Charlie's Angels DVD > Reviews > Independent Women

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Story	Very weak
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Good
Soundtrack	Good

Advantages:	good effects, all 3 fine looking angels !  !
Disadvantages:	cheesy, paper thin plot

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Yet again I find myself writing a review on a film. I really do need to get a life LOL !!! However, I enjoy watching movies that much I may as well put my “Barry Norman” head on again and give you the low down on the latest film I’ve watched. And why not? (said in Barry Norman-esque voice!)

Bored stupid on a Monday night – aren’t we all?- I decided to trawl through Sky’s copious amount of movie channels. Guess what? Absolutely bugger all! Not deterred by this however I scanned through the listings on their pay per view service Sky Box Office. After much deliberation I settled on “Charlie’s Angels”.

Should I have bothered?

~~CAST~~

Cameron Diaz – Natalie
Lucy Lui – Alex
Drew Barrymore – Dylan
Bill Murray – Bosley
John Forsythe – voice of Charlie

Also starring : Kelly Lynch, Sam Rockwell, Tim Curry, Matt Le Blanc

Running time – approx. 90 minutes
Rating – 15

~~ THE PLOT?~~

Is there one? Ok, where do I start? In terms of plot this has to be one of the thinnest I have ever seen in my entire life. I am really serious. Whoever wrote this must have recently attended a seminar for anorexic-script writers’. It’s so thin it’s virtually transparent! From the very outset of the film where we are given a brief insight into the Angels – Natalie, Alex and Dylan – you get the feeling that you might just be able to work out “whodunnit” from the word go.

In a nutshell, our ladies are hired to solve a kidnapped software programmer by his more- than-capable of kidnapping partner. Easy solving the kidnapping, they find themselves then however flung into deceit, murder and mystery. Sound just like the 70’s TV version? Well basically it is.

Ok maybe I am being a little harsh. There is a slight twist, which involves the ever-elusive Charlie’s life being put in serious danger. And there’s also, well, erm, well………NOTHING!

Basically this film is quite a large waste of a $90 million budget. Diaz, Lui and Barrymore are nothing more than cosmetic throughout – which is not their fault I will point out. Yes they are all aesthetically pleasing to the eye (especially Ms. Diaz, love that smile!). Respectively and collectively they perform as anyone else in this film would – CHEESILY!!! This film was never going to mentally tax the old acting skills, and Oscar nominations will not be borne out of such performances or script writing. It does follow the TV series fairly well as that was also very cheesy (yes I am old enough to remember unfortunately!). There are a couple of good points about it I suppose. Bill Murray is quite good as the clumsy Bosley. This adds a bit of well needed comic relief to this rather run-of-the-mill film. Visually the film is excellent. Many good special effects aplenty (obviously where most of the budget got spent). The fighting scenes I will give a special mention to as they are very, very good and well choreographed, filmed in a style not too disimiliar to director John Woo- i.e in slow motion. All of the Angels look fairly convincing during these scenes. We also have the original voice of Charlie from the series (John Forsythe, remember Blake Carrington in “Dynasty”?). The soundtrack is rather good also, and includes the very good Independent Woman by Destiny’s Child. I wonder if the would have made better Charlie’s Angels? I may have been a little raw in my review of this film, but the film itself is raw. It reminded me of watching a pantomime. I kept wanting to shout “he’s behind you” at the TV!!! But do you know what the worst thing about the whole film from start to finish?

I ACTUALLY ENJOYED IT !!!

For some strange reason I felt compelled to watch this all the way through, although boredom had set in after the first 30 minutes. Maybe for some unfounded reason the sheer cheesy element of the film made it actually watching all the way through. I really can’t say to be fair. Or maybe it was due to my childhood memories of the TV series, who knows. That said however, TV series’ don’t transpire very well onto the big screen. Unfortunately “Charlie’s Angels” is going to be viewed as another big time flop in this genre. Sorry ladies.

Paul © 2002