''We're No Angels'' is a 1989 American

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Neil Jordan Neil Patrick Jordan (born 25 February 1950) is an Irish filmmaker and writer. He first achieved recognition for his short story collection, ''Night in Tunisia (short story collection), Night in Tunisia,'' which won the Guardian Fiction Prize in ...

. A remake of the 1955 film ''We're No Angels'', it stars

Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor, director, and film producer. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of List of awards and ...

Sean Penn Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. List of awards and nominations received by Sean Penn, His accolades include two Academy Awards, a Golden Gl ...

and

Demi Moore Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After rising to prominence in the early 1980s, she became the world's highest-paid actress by 1995. List of awards and nominations received by Demi Moore, Her acc ...

. It received mixed reviews and grossed $10.5 million on a $20 million budget.

Plot

In 1935,

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

-era convicts Ned and Jim, jailed on unspecified charges and abused by a ruthless warden, become escaped convicts when a vicious killer named Bobby escapes the electric chair. The two escape to a small

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

town near the Canada–US border, where they are mistaken for a pair of

priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, ...

who are expected at the local monastery. They want to flee but cannot because misunderstandings and the warden's search party for Bobby make a trip across the bridge to Canada almost impossible. Ned and Jim continue to masquerade as priests, trusted and welcomed by Father Levesque. An opportunity presents itself in the form a procession to the church's sister church across the border. Each participating priest must bring someone who needs help, so they decide on the deaf and mute daughter of Molly, a local laundress and prostitute. Bobby is killed by police during the procession. Ned saves Molly's daughter from drowning, after which she is able to speak. Jim is befriended by a young monk and decides to stay in the monastery to become an actual priest. Ned heads to Canada with Molly and her daughter.

Cast

Production

The project seemed like it could not fail: wrote A.J. Black, Robert De Niro and Sean Penn were "a bankable duo who Paramount would have been unconcerned about throwing a significant budget toward, produced by an impresario with proven hits at his back, written by a celebrated wordsmith and helmed by an acclaimed young director breaking into the studio system." Screenwriter

David Mamet David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, author, and filmmaker. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony Award, Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and ''Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first ...

took the initial premise from the 1955 movie of the same name, but he created a new scenario. Though the story is set in upstate New York, it was filmed in

Mission, British Columbia Mission is a city in the Lower Mainland of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It was originally incorporated as a district municipality in 1892, growing to include additional villages and rural areas over the years, adding the original T ...

. The set design involved the creation of an entire riverside town, with a budget of CDN $2.5 million for the set alone being the largest for a film produced in Canada to that date.

Reception

The film garnered mixed reviews.

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 ...

sampled 21 reviewers, and judged 48% of the reviews to be positive, with an average score of 5.2/10. Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film a B− grade on scale of A to F.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' liked the film, saying, "Robert De Niro and Sean Penn have two of the best faces in the movies - screwed up, sideways faces with a lot of mischief in the eyes. ''We're No Angels'' is a movie made for those faces, and one of the pleasures of watching the film is to see them looking sidelong at each other as they try to figure a way out of the complicated mess they're in." In a retrospective review from 2019, critic John Hansen wrote, "''We're No Angels'' was probably hurt by being unappealing on the surface to both religious and non-religious moviegoers, with both groups assuming the film isn't for them. But it's actually for anyone who enjoys a smartly crafted comedy."

Box office

The film debuted at #8 at the United States box office. It had similar success on home video.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:We're No Angels (1989 Film) 1989 films 1989 comedy films 1989 in American cinema 1980s American films 1980s buddy comedy films 1980s chase films 1980s crime comedy films 1980s English-language films American buddy comedy films American chase films American crime comedy films American films based on plays American religious comedy films Comedy film remakes English-language buddy comedy films English-language crime comedy films Films based on adaptations Films directed by Neil Jordan Films produced by Art Linson Films scored by George Fenton Films set in 1935 Films set in monasteries Films set in New York (state) Films shot in British Columbia Films with screenplays by David Mamet Great Depression films Paramount Pictures films Remakes of American films