Under cover of musicians 'Angel 4': Undercover is not officially considered the final installment of the Angels franchise for several reasons. First of all, the final part is still Angel-3, and the fourth part, directed by Richard Shankman, is not a movie, but a television film. But still for the audience it is a sequel, and I think it is in vain that the film has such low ratings. It seems that this picture should be examined to the end and to understand the details of how it was shot and who plays in it.
For director Richard Schenkman, this TV movie is the first work on a full meter, before that he shot only two videos for Playboy. However, it is not worth judging him for this, since many famous directors began with light eroticism. Shankman approached the Angel with a great deal of responsibility, as much depended on this experience, including his further career. The script of the film is very simple, there are no well-known actors in the team, but this work is far from a hoax.
The most famous actress here is the lead actor Darlene Vogel. But I really want to praise Shane Fraser, who played the capricious rock star Piston Jones. Fraser was clearly trying to copy Joey Tempest from Europe: the same luxurious hair, the same beautiful, puppet face. But the fate of his hero is terrible, as well as many rockers, mired in drugs, the services of bandits and the arbitrariness of producers. In parallel, the film raises the problem of "peyola" - bribe radio hosts for frequent scrolling of the right songs.
Impressively, Shankman did not neglect the selection for the performers of the roles of musicians of the AK-47 group. These are famous guitarist Russ Parrish, drummer Toss Panos and 90s music star Kevin Gilbert, who played the role of bass guitarist Code under the pseudonym Kevin McTespian in the film. It was Gilbert, not Fraser, who almost repeated the sad fate of vocalist Piston Jones. Two years later, he was found dead of self-asphyxia in a hotel room. But Gilbert the day before received an invitation from the great Genesis to take the place of Phil Collins.
This is the background of this modest television film, directed by Richard Shankman, later famous for such films as “Man from Earth” and “Man from Earth 2”. As for the franchise itself, once "Angel" thundered through all cinemas of the Union, as one of the highest-grossing foreign films, pushing even "Bones and Peace" and "Professional". Although this is my subjective opinion, you may disagree. In any case, Richard Shankman did not completely drown the franchise in a sea of critical reviews, and shot a good tape, which is not boring to watch.