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| Movies,
Jerry Carpenter,
15 January 2001 |
Rating: F4
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Yikes, surfing a wave of hype, here comes another old TV favourite, revamped for the kids to swarm to the multiplex for. With enough casualties in this field already ( The Avengers, anyone ?), is this a wise move ?. I mean was ‘Charlies Angels’ really any good in the first place ? – I don’t remember a single story from any particular episode ( and I remember pretty much most of the stories from ‘Hart to Hart’,’Six Million Dollar Man’, and ‘Manimal’ ), so even with the addition of a pinch of ever tiring homogenised ‘Girl Power’ can a big screen version be anything more than a passable three-hankie action flick ?.
Alright then, I’ve actually JUST come back from seeing it ( the previous paragraph was written beforehand ! – naughty naughty..), and I’m chuffed to say I really liked it. First off, it’s vacuous stuff and definitely a product of the new Hollywood style of making really long pop videos – every action scene, and even the incidental scenes are backed up with rock and hip-hop cuts. But unlike a whole other bunch of stuff I’ve sat through this year, It’s superior vacuous video feature product ( the tunes are good – there’s a hip-hop version of the Godzilla theme !), and also unlike the majority of ‘big’ movies, it’s a nice and easy ride at 90 minutes. And I thought only Woody Allen made films that short.
The story is par-for-the-course detective stuff, with enough major bad guys that each of the girls gets someone to square off against at the end. But the fun stuff is everything in between the plot, as the girls fart around flirting with the guys, dancing a lot, and fixing broken drive-through burger restaurant speakers (?!!?). There’s a great supporting cast of odd-balls who all do their turn effectively enough ( Crispin Glover back onscreen again – Yay !), but it’s the girls show, and the girls are all GREAT. Lucy gets to be the more grown up of the girls, Drew is lumbered with the most emotive role, and Diaz really sparkles, playing half uber-Ditz, half hard-kicking super babe. All three go through their roles with sackfuls of chutzpah, and the film is knocked up a notch for this.
If you wanted to be a killjoy, you could suggest this is just a T & A fest for the boys - and there is a LOT of booty and boob shaking going on. But where male-lead action blockbusters like ‘MI2’ and ‘True Lies’ (which ‘Charlie’s Angels has a lot in common with plot-wise ) tend toward cod-seriousness, bullet overkill, sadism and intensity, this is a nicer experience that doesn’t leave a nasty taste in the mouth. Of course, whether I’ll remember anything about it tomorrow is another matter.
UK rating:
15
US rating:
PG
Joseph McGinty Nichol 2000 US
Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Bill Murray, Sam Rockwell.
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