewlett & Alan Martin.

The trailers shown in the cinema leading up to its release promised a Mad Max-style romp with the added lure of a sassy lead, in Lori Petty, & a contemporary soundtrack featuring some of the era's biggest names (selected & co-ordinated by none other than Courtney Love).

When a new film was delivered to a cinema one of the first tasks for the projectionist was to splice the reels together into one giant reel of film - this being before digital, but after the days of a projectionist manning two projectors and switching one off & another on during reel changes - incidentally, for anyone that's wondered what the rough circle that flashes on the top right-hand side of the screen when watching any older film signifies: that's the cue for the projectionist to start the next reel on the other projector. The first circle appears a few seconds before the end of the reel, the second as the reel finishes.

Splicing films together was a long, drawn-out process involving running each reel manually through gloved hands onto a large platter, physically splicing the reels together with tape, and marking the join with a waxy, white pencil.
What was curious about Tank Girl was that, while doing this, I noticed long sequences of animated scenes; obvious to the projectionist as the film itself was suddenly brighter, more colourful.
This led me to believe that some of Hewlett's artwork would be featured throughout the film, which is the case, but with exceptions...

Tank Girl opens with credits over a sequence of Hewlett's aforementioned artwork, set to the tune of Devo's 'Girl U Want'; not the original, but the band doing a updated version of their own song, made to sound more like Soundgarden's cover.
Confused? Get used to it.

It's here we see that legendary Special Effects artist Stan Winston is credited with creating the Rippers, part of the comic's lore. Winston was so keen to work on the Rippers that he halved his fee so as to keep within the film's budget.


The film proper starts with desert scenes & a voice-over, Lori Petty's eponymous heroine, telling us that it's 2033, and the world has run out of water after a comet strike.

"Listen up, cause I'm only telling you this once. I'm not bedtime story lady, so pay attention. It's 2033. The world is *screwed* now. You see, a while ago this humongous comet came crashing into the earth. Bam, total devastation. End of the world as we know it. No celebrities, no cable TV, no water. It hasn't rained in 11 years. Now 20 people gotta squeeze inside the same bathtub - so it ain't all bad."

Tank Girl herself then appears in the desert, with flying helmet, goggles & other assorted paraphernalia, riding a buffalo. As you do.

She stumbles across a scene of devastation: some military types have come out second best after a battle.

There follows some further exposition, explaining what went down here: the Rippers (bloodthirsty mutants, created by Johnny Prophet) have attacked representatives of a company named Water & Power. TG then explains that W&P own all the water, but she & her friends steal from them.

TG collects a few artifacts including something that looks like a pétanque ball, but which contains spring loaded knives. It's the sort of thing Clive Barker might have thought up for one of his Hellraiser films.

TG & her buffalo then head home, a commune in a large Munsters-style house in the middle of nowhere. Here we meet our heroine's boyfriend, a ridiculously toned, perfectly-coiffured, white-teethed, good-looking guy that I feel would be unlikely to have access to all that he needs to maintain his looks in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
It's said that Hewlett & Martin agreed with a lot of Talalay's vision for the film, but all three clashed with the producers, who, I get the impression, may have insisted upon casting this guy.
We also meet Tank Girl's friend Sam, a young girl who couldn't be more like Newt from Aliens if she carried a disembodied doll's head.

We cut to the W&P HQ, where a group of Nazi-like officers are being toasted by their boss, Kesslee, Malcolm McDowell at his malevolent best.
Kesslee turns the toast into a bollocking, the subject of his rage being one of his senior W&P lackeys who has only secured "95% of the desert". After much smashing of glass & angry shouting Kesslee gets the unfortunate lackey to remove his boots & socks and walk across the broken glass, before then stabbing him with a water extraction device that dehydrates him as it fills.

Kesslee then promotes Sergeant Small, one of the other Nazi-like lackeys in the room, toasts him with the water extracted from his predecessor, and reveals that he too is walking barefoot in the broken glass.
Sharp-eyed viewers will have already noticed that McDowell had a pair of shiny black shoes on at the start of this scene.

Back at the Munster's commune Tank Girl, whom we've learned is named Rebecca, is on guard duty in a trench, but is being watched by unseen assailants.
Sam, the Newt-a-like, approaches TG & is gifted the deadly pétanque ball before returning to the house.
In the house, meanwhile, Tank Girl's boyfriend finds a pair of boots that she purloined from a dead W&P operative, together with a cryptic note saying "snip snip".
This transpires to be an invitation to join her in the trench where she'll remove her clothes with scissors, which she starts while presuming her boyfriend to be behind her. It is then revealed that the guy behind her is, in fact, a heavily-armed W&P trooper, in camo gear with night vision goggles, part of an assault team attacking the commune.

TG manages to kill the lurking trooper by stealing the pins from his grenades, causing him to explode, and launches a one-woman counter-attack on the other troops. In the ensuing battle she manages to dispatch a number of troops, but not before most of her commune, including her boyfriend, are slain.
TG & Newt-a-like are captured and placed on separate aircraft, TG ostensibly to be raped by the troops.
When one of the troops decides to make a move on TG, during the flight back to their base (and against the advice of his fellow troops, who probably feel a little uncomfortable about being in close proximity to a sexual assault), she manages to break his neck.
It's not then made clear why TG isn't killed at this point, but is instead taken to W&P's head honcho, Kesslee, & Sergeant Small, for interrogation & some bad poetry.

Kesslee, impressed at how TG has managed to kill so many of his men, offers her a job, which she declines in her own inimitable way, so is taken to work in a mine. A mine in which she & her fellow prisoners appear to be digging for buckets of dirt.

In an early role for Academy-nominated Australian actress Naomi Watts, it's here we now encounter Jet, or Jet Girl, a mousy, shy, bespectacled, greasy-haired mechanic found working on jet engines.

Jet is the subject of Sergeant Small's unpleasant and unwanted sexual advances, which Tank Girl helps to rebuff . In a film with so many far-fetched scenes it's this that's one of the most unlikely: TG intervenes when Small is harassing Jet, she kisses her & tells him to keep his hands off her. The creepy, lecherous Small is so appalled at this that he walks away in disgust. Really? He's appalled by this?

Later we see Tank Girl come out of hiding at the end of her shift, and spy a tank for the first time, to the tune of Isaac Hayes' Shaft.
She breaks in, but without the security code the tank locks automatically & releases cyanide gas. Jet is, somehow, on hand to break her out & explain that the tank isn't operational, which has saved her as the release of cyanide gas has malfunctioned.
There are a few scenes like this in this film: where peril dissipates instantly & a simple explanation is offered instead.
While TG & Jet discuss escape in the tank we see that Kesslee & Small are watching them on a screen. Here Kesslee utters one of the standout lines from the trailer: "My my, she'll be fun to break".

Small approaches Jet as she works on an actual jet, and tells her she's lost all flying privileges & access to the hangar, but somehow leaves her to continue her maintenance work on the aircraft she's in.
Jet is then seen crying in the toilet, before being consoled by Tank Girl with a wildly inappropriate incest quip.

'You gotta think about it like the first time you got laid. You just gotta say: "Daddy, are you sure this is right?"'

One of the W&P goons is on hand to drag TG away & she's placed in a strait-jacket, in a freezer. Kesslee again offers TG a job, TG again declines, and is taken to "The Pipe", a 40m downward sloping pipe that gets smaller toward the bottom. TG is thrown into this, head first, and in a sack, and starts to have visions of her boyfriend's death & Newt-a-like's kidnapping.

We cut to a W&P outpost that's been attacked by the Rippers. Small is there with Kesslee & informs him they believe the Rippers are attacking from underground subgates, to which Kesslee suggests he knows the perfect person to find them.
Back to "The Pipe". Weren't we only here a few seconds ago? Tank Girl is brought before Kesslee and we witness the start of the pair's "I win" banter. They go back to this throughout the film.
Tank Girl is taken to the scene of the earlier attack & told she's to walk into the subgate where she'll either be killed by a booby-trap, or come face-to-face with the Rippers.
"Either way, I win" says Kesslee.
Small fires a locating device into Tank Girl's leg, which displays her heart-rate on a monitor on Kesslee's wrist.
Before TG can get to the subgate the Rippers attack the W&P troops that have escorted them there.
From high above Jet hijacks an actual jet by ejecting the pilot, & she watches the attack take place.

Tank Girl escapes the onslaught by hiding behind a tank. She steps out once the Rippers have left & spots Kesslee's arm, with the heart monitor still attached. "What happened to the rest of you?!" she shouts as she stamps on it.

Jet lands her jet & tells Tank Girl that she's willing to escape with her, "You take the tank...".

Tank Girl's inability to control the tank results in her knocking out Jet with its gun, and here we get the first of the extended animated parts.

There are two schools of thought regarding these sequences: one was that the producers didn't like the finished film & so commissioned an animation studio to re-film parts on the cheap; the other is that they simply forgot to film scenes, and couldn't get Lori Petty & the rest back to film them.
I've also heard a theory that Petty had begun growing her hair for another role & wouldn't (or couldn't) shave it again.
Regardless of the reason for these animated sequences, they stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. They're cheap-looking, don't match the frequent snippets of Jamie Hewlett's artwork, and they totally disrupt the flow of the film.

Once the animated segment finishes we're back at W&P HQ, where an injured & masked Kesslee is being told by a doctor that he won't regain his eyesight, or re-grow his arm.
Small arrives with Che'tsai, a cybernetic expert with a strategy for restoring Kesslee to health, and kills the doctor, rather unnecessarily I thought, with Kesslee's stabby dehydrating water extraction device.

Tank Girl and Jet are now in an abandoned funfair, for no discernible reason. Here they meet Sub Girl (Ann, the "other" Cusack sibling), a regular from the comics, but vastly under-utilised here, in her one & only scene.

Sub has some of Newt-a-like's belongings & explains that she was taken to work in Liquid Silver in the town.

Realising they can't approach the town with a stolen W&P tank & jet they set about re-designing & modifying both.
Cue a montage scene spliced with more of Hewlett's artwork.

Back at W&P HQ Che'tsai uses a giant pair of scissors to remove Kesslee's head.


Jet & Tank Girl arrive at Liquid Silver where Newt-a-like is working in the laundry.

The place is a futuristic brothel, populated by the kind of women who staffed the moon base in Gerry Anderson's live-action, 70s TV show UFO, and run by Ann Magnuson of the band Bongwater.
The place looks like an abandoned shopping centre in Arizona, which is exactly what it is.

Ann of Bongwater is approached by one of her moon base girls, who says that a client wants "the schoolgirl experience... for real". Ann of Bongwater tells her to fetch Newt-a-like.

Meanwhile Tank Girl has broken into the Liquid Silver dressing room, where a computerised rendering of a woman (Dawn Robinson of the band En Vogue) gives instruction as to how to dress & prepare for a shift at the brothel.
Cue a clothing montage, the bane of many 90s films.
Dawn of En Vogue says that, if directions were followed, then Tank Girl should look like her. Needless to say, she doesn't.

Newt-a-like is now dressed like a schoolgirl & being led away by a creepy paedophile (Iggy Pop! The Iggy Pop!). She tricks him into taking "her silver", in reality the deadly pétanque ball, claps her hands, and the spring-loaded knives within impale his hand.
Newt-a-like delivers the line "That's what you get for being a perve!" & runs into Tank Girl.
Newly re-united, the two make their escape, but end up riding towards Ann from Bongwater on a crowded escalator - I mentioned this place looks like, and is, a shopping centre, right?
Ann from Bongwater spots Tank Girl, and, despite never having seen her before, seems to know exactly who she is.
Tank Girl captures Ann from Bongwater, and in yet another scene that defies explanation, but is nevertheless spectacular to watch, Tank Girl leads the cast in a rendition of Cole Porter's Let's Do It.
Somehow Jet reappears at this point; and, having no doubt also had some time in Dawn from En Vogue's dressing room, appears to be wearing something that's equal parts military uniform and plastic bag.

Somehow the noise of the singing interrupts Small. I'm not sure how this is possible, is W&P HQ in an office above the futuristic brothel? It's not made clear.
Small orders some of his troopers to "shut it down", and at gun point too - he's not the most understanding of bosses.
The troops attack Liquid Silver & again take Newt-a-like hostage, leaving Jet & TG to watch as she's flown away. If only they had a jet of their own...

We next see Newt-a-like chained up at W&P HQ... Hang on, so this isn't an office above the futuristic brothel?
Kesslee approaches and tells her that she's the bait in a trap to capture Tank Girl. We don't see what's become of his head at this point, but he has a robotic arm with tiny whirring blades attached.

Cut to the desert and Tank Girl & Jet are looking for the Rippers in an area that Sub Girl told them they could be found. With Sub Girl edited out of most of the film it's left to these moments of exposition to fill in where her scenes should have been.


The two fall into a subgate & come face-to-face with the Rippers, kangaroo/human hybrids that include amongst their number Ice-T.

The Rippers are somewhat suspicious of them, suspecting them to be spies, as they have W&P equipment.

There's some more sexual assault references:
"I say we kill 'em", "I say we hump 'em" etc. Surprisingly, for a film that's lauded as being very pro-feminist, there are a lot of these kind of "jokes".

More exposition about the Rippers follows, with one of them, Booga, a sweet-natured soul who takes a shine to TG, explaining that their creator, Johnny Prophet, made them to be the ultimate soldiers, before leaving to work on a device that could turn sea water into fresh water.
Now, I'm no science expert, but I'm pretty certain that processes for desalination have been around for quite some time. Anyway...

The Rippers hatch a plan for our two heroines to prove they're not spies, by sneaking up to a W&P outpost to confirm that a shipment of arms will be leaving it. TG & Jet go to the outpost, possibly the same one that the Rippers attacked earlier in the film, judging by the look of it, and confirm that the weapons are there. This is done via an elaborate set-up in which they trick the workers into believing they're posing for a calendar shoot.
Having confirmed that the weapons are there word comes back from the Rippers that they now want Tank Girl & Jet to steal them.

We now get a scene that's very derivative of the final chase in Mad Max 2, in which Tank Girl chases down a truck and dispatches each of the W&P operatives, without the assistance of Jet who has unexplained engine troubles so can't join the fight. This is not explained & I can only assume the reason for her non-involvement was for budgetary reasons

Having captured the weapons Tank Girl takes them back to the Rippers who explain they'll destroy them, not use them. Before doing so we get another extended dance scene, this time from the Rippers, which leads to what looks like Booga & Tank Girl in a post-coital embrace.
There were apparently plans to shoot a longer scene here, but again the producers intervened & said that they thought such a scene would alienate a prospective audience, and insisted on its removal.
So, they were fine with scenes of child abuse and alluding to rape & sexual assault, but a relationship between the protagonist & a kangaroo hybrid, despite it being an integral part of the comics?
No way.

The Rippers open the crates to find no weapons, but the decomposing body of Johnny Prophet instead. We know it's him because he wears a name tag.
The Rippers howl in despair, and away at W&P HQ, possibly the office above the brothel, possibly not, Kesslee is listening.
Again, we don't see his face, but see that he is no longer capable of drinking a glass of water...

Now newly galvanised & seeking vengeance, the Rippers plan an attack on W&P: they'll repaint Jet's jet back in its W&P livery, its second makeover so far, & fly in with her; while Tank Girl launches a one-woman ground assault, to the tune of Ice-T's Big Gun.
Jet & the Rippers land in the hanger and position themselves to attack, but somehow Kesslee is still listening in.
Kesslee puts Newt-a-like into "The Pipe", but this time begins filling it slowly with water. For a society where water is scarce, they seem to enjoy wasting it.

Tank Girl meets up with Jet & the Rippers, it's not explained how she gets into the hanger, or how she manages to find them, but, before they can start to attack, the Rippers reveal they can't fight in the light.
Some "ultimate soldiers" they turned out to be.

Their leader, Deetee, takes out the power supply, but is shot & killed for his trouble.
The Rippers start their mournful howling again, terrifying the Nazi-like troopers that have assembled nearby.
As with desalination, I'm no expert on kangaroos, but I'm pretty sure I don't recall ever hearing Skippy howling like a wolf whenever he needed to tell Liza Goddard that a small child was stuck in the billabong.

We now get to the battle, another scene that appears to have been let down when the studio pulled funding, this time for post-production. Throughout the fight we see really obvious wires strapped to both the Rippers as they jump, & the troops they fling around.

TG hears Newt-a-like crying for help, and goes to investigate. However, it's not her, but Kesslee doing some neat voice trick. He explains that he placed microphones in TG's body, and has been listening to her all the time. He then thanks her for leading the Rippers into his trap.
This doesn't explain how he managed to listen to Jet & the Rippers while TG wasn't with them, but let's gloss over that.

They fight, and Kesslee, thanks to him using his own robotic arm to cut the supports on the raised walkway they're on, falls & gets trapped when the aforementioned arm is jammed into a big cog.
TG moves in to punch him and it's here it's revealed why Che'tsai severed his head; Kesslee's entire head is a hologram. I'm not sure how he's still capable of independent thought without a head, maybe his brain was uploaded to a server, or something. It's not explained.

Kesslee frees himself to continue the fight, and manages to pin TG down to resume their "I won" dialogue:
"Say 'I won'"
"I won!"
"No! Say 'I WON!!'"
"I WON!!" etc. and so on.

Tank Girl's tank then appears, crashing through a wall & pinning Kesslee to a conveniently placed electric fence with that cumbersome robotic arm of his. Honestly, I don't know why he bothered with it, it's more trouble than it's worth.

Now, during the earlier montage of artwork, the one that came about when Jet & Tank Girl modified their respective vehicles, there's the briefest of shots where we see TG place a human brain inside the tank.
It's never clear whose brain it is, where she got it from, or how she installed it, but it seems that, as with so many other aspects of this film, it's another vital piece of info that got lost in the final cut.

The tank is clearly able to think & act for itself, and nowhere more clearly than in this scene.
As TG implores the tank to finish off Kesslee, it lowers its gun and sort of shakes its turret. She then asks if it's out of ammunition and it nods its turret in confirmation.

With no ammo, Tank Girl jumps into the tank & resorts to firing beer bottles at Kesslee (how are they still making beer during a water shortage? Doesn't beer use something like 20 litres of water to make 1 litre of beer?)
One of the beer bottles hits a large bucket of water above Kesslee's head, tipping it over him and causing him to short-circuit. TG picks up his stabby water extraction device, and, despite having not seen it in use at any point of the film up to here, uses it to kill him.
Here she delivers one of my favourite lines of the film; as Kesslee dehydrates and his hologram head distorts she asks "Did I hurt you yet?"
TG then races off to rescue Newt-a-like from "The Pipe", and just in time.

Meanwhile, Sgt Small, who abandoned his post as soon as the battle commenced, is attempting to make a getaway by stealing a jet, when he's confronted by Jet herself.

Jet has now totally transformed from the nervous, bespectacled, greasy-haired mechanic we met at the start of the film, to a confident, lip-glossed, stylish vamp (with perfect eyesight), and a cold-blooded killer.

She shoots Small & does that trick where she blows away the smoke from her gun.

As TG and Newt-a-like make their own getaway they're approached by a group of W&P troopers who point their guns at them & make them get on their knees. As TG turns to Newt-a-like & says "See you in the next world" Booga appears to reveal that he's taken command of these troops & has taken the bullets from their gun.
So, if they've been taken prisoner, why are they still roaming about, pointing their weapons & barking commands at allies of the Rippers? another moment where danger & peril is removed with a cursory, throwaway line

The final part of the film is yet another of those cheaply animated sequences, where all of W&P's water is unleashed, causing rivers to re-flow, rain to fall, and all is suddenly right with the world.
Apparently Sub Girl (and her sub) was meant to make an appearance here, assisting in the final attack on W&P, & releasing the water, but her scenes were either cut or never filmed. This may explain why the end of the film is so confusing.

It's a sad finale to what could've been a great film had Talalay, Hewlett & Martin been given free rein to realise their vision.

While the world falls head-over-heels for post-apocalyptic, dystopian films featuring strong female leads (Hunger Games, Divergent, Mortal Engines, How I Live Now, The 5th Wave, Mad Max: Fury Road and so on) Tank Girl, possibly one of the first, if not the first of the genre, has often been overlooked, ignored, unappreciated, or just plain forgotten about.
But, as I write, there are rumours that another Academy-nominated Australian actress, Margot Robbie, is looking to produce & star in a reboot of the film (which would basically be her reprising her Harley Quinn character, surely?).

I like to think that the original ending of the film & the numerous parts that were edited out are still in existence somewhere, and they would definitely be interesting to see; this is one film that's just crying out for a Director's Cut.

Fin

Angels in the Outfield

When I had the idea of starting this blog I always knew there would be a few films that I really wouldn't want to watch, and Disney's 1994 remake of the 1951 film Angels in the Outfield is one of them.
But, after seeing this on youtube, I decided to bite the bullet and get it out of the way early.

I've no idea why this film was even given a release in the UK: it's about baseball, so the game sequences are near impossible to follow for anyone not well-versed in the sport; is heavily-laden with the kind of religious overtones that I'd imagine only a US audience could appreciate; and is so sickly-sweet it would make most people's teeth hurt.
Even more inexplicably, UK cinemas got this release a year after the US, which is why it appeared during my time as a projectionist in 1995.

As it transpired, the film was not a success in the UK. I recall it lasting only a week, maybe two at most, at the cinema I worked in, before it was shipped off to be tried in another market.
I remember too that there were times I would peer into the auditorium from the projection booth, and see no one in there. One of the idiosyncrasies of cinema management is that, if a film is scheduled to start at a specific time, it has to start then. We couldn't make a decision to save on effort, electricity & other costs by not running a film, just in case someone turned up late & wanted to see it.
So, on it would go, regardless of whether anyone was watching it or not.

As the opening credits roll we see a number of very familiar names tucked away in small print, clearly in early, and tiny, supporting roles. The stars here though are Danny Glover and, former co-stars from the sitcom Taxi, Christopher Lloyd & ("Hold me closer") Tony Danza.

The film starts with two boys cycling past a baseball stadium, and here we see our first "big name in an early role", one of the boys is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, then only 13 years old.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Roger, and his friend is JP, played by a lad named Milton Davis Jr, who, I don't think it's too harsh to say, and on the basis of his performance in this film, was never going to be as successful as his more well-known co-star.

There follows the first of many scenes of possibly the most blatant exposition I've ever come across in a film: as they cycle the two boys crowbar references to their being in a foster home, and cycle past someone with a radio that tells us the local baseball team, the conveniently named Angels, are on a 14 game losing streak & in last place.

The boys arrive at their foster home where we meet their carer, Maggie, Brenda Fricker, one of three -  THREE!! - Oscar-winners in this film, in one of her post-My Left Foot, Hollywood roles.

Roger's father is also at the house, and is clearly a wrong 'un: he has a motorbike, wears a leather jacket, is smoking a cigarette, has long greasy hair & a beard. The only thing missing here is a short burst of "Bad to the Bone" on the soundtrack.
It took me a moment to realise that this floppy-haired greaser was the film's second "big name in an early role": none other than Dermot Mulroney.

It's now Dad's turn to do the exposition: he confirms that Roger is an Angels fan, he's leaving to go "north" (although it isn't explained if this is Canada, Alaska or just the next town), things might have been different if Roger's mother "hadn't died", and he needs to sign some paperwork, alluding to the fact that he doesn't want to remain as Roger's legal guardian.

Roger asks when they'll ever be a family again, and, here's the critical bit that sets wheels in motion, Dad responds with "I'd say when the Angels win the pennant", before leaving.

We cut to Roger & JP up a tree, with binoculars, watching the Angels play the Toronto Blue Jays.
And it's here we see our third "big name in an early role" as Williams, one of the team's outfielders, the second of the film's three Oscar winners: Matthew McConaughey. THE Matthew McConaughey.

We get some idea of how incapable the Angels are when Williams & another player race to catch a ball, but collide instead, allowing the Blue Jays to get a run. Or something.
I've no idea how baseball works, sorry.

We also meet the team's coach, George Knox, played by the film's star & one of its few recognisable faces of the time: Danny Glover. Knox decides to take the pitcher off, which starts a fight involving the entire team.
I'll admit to cracking a smile at this point as the Blue Jays race to join in, only to be called back by their coach with the words "it's not our fight".
Maybe you had to be there.

More exposition follows as we cut to the commentary box where the lead commentator, Ranch Wilder mentions the team owner Hank Murphy must be "out of his mind" to persist with Knox as coach & states he could do better. It's revealed by his co-commentator that Wilder is an ex-player & a failed former coach himself.

Cut to the locker room as the disappointed players file in, they've lost again. Amongst their number we see the film's fourth "big name in an early role", the third of the film's Oscar winners: Adrien Brody as Hemmerling.
We also see one of the film's other stars: Tony Danza as the veteran pitcher Clark, puffing on a cigarette, sitting in a bath. More exposition as the talk turns to his long term injured pitching arm.

Knox then enters, furious, kicks over some stuff, knocking out the film's fifth "big name in an early role", Neal McDonough, as Bass, the team's slow-witted reserve pitcher.
Knox tells the players they're to turn up early the following day for extra training, and we then go straight to that day's training, where Knox & owner Murphy spout some more exposition, this time about Knox's days of coaching Cincinnati, where he'd been a success, although the pennant had always eluded him.

Knox is taken by the team's new PR man, David Montagne (the late comic Taylor Negron, to my eyes he's one of those "hey, it's that guy" faces) to be interviewed by Wilder. Wilder goads Knox about the team's lack of success to such a degree that Knox punches him out.

We're back at the foster home, where we meet the 3rd boy in the household, Miguel, who bullies JP constantly. The boys go to bed, and at the insistence of Maggie are made to say their prayers. Remembering the words of his no-good father Roger prays for a family & asks that god help The Angels to win the pennant. High above in the sky a star twinkles...

Knox is in in Murphy's office for some further exposition: when they were both players on rival teams Wilder deliberately injured Knox, ending his career.
As I stated before, I know nothing about baseball: do they play games every day? Because it certainly seems to be the case in this film. While Knox & Murphy talk we also cut to Roger & JP walking into the stadium to watch the day's game. Miguel isn't with them, he's away meeting with a potential permanent foster family.

Walking out for the game Knox & Clark confront one another for yet more exposition: Clark wants to know if he'll ever be selected to play, Knox tells him he won't as he doesn't approve of Clark's over-reliance on "pain pills" (presumably for the arm injury that we heard about earlier). We learn that Clark had played for Knox at Cincinnati, but had been traded to The Angels. Knox had never expected he'd be coaching him again.
Clark then starts coughing, which, as any film viewer knows, is always a portent of something serious...

The game gets underway with a comedic take on the US national anthem, most of The Angels either don't know the words, or can't hold a tune; then we see the first pitch, from Bass. It's terrible. In cricketing terms it's what we'd call a wide.
Meanwhile, we're introduced to the man that IMDB calls "Hairy Man" - a boozy, obese, belligerent spectator who sits himself right next to Roger & JP, despite the stadium being sparsely populated with spectators. I realise he's there for comic effect, but this seems quite creepy to me.
We also briefly see Wilder in the commentary box, now nursing a bruise.

The game continues & The Angels are under-performing, as usual, when an opposition batter hits a likely home run. As the crowd mutter their disapproval Roger (and only Roger) sees an angel appear behind Williams & lift him to make the catch.

Another angel then materialises next to Roger - it's Christopher Lloyd as Al, so named because he steals an LA Dodgers hat from another spectator & re-configures the design.
Al explains that only Roger can see the angels, and they're there to help, as requested.

An Angels batter steps up to the plate, accompanied by an angel. Hang on... weren't they fielding only a second ago? Again, I'm no baseball expert, but this seems like a fast turn-around between innings.

The angel assists the batter to score a home run, smashing his bat & bursting the ball in the process. Somehow, these two actions, Williams' catch & the home run, mean that The Angels have won the game.
Roger then delivers the line "There are angels in the outfield". I do like it when a film's title is said during the course of the film.

JP wins the chance to to have his photo taken with Knox, but gives his winning ticket to Roger, citing that he "doesn't talk to strangers". So Roger gets to meet Knox & tells him how the angels assisted in the win. Knox is sceptical but later speaks to Williams, who can't explain how he took his catch, and the batter, who admits he felt like someone was swinging with him..

Meanwhile Roger speaks to Maggie about angels and she admits she believes in them.

The next day Knox appears at the foster home to deliver the photograph & to ask Roger for more info about the angels. As he waits for Roger he talks to Maggie who offers yet more exposition: Roger is a ward of the state, his bad upbringing has "given him a good handle on reality", he's not prone to flights of fancy etc. and so on.

When Roger arrives Knox offers him & JP prime seats by the dugout for the next game, against the Oakland Athletics.

It's game day again, and, thanks to the win in the previous game, there's a bigger crowd than usual. Wilder is in the commentary box, smoking heavily - there is a lot of smoking in this film, unusual for a kids' film, even for 1994, I'd have thought.
Wilder has a pair of binoculars and is ogling some female fans - again, unusual for a kids' film, but I suspect the writers really wanted to drive home the point that Wilder is not a pleasant man.

Roger & JP are with Montagne in their new seats, Montagne keeps getting splashed with food & drink, much to his annoyance as he's rather OCD about his suit.
It's worth mentioning that, at some point in the film, there's a throwaway comment from Maggie to the effect that she doesn't go to baseball games, so she's never seen at any of them. My guess is that the baseball scenes were all filmed before or after Brenda Fricker'ss scenes were shot, and she wasn't available for them. It's quite jarring that her two charges are constantly at baseball matches, gaining favour with the team's coach & players, spending time in the locker rooms etc. while she's nowhere to be seen.

Back to the game, Al re-appears to tell Roger that he can't tell anyone about the angels, but they'll be at today's game. It's a bit late for that now, as he's already mentioned it to a few people, but that's alright. Apparently. Knox & JP can continue to be told about them.
Roger calls over Knox to tell him the angels will be helping again, and they devise a signal whereby Roger can tell Roger when the angels appear; he's going to stand up & flap his arms.

The game gets underway and, once again, The Angels are terrible. After some family-appropriate "cussing" Al appears again to tell Roger that Knox & the players should watch their language. Roger flaps, Knox walks over, gets his instructions & passes it on to the disbelieving players.
Their reaction is one of the few moments I laughed at during this film.

An angel appears behind Hemmerling (Adrien Brody), massaging his shoulders. Roger tells Knox to put him into bat, rather than the team's best hitter. It's the final play of the game, so Knox is unsure, but decides to have faith in Roger and do it.
Up steps Hemmerling, who strikes twice - cue booing from the crowd, including our old friend "Hairy Man".
Hemmerling swings again & hits the ball with the lightest of taps. The angels then take over, moving the ball around to prevent the Oakland players from getting their hands on it. Hemmerling scores a home run, and the Angels have won their second game in a row.

Knox tells Montagne to look after the boys, get them everything they want, as he's come to realise that, perhaps, Roger is telling the truth...

Knox then takes the boys home. More exposition as Roger tells him that JP won't get in cars as he used to have to live in one with his mother. So Knox drives them home in the team bus. For the first time we see JP warm to Knox, and a mellowing in Knox too.
Roger & JP learn from Maggie that Miguel has gone to a permanent foster home. More exposition as Maggie reminds everyone that she's only a temporary foster parent.

It's game day again. 
The Angels are readying to play the Detroit Tigers when an angel appears next to Clark, the permanently-injured pitcher. Roger tells Knox, who reluctantly throws him the ball, much to the annoyance of the crowd & Wilder, who points out that Clark hasn't pitched this decade.
Nice work if you can get it, I suppose.

Clark warms up & he's rusty, very rusty. As he pitches his first ball in anger, though, an angel appears and moves the ball faster, straight to the catcher. His pitching is great, no one gets a hit & The Angels win again.

Wilder is angry & perplexed, while Knox drops phrases to the press that he had "faith" and "belief" etc.

Knox tells the boys they can have anything they want so we cut to him coaching the neighbourhood kids in a baseball game, where he reveals himself to be great with kids.
There's a bit where one boy, having never played before, hits the ball & gets told to "Go Home!", so runs home. Everyone laughs. No one thinks to call him back. Poor kid.

Next follows a hugely overlong montage of The Angels winning games, Roger flaps his arms, Knox nods & smiles, angels intervene to ensure victory, "Hairy Man" gets hit with a ball... This all seems to last about an hour, with the upshot being that The Angels rise to first place, with only two games left to play, both against the second-placed Chicago White Sox.

Meanwhile, Maggie tells Roger that he has a court hearing with his father, that afternoon, at the same time as the first of the two games against the Chicago White Sox.
As Roger waits for his no-good father to sign away all his parental responsibilities The Angels are losing their first game in months. Knox & JP try their hardest to look for angels, but can't see them at all.

After the hearing & the game both boys are in tears, Roger being consoled by Maggie, JP by Knox.
Knox explains to JP that maybe the team can't win without the angels' help, Wilder overhears & an evil glint appears in his eye. He approaches JP as Knox leaves to get changed.

Knox & JP arrive at Maggie's and she tells Knox about Roger's day. Knox takes Roger for a heart-to-heart, and tells him his upbringing wasn't that different to Roger's: he never knew his father.
Knox stays for dinner, but it's clear that his talk hasn't had the desired effect on Roger; when JP looks up at the crescent moon and refers to it as "God's thumbnail", Roger announces that "There is no God".
Knox says aloud what the audience are all thinking: "The boy who sees angels doesn't believe?".

The next day Roger & JP are reading the newspaper, the story is out about Knox believing in angels & using Roger for advice.
Further pointless exposition follows as it's revealed that when The Angels play elsewhere Knox remains in telephones contact with Roger who can still see the angels whilst watching the games on TV.
I get the feeling a scene or two might have been cut, possibly from the earlier montage of games, showing this happening, which would've been far preferable to yet more clunky dialogue.

Knox is told by Murphy that he has to tell the media there are no such things as angels. This is all getting a bit "Saint Peter" as we cross to a press conference. Maggie & the boys enter to the mutterings of the press pack, "It's the kid" etc.
Knox begins by saying he can't explain how the players have improved. "call it faith, call it angels...".
Wilder stands up, smirking, to ask Knox if he believes Roger can see angels. Knox pauses, and Maggie interjects to say that if Roger were to admit he could see angels, they'd all laugh, "but no one laughs when a footballer drops to one knee to thank God, or a Pitcher crosses himself" - She has a point.

Clark stands up to say that he believes... in George Knox. The rest of the players follow in a "Captain, my Captain" moment. Faith restored, Murphy announces that if there are angels at the game, he hopes they're on their side.

And so we come to the last game of the season: The Angels v The White Sox. Roger voices concerns to JP & Knox that he can't see any angels, when Al appears, to explain that there'll be no divine intervention today, "Championships have to be won on the field" he says. So, it's perfectly acceptable for his invisible friends to cheat to enable an under-performing team to get to a pennant winning position at the top of the table, ahead of more capable & deserving teams, but they'll avoid any tampering in the final game.
Is this really the lesson that Disney wanted their young audiences to take from this film?
Al goes on to explain that he's only there to keep watch on Clark, whom, it's now revealed, only has six months to live. Remember that, in one scene, near the start of the film, Clark had a cough? And smoked, even when in the bath? Now we see the reason why.

Al tells Roger to concentrate on his own life, as he expects "big things" from him, and will "always be watching". That's some great way to terrify a boy as he's about to hit puberty!

The game continues, there's a lot of dialogue about runs & balls & other stuff. I literally have no idea what's going on.

Clark goes in to pitch, coughing as he does so. That cough has suddenly got a whole lot worse & it's affecting his pitching. Knowing that Clark has no divine intervention to assist him Knox readies another pitcher.
One of Clark's more inept pitches is hit for an inevitable home run, a carbon copy of the hit from an earlier game that caused Williams & another player to clash heads. This time Williams stops the run; we see similar things happen a few more times, even without the help of the angels it's clear that somehow the players have improved dramatically.

Clark pitches again & hits the batter, causing every player on a base to move forward one, and up steps "Hit or Die" Kesey.
There's much slo-mo chewing and spitting as Clark & Kesey face off. Wilder is on hand to point out that, with the bases loaded, only one hit will win the game, and the championship, for the White Sox.
The first pitch is a foul.
The second pitch is a ball.
The third pitch is another ball.
Knox looks anxiously at Roger, there are still no angels.
The fourth pitch is a foul.

Knox tells Roger that he's taking Clark out, but Roger tells Knox he has to believe.

Knox steps out to speak to Clark, with everyone thinking he's going to be replaced. Clark admits that he's got nothing left, he's breathing heavily and is clearly exhausted.
Away in the background Roger starts flapping his arms, his signal that the angels have arrived, even though they're not. Knox tells Clark that the angels are with him.

Soon the entire stadium are flapping, even Montagne (now dressed head-to-toe in Angels' merch) and "Hairy Man", instilling Clark with the belief he needs.
In the commentary booth, Wilder is furious.

Clark pitches, Kesey hits, but Clark catches it. In cricketing parlance this is a caught-and-bowled.

Against the odds, but with the assistance of a bunch of cheating angels, The Angels have won the pennant.
Knox celebrates with Clark, and tells him he did it all by himself.
Up in the commentary box Murphy walks in to tell Wilder he's fired. Not fired for exposing Knox as a believer of angels who takes advice from a boy before the biggest game in the team's history, but afterwards. Why did Murphy wait?

Knox takes the boys home, where Maggie (still not bothering to attend any games, despite how important this particular games was) tells Roger that his social worker called with news about finding him a permanent home. JP hears the news and runs off in tears.

Knox then explains it was him that contacted social services and he wants to adopt Roger. Roger says he won't leave JP, to which Knox says he's adopting JP too. Strange that neither Maggie or Knox saw fit to mention this straightaway: "Roger, you're being adopted... oh, you too JP".

The boys & Knox hug, and as they do Al appears at the window. This time JP sees him, much to his amazement.
Al looks to the camera and says, rather ominously I thought, "We're always watching...".

And so we come to the end, the stars in the sky do a baseball routine, like an old Windows 95 screensaver, & the credits roll.

A truly strange film, maybe US audiences loved the mix of sport & religion, but this was a bizarre release for UK audiences that I'd suppose to not be as religious, and the baseball scenes & dialogue are confusing to anyone not familiar with the game.

The script is absolutely appalling: religiosity thrust to the forefront, way too much exposition, and strangely, hardly any female characters: Maggie has a handful of scenes but, as mentioned earlier, she's conspicuously absent in any baseball scenes, and serves only to offer opinion about angels, and to provide a lot of the aforementioned clunky exposition; there's an unnamed female supporting character in the commentary team (IMDB gives her name as Carolyn, but I don't recall her name being mentioned in the film at all); and there are two female supporting roles as the social worker & judge in Roger's court case scene, but neither have more than a few words of dialogue.
Even the 1951 original had more female characters than this.

Would it have killed the scriptwriters to have beefed up Maggie's role, or for the director to ensure that she attended at least the final baseball match?
Could they not have made the social worker's role larger, and thereby do away with some of Maggie's exposition?
Could they have given Carolyn in the commentary team more to do than just roll her eyes at Wilder's exclamations?
Looking at it, I think some roles could have easily been switched for female characters, such as Murphy the team's owner (the film Major League, starring Rene Russo as a baseball team owner, was 4 years before this), Montagne, the PR/Marketing person (although that would've deprived the cast of its sole character from the LGBT community), or even Roger's negligent parent.

What this film does have going for it, though, is some excellent casting: a host of recognisable faces, and Oscar winners, in early roles shows that the casting director, Pam Dixon, has an incredible eye for talent. It'd be interesting to see if this film was a one-off, or whether other films she's worked on elicit the same amount of surprise as I had watching this, as supporting characters are introduced.

One last thing: according to IMDB this film spawned two sequels: 1997's Angels in the Endzone & Angels in the Infield from 2000. While this film in the series does carry a certain amount of nostalgia for me, I don't think I'll be in any hurry to watch them.

Fin.