I often get E-Mail from people who complain about my reviews. They think that I like too many movies, that I rarely give a negative review. That's not entirely true. I mean, most recently, I ripped on "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2." Still, I DO like most of the movies I see, and with a movie like "Charlie's Angels," I KNOW I'm gonna get E-Mail from people bitching about my review.
Sometimes,
I like movies that are crappy and severely flawed. "Armageddon,"
"Volcano," "X-Men,"
"A Night
at the Roxbury".... these are all movies that critics trashed,
but I love. Well, now I need to add "Charlie's Angels" to that
growing list. Yeah, there's no denying it, the movie is pretty bad, but
from beginning to end, I was thoroughly entertained, and that's the main
reason for my shelling out the money to see it. If I enjoy my time sitting
in a movie theater, nothing else matters. Don't get me wrong, I love sitting
through a masterpiece like "Magnolia,"
a movie that's entertaining, but it's also deep, thought-provoking, and
a wonderfully told story. The thing is, not every movie is like that, so
if it's just entertaining, then it's all good, yo.
Much of the reason for me liking "Charlie's Angels" is the performances.
Drew Barrymore (who helped produce the movie), Cameron Diaz (the woman with
the 100-mile smile), and Lucy Liu ("Ling" in "Ally McBeal")
all have great charm and kick lotsa ass as the title characters. And Bill
Murray is excellent as "Bosley." There are also really good performances
by Kelly Lynch (still a hottie), Luke Wilson (he was in "Home Fries" with
Drew Barrymore), Sam Rockwell ("Wild Bill" in "The
Green Mile"), and Tom Green as "The Chad" (sometimes, Tom
Green pisses me off on that MTV show of his, but on the movie screen, he's
really got something). But the one who really blew me away was Crispin Glover.
He's the weird actor who was "George McFly" in "Back to the Future," but
most recently, he was in "Nurse
Betty." In this movie, he's a scary, cold-blooded guy, and he's
VERY effective. By the way, the voice of "Charlie" is John Forsythe,
the same guy who did the voice in the original TV series. Oh, and there
are a couple of cameos to keep your eyes opened for, but sadly, none by
the original angels.
"Charlie's
Angels" was directed by a guy who calls himself "McG," though
his real name is Joseph McGinty Mitchell. This is his debut feature film,
but he's well known for directing music videos, including "Pretty Fly For
a White Guy" by Offspring, "Every Morning" by Sugar Ray, and a couple of
videos by Smashmouth. I think he did a fantastic job in his debut, though
he did some obvious ripping off from The Wachowski Brothers (the guys who
did "The
Matrix"). Still, if you're gonna copy, you may as well copy from
the great ones, right? Also, that style works well in this movie. As for
the script, it was written by Ryan Rowe (I'm not familiar with his work),
Ed Solomon (he wrote the screenplay for "Men in Black," and helped write
"Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "Super Mario Bros.") and John August
(wrote "Go,"
one of the many writers of "Titan
A.E.," and and one of the many, many, many writers of the upcoming "Jurassic
Park III"). The script was far from perfect. I mean, I think it
was just okay. It's the performances and the directing that makes this movie
what it is.
This
is not a movie to analyze. Much of what happens is far-fetched and ridiculous,
but dammit, it's a fun movie. Sometimes, you just need to leave your brain
at home, sit back, and have a great time with a crappy movie that isn't
trying to do anything more than entertain the audience. That's what "Charlie's
Angels" set out to do, and that's what "Charlie's Angels"
did.