Throw together three attractive women, crazy stunts, awesome music and an extraordinary amount of slow motion shots and you have the 2000 film CHARLIE’S ANGELS, directed by McG and based on the 1970’s show of the same name. Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu are Natalie, Dylan and Alex, the crime-fighting, world-saving trio who work for Charlie, a multi-millionaire who communicates his missions via voice box. These women alone are the only ones who can stop the mastermind, played by Sam Rockwell, as he plots to take over the world’s right to privacy with his high-tech computer voice identification program.
CHARLIE’S ANGELS was one of those films that is fun, colorful, has lots of action and surprisingly enough, holds up pretty well ten years later. Sure, it’s full of some over-acting and cheesiness, but overall it’s still a good time. I think a lot of this is due to Bill Murray who plays the charming and oblivious Bosley (which may be a reason the sequel was unbearable) as well as the fabulous performance from Sam Rockwell. Oh, and let’s not forget Crispin Glover as the cool Thin Man. He really is a great bad guy who should be doing more in Hollywood.
One of the best things about this film is the obvious campiness which is done so well. In many places it went over the top and held nothing back which was a risk but they managed to pull it off. The actresses and actors don’t really take themselves seriously and you can tell they had a good time filming this movie. CHARLIE’S ANGELS could have easily been a complete bust if it would have been cast differently, but this ensemble pulled it off with little effort. We even get some nice smaller performances from: Luke Wilson, Matt LeBlanc and Tim Curry.
However, admittedly, this film does have some flaws. Although, the punning throughout the film is fun at first, it does get really old after a while, as does some of the dialogue. This film really leaves nothing to the imagination and spells everything out to you through dialogue and voice overs. If you can get past this then you’re almost home free. The other thing that will really hold you back is if you have an aversion to any of these actresses, and if that’s the case then I would go ahead and skip this film altogether. There is no shortage of these three ladies and their parts are equally split throughout the film. Oh, and the wire work was a bit over the top as well, but that’s not a big deal now like it was in 2000 when that was in all the movies for those few years.
Overall, CHARLIE’S ANGELS is a pleasing combination of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and SPICE WORLD, as in cool spy stuff and action mixed in with a lot of girl power. Even though it definitely has its flaws, it’s still a fun flick to throw in on a Friday night with a bowl of popcorn. Plus the music is great-I mean really, how can anyone hate a film that can throw in some Prodigy as well as Sir Mix-a-lot and still make it work?
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video:McG lays on the style pretty heavy and it comes through beautifully in this Blu-ray. This really is a great transfer.
Audio: The audio is just as impressive with surround channels being put to the test, especially during the action scenes.
Commentary with Director McG and Cinematographer Russell Carpenter: These guys really keep the ball rolling and actually give us some good technical stuff to absorb. Cinematographer commentaries are usually interesting and this is no exception. There are some really good insights so this is really worth a watch.
Deleted Scenes (4:42): These didn’t add anything to the overall plot, however, we did get to see some more interaction between Curry and Murray which wasn’t necessary but still fun to watch. We also get some other various scenes that were rightfully cut.
Outtakes and Bloopers (2:39): These were very similar to the ending credits and gave very little more, too many movie clips and not enough bloopers. They really shouldn’t have added this.
Getting G’d Up (6:32): This was a short featurette of McG directing various scenes and then the cast and crew telling us how awesome he was to work with and how much they loved working with him. He seemed to have a great energy on the set, which may have been fun if you were there but looks exhausting and annoying from our perspective.
The Master and the Angels (7:25): Cheung-Yan Yuen is the master of the martial arts in the films and this is a featurette about him and his work on the film. This includes a lot of behind the scenes stuff which is always fun to watch, and of course the obligatory training montage.
Welcome to Angel World (4:48): This was about the over the top world they built for the Angels. It’s almost a comical world and very scene specific, this was actually interesting to watch.
Angelic Attire: Dressing Cameron Drew and Lucy (3:25): Obviously, this is about the wardrobes in the film, there were some cool costumes and this was short enough that it was an enjoyable.
Angelic Effects (6:45):This is about the special effects in the film, now obviously this is dated but it’s actually kinda cool to watch just to see how far technology in film really has come.
Wired Angels (2:35): All about the wire work, which like I said before I remembered as being a bit cheesy but wasn’t as bad now as it was back then. This is a raw scene of the fight between the Angels and Thin Man in the alley.
Music Videos: “Independent Women Part 1” by Destiny’s Child and “Charlie’s Angels 2000” by Apollo Four Forty
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