Good concept, poorly executed.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Criminales e Angelis! That might as well have been the name of this film that oddly pays homage to the classic Spaghetti Westerns. Unsavoury characters, ultra violence, twisty plot, offensive scenes it had it all. You couldn't like any of these people. Even the supposed lawmen were unsavoury. One almost expected everyone in the film to be dubbed except for a few main characters. Dubbing might have helped (or subtitles) as it seemed that almost everyone mumbled but you got the drift. A band of outlaws (criminales) rob a bank in some dusty unnamed western town complete with hoods. Innocent people get killed (they are just bystanders after all). They escape but one of them is hit as they leave town. From there on its a rough ride as they wind up holing up with a christian family and everything becomes twisty, and ugly with gore and scenes enough to make you cringe. But the sets are great and the feel of being trapped in a place with a band of outlaws, a screaming christian mother and the very unsavoury minister of a father with their two daughters. To give it even better feel of a being a spaghetti western there is the Clint Eastwood connection. Clint's former live-in Francis Fisher plays a somewhat hysteric christian woman while the daughter of Clint's and Francis's years together Francesca Eastwood is the the Angeli of the title. And what an Angeli she makes. Francis Fisher also played Ruth Dewitt Bukater, Rose's mother in Titanic and Strawberry Alice in Eastwood's Unforgiven.As gore piles upon gore and cringing scenes pile on cringing scenes and the body count rises one is reminded that others can do what Tarantino and Peckinpah have done before. You can't like any these characters but you do admire the way the actors play them making it all seem too real. Just like the old spaghetti westerns.

A lot about this movie will get hate from most people. However if you like good stories that don't follow cliches or stereotypes do yourself a favor and give this one a go. I took a star away from the review because in my eyes one of the characters in the story were much weaker than believable. It took away from the movie a little, but not enough to ruin it. Don't underestimate the beginning and story development. This movie is a sad and truthful depiction of humanity.

It's 1887 Cuchillo, New Mexico. Masked men escape after a bank robbery. There's a bounty on them for killing a well connected man. The leader Henry (Chad Michael Murray) ruthlessly kills an elderly couple after being told the news of the bounty. They are pursued by Josiah (Luke Wilson) and his posse. Henry and the remaining two barge in on George Tildon and his family on their homestead.This is drawing inspiration from the harsher exploitation elements with the western genre. It's doing too much hand-held and panning around. I'm not sure Wilson and Murray fit in this more brutal movie. They are too Hollywood with a certain personality. I keep thinking a Tarantino would infuse this with better dialogue and more intense thrills. He would have elevated the tension when they are staying in that cabin. It drags on and on despite the wild revelations. It's trying for a lot of things but it's not fully satisfying. There is value in trying but it keeps missing. I question why they don't kill George right from the start. He's a big guy who seems dangerous in a hand to hand fight. This movie tries hard at times but keeps playing a flat note.

After a bank robbery which involved a few killings, Josiah (Luke Wilson) a bounty hunter is called in. The gang pulls up at a farmhouse with two daughters which has its own hidden demons.The film includes dark humor, plenty of killing with blood splatter, and an inkling of "A Dirty Western." I hated to see Aunt Ester (Frances Fisher) die, (sorry for that plot spoiler, but then again you can count the survivors on one hand). At two hours the film dragged on as it spent too much time at the farmhouse, which they could have consolidated.This is not your typical western, written, directed, and produced by JT Mollner who managed a good job at consolidating all that in one credit. Many facial close-ups of Francesca Eastwood. Film is a bit raw.Guide: F-word. Sex, rape. Male rear nudity.