Charlie's Angels
From AwardAnnals
 | |
| Director(s) | McG |
|---|---|
| Distributor | Sony Pictures |
| Honors | |
| They’re beautiful, they’re brilliant and they work for Charlie. This is a sexy, high-octane update of the popular hit show, Natalie (Cameron Diaz), Dylan (Drew Barrymore) and Alex (Lucy Liu), alongside faithful lieutenant Bosley (Bill Murray), must foil an elaborate murder-revenge plot that could not only destroy individual privacy and corporate security worldwide, but spell the end of Charlie and his Angels. | |
They’re beautiful, they’re brilliant and they work for Charlie. This is a sexy, high-octane update of the popular hit show, Natalie (Cameron Diaz), Dylan (Drew Barrymore) and Alex (Lucy Liu), alongside faithful lieutenant Bosley (Bill Murray), must foil an elaborate murder-revenge plot that could not only destroy individual privacy and corporate security worldwide, but spell the end of Charlie and his Angels.
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
For every TV-into-movie success like The Fugitive, there are dozens of uninspired films like The Mod Squad. Happily—and surprisingly—this breezy update of the seminal ‘70s jiggle show falls into the first category, with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore (who also produced), and Lucy Liu starring as the hair-tossing, fashion-setting, kung fu-fighting trio employed by the mysterious Charlie (voiced by the original Charlie, John Forsythe). When a high-tech programmer (Sam Rockwell) is kidnapped, the angels seek out the suspects, with the daffy Bosley (Bill Murray in a casting coup) in tow. A happy, cornball popcorn flick, Charlie’s Angels is played for laughs with plenty of ribbing references to the old TV show as well as modern caper films like Mission: Impossible. McG, a music video director making his feature film debut (usually a death warrant for a movie’s integrity), infuses the film with plenty of Matrix-style combat pyrotechnics, and the result is the first successful all-American Hong Kong-style action flick. Plenty of movies boast a New Age feminism that has their stars touting their sexuality while being their own women, but unlike something as obnoxious as Coyote Ugly, Angels succeeds with a positive spin on Girl Power for the new millennium (Diaz especially sizzles in her role of crack super agent/airhead blonde). From the send-up of the TV show’s credit sequence to the outtakes over the end credits, Charlie’s Angels is a delight. —Doug Thomas
Barnes and Noble
Adapted from one of the Swingin’ ‘70s’ most popular TV series, Charlie’s Angels is a funny, fast-paced romp brimming with feminine pulchritude and bursting with explosive action. Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu portray the sexy sleuths whose unseen employer (voiced, as he was in the TV show, by John Forsythe) assigns them to protect software guru Sam Rockwell from mysterious assailants. The high-stakes game takes an unexpected turn when the bodacious bodyguards discover that Charlie himself is the ultimate prize. Although Diaz, Barrymore, and Liu are easily capable of carrying the film on their shapely shoulders, a terrific supporting cast just adds to the fun. Bill Murray puts his signature stamp on the role of John Bosley (David Doyle in the TV original), the Angels’ fellow operative. Tim Curry, Crispin Glover, Kelly Lynch, Luke Wilson, Matt LeBlanc, and Barrymore’s real-life boyfriend, Tom Green, also make the most of their screen time. Music-video director McG (a.k.a. Joseph McGinty Nichol) makes a flashy feature-film debut, combining Hong Kong-style fight choreography and Matrix-like special effects with loose, improvisational humor and frequent pop culture references. As a result, his high-flying Angels makes heavenly entertainment. McG explains his filmmaking technique in a commentary for the DVD, which also includes music videos from Destiny’s Child and Apollo Four Forty, the theatrical trailer, and featurettes documenting the film’s production. Ed Hulse
