SincereFinest
disgusting, overrated, pointless
Konterr
Brilliant and touching
Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
Arianna Moses
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
dennis
This is a cute family movie. An angel sees a 13-year-old girl having a tough time with her life. She gets sent to earth to help this just-reaching-puberty girl learn to appreciate her life, and her changing body (with her mother having died years before). The angel becomes a good friend, and tells her supportive things. This part of the movie is powerfully good.Her friends at school are becoming boy-crazy, while she remains somewhat of a tom-boy, with a good friend who happens to be a boy. Things come to a head when she is invited to a birthday party (but only if she comes with a boy, yuck). This film portrays (quite well) the mixed bag of feelings a girl can go through.Her father is a cartoonist, and sort-of falls for an extremely self-centered woman, who promises him to get his comic strip syndicated nationally. The parts with the girlfriend are almost cartoon-ish with some slap-stick humor (better for the kids to enjoy).I have watched this several times over a few years. It holds up well. All-in-all, a pretty good hour-and-a-half.
akevinisme
Once in a great while, a film comes along that completely redefines how you think about American cinema. That film may very well be "Angel in Training." First off, the acting is wonderful. The daughter is a gem, but the real show-stealer is the actual angel in training, Danielle Pessis. She often feeds the protagonist important nuggets of wisdom regarding being the "perfect age," something all teenagers can understand when they hear it from a space angel who shoots balls of light from her hands and uses the force to throw food at people. Gary Imhoff is great as the father character as well, who reminds me of the dad from Seventh Heaven mixed with Jon Arbuckle from Garfield.From a purely technical standpoint, the movie is brilliant. It introduces a new technique that, despite the film being released for nearly a decade, still has not been widely used at this point (I have no idea why). Essentially, the director often uses voice-overs and flashbacks of things that happened within the last 15 minutes so that the viewers won't forget about them. There are also two or three wacky and hilarious sound effects, all of which appear in the last ten minutes of running time (if you don't count the five minute long montage that recaps the entire film at the end).But really, what do things like acting and directing matter if the movie's got no heart? Well, don't worry about that here; "Angel in Training" has got so much heart that yours is likely to burst from your chest cavity and ruin all your limited edition "Spy Cat" cels. If you don't think this is the feel-good movie of a lifetime, then... well, you'd better watch it! So in conclusion, I highly recommend watching "Angel in Training" not once, but a dozen times. It will only get better.My father used to tell me, "A great movie is only great if it has dead people and cartoonists." Think about it.
cynthia-futch
My mom bought this and lent it to my 5-year-old to watch on the trip back home. I let her watch it w/out previewing it since my mom is a Christian and the movie was supposed to be about an angel helping a girl in need. After hearing some of the dialog coming from the back seat on the ride home, I was not impressed and decided to watch it for myself. If the plot were meaty and the lessons rich I could overlook the poor writing and the bad acting. However, there is nothing in the text of this movie to recommend it to anyone for any reason. The best thing i can say is it has no profanity, but neither do a lot of other movies that are also intelligent, entertaining, and of high moral character. The character Peyton wears revealing clothing which I suppose goes with her role as the seducing protagonist, but is totally unnecessary. Rather than looking like a wily, intelligent con-woman, she comes off as a street walker with a phony accent. The father character is an idiot, which has become all too common in modern entertainment, undermining the role dads have in the life of the family. The daughter, Desi, is probably the best one in the movie but still is unconvincing. The role the 'angel' RJ plays is TOTALLY out of Christian context! I believe angels exist and I believe they do interact with us, guiding and protecting us. I've even seen one and have known other trusted people who have encountered them. None of them were insipid little girls sent down to play tricks on the 'bad' people. In several scenes, she causes playful harm to Peyton - the 'bad' person - sending mashed potatoes flying into her face, salad dressing on her head, being covered with cake and landing in a pool (twice). The second time Peyton is dunked, no one offers to help her out of the pool and they go on w/the birthday party like she's not even there. My daughter even cried out, "Are they just going to let her drown?!?" Not exactly Christian character in my book, and definitely not the work of Angels. I'm all for maintaining high viewing standards for my family, but I'd rather read a good book, go for a walk, color a picture, or sit and talk before watching drivel like this. Sometimes an innocent message - if it presents a distorted picture of God's creatures and his true nature - is not really so innocent as it seems. As Oswald Chambers put it, I demand the "utmost, for His highest" even in entertainment.
Denard
This is a movie that's aimed mainly at a young audience, but it deals with some mature themes, like the loss of a parent and entering into adolescence. Although it is a low budget film, I think it is a good family film, in large part because of the performances, particularly the lead actress Laila Dagher. She shows great maturity and subtlety in her work for a child actress. I hope Hollywood casting agents take note and put her in more projects.