 Gossip has it that “Charlie’s Angels” was adrift in a sea of discontent with widespread reports of that two of its stars, Lucy Liu and Bill Murray, were fighting on the set. Would that they were. It might have given push to the others in the production, showing them that a personal belief in a project goes a long way to inspiring originality and dedication to the final result. Suffice it to say, the except for a few charming bits by Drew Barrymore, as Dylan, this is warmed over super-schmaltz dedicated to the wish-fantasies of 13-year-old boys lost in the nearest mall. The other angel is played by Cameron Diaz, in an attempt to be a 21st century Carole Lombard but failing most of the time. The original TV show that ran from 1976 to 1981 made a star, of among others, Farah Fawcett Major (who flung her hair about so wildly that she always looked like a static electricity generator was close at hand), and was a salute to the belief that “give the public what it wants and they’ll come in droves!” Every week the show found ingenious new ways to get the babes together in bizarre situations so they could be crime fighters of the highest order. If that ingenuity had been directed to writing good scripts, who knows what might have happened. Some women, who sell themselves short, continue to point with pride at “Charlie’s Angels” as an example of the empowerment of women. Bosh! Movies (and TV shows) like this only prove that women can be as stupid as men. And as far as the highly touted fight scenes go, most of them are an obvious rip-off to the stop-motion, mid-air fighting that made “The Matrix” so unusual--and so unique. In fact a local theatre manager told me that this movie is like “The Matrix Meets the Spice Girls.” The fighting goes on and on and on and at the end, we’re left with the dismal proposition that a sequel will be in the works soon. It’s interesting to note that Bill Murray will do anything to be in movies and that the male stars in this flick could be upstaged by the average young man behind the counter of any GAP or Structure outlet. About the author: Member of Southeastern Film Critics Association and writes for www.main.nc.us/films. You may read another review, submit your own, or return home. |
