Charlie's Angels DVD > Reviews > Angels in action

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Very ordinary
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Outstanding
Soundtrack	Outstanding

Advantages:	It's fun, loud and action packed
Disadvantages:	Story .  .  . Where?

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Charlies Angels was always going to be different from the 60’s original that it’s based on, but you just don’t expect what appears before your eyes when you start watching this film. Action hits you from all sides from the moment you start watching and it never stops for a moment.

So what’s the story? The Angels (Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz) are a crack female band of detectives that solve difficult crime, they are led by Charlie Townsend who is believed to be a playboy millionaire, but has never been seen throughout the life of the television programme and is simply represented by a speaker box that carries his commands to the angels in their London headquarters. They are not alone in their quest, however, and are helped by Bosley, played by Bill Murray, who is a technical expert (apparently) but mostly seems to be adept at getting himself into many comedy situations. The girls are approached by a lady whose top computer software designer has been kidnapped by a so-called evil corporation, intent on stealing their voice control software and using it to control the world. She hires the Angels to track her employee down and take back the software, but first they must infiltrate the corporation’s headquarters.

The plot, however, seems slightly irrelevant as you make your way through the movie, it’s basically a set of action scenes that show off the girls talents for disguise, martial arts and many other things. It feels as if they’re racing through the film at manic pace and there is plenty to watch as the group make their way through the corporation in order to get to the hostage and grab the data back. Murray is extremely funny as Bosley and at one point gets into a fight with the owner of the company, played by Tim Curry, in a blow up Sumo suit! There is humour throughout from the girls as well, this isn’t a straight-faced movie by any account, even the villains are camp. The other thing you will notice is the constant soundtrack in the background, it’s as if you are watching an MTV video at times, although there is always more of a story to these scenes than in a pop video, but the styling and the effects are all there, along with a massive amount of energy The soundtrack and all the explosions are highlighted by the great 5.1 soundtrack that rocks the room on anything but the lowest setting.

Extras are just as astounding as the movie itself. There are some nice deleted and extended scenes, with a for-word by Director McG that explains why the scenes were not used in the film. The best of these is the Men’s Room scene, which had me in stitches. Along side these is a compilation of outtakes that are used at the end of the film, but are put together here with some extra material to make a nice little extra.

There are some nice mini-documentaries about the actresses, their costumes, the effects and the amazing wire based fight scene, reminiscent of scenes from The Matrix, but taken to the extreme! These are not all that long, but there are so many of them that it covers the different aspects of the film when a single documentary would be hard pushed to. There are also two great music videos, the theme tune by Apollo 440 and the chart hit Independent Women from Destiny’s Child.

If you’re looking for the ultimate popcorn movie, then this is the perfect film for you. For the ladies it has that great Girl Power element and some fantastic costumes and for the fellas it has, well the Angels themselves for a start (and surely that’s all you need?!) If, however, you are looking for an intelligent film with a good plot and deep characters then look elsewhere, this is as shallow as they come, but perfect for that no-brainer evening!