Charlie's Angels is a nice distraction. It's fun, cute, and incredibly charming. End of story!!!
And btw...I don't like this movie just because of the swaying ass of Cameron Diaz (although it doesn't hurt). Who do you think I am? :)
Kidding as(s)ide...Charlie's Angels has a lot going for it. Cute women that can kick ass, funny good guys, funny bad guys, and some nice action all in one package. The story is stupid, the lines are cheesy, and the action scenes might be a tad overchoreographed, but I don't really care. I'm certainly not going to stop revisiting this one from time to time.
Charlie’s Angels is so goddamned awful, there are no words. It’s so ridiculously bad (the plot, the acting, the effects) that it has to be seen to be believed. How a film starring Cameron Diaz, Lucy Lui, Drew Barrymore, and Bill Murray could make you want to put a gun to your head is unimaginable, but somehow McG found a way. At best, there are a few laughs to be had at how pathetically bad it all is. Exceptionally atrocious, Charlie’s Angels is all kinds of wrong in every possible way.
Have seen many people calling the movie awful. I have actually enjoyed it. It is not a serious action film, it's a comedy which is supposed to brighten your mood
The ordeals of cocaine filmmaking in LA. Didn't take me long to realise this film works at 100% efficiency when you're railing down lines of the superpower drug every twenty minutes.
I feel like this was crazy influential for so much of the 2000's.
"That man's got a beautiful telephone voice."
Charlie's Angels (2000) is a surprisingly subversive, if very politically confused, film that revels in schizophrenic references and racially, sexually charged scenes that do literally nothing to affect the plot.
I believe this is sometimes cool as fuck (other times I want to lobotomise myself) and could be intentional (unlikely).
I wanted to write a flowery analysis substantiating this claim but I am too tired (time of writing: 4:35AM). Here are the elongated bullet points I resort to when I am this fatigued (I might edit later).
⋅ Opens with a foiled terrorist plot with a literal suicide bomber on a plane (this film premiered almost 1 full year before 9/11). This is done with the use of the most heinous blackface probably of the entire decade (including Tropic Thunder). There's no hiding from it, Barrymore (white) is wearing an entire disguise that is a black man. Does subverting gender make racism okay? Y2K Charlie's Angels really does ask questions no other film ever has before or since.
⋅ But something is gnawing at me about all the racist overtones in this film. You know in that one episode of The Simpsons where Mr. Burns' doctor is explaining to him what is wrong and tries to squeeze a bunch of diseases through a little doorframe and they can't all fit? Mr. Burns thinks that this means he's invincible and the doctor rushes to correct him that "even the slightest breeze could..."
That's what I think about both the yellowface and blackface in this film... when paired with disguising in drag and a blonde Lucy Liu in traditional Bavarian dress... are they just culture jamming too hard and then going too far and then being racist... but then in throwing so many racially/sexually charged bits at the wall.... they end up creating something radical, even if accidentally? But like all the diseases not being able to fit through the door, Y2K Charlie's Angels is extremely tense in its thematic messaging? Like, the contradictions are becoming more and more potent as the film goes on?
Surely I am giving them a massive benefit of the doubt and honestly I despise concerning myself with the intentions of the author(s). I really want to just say that this is neo-Dadaism because it is that incoherent and absurd. Like, the racism doesn't even make internally logical sense. EDIT: Also Tom Green (Barrymore's then-husband) making a cameo in this film a year before 2001's Freddy Got Fingered?? People smarter than me (Lindsay Ellis) have argued that that film is a Dadaist masterpiece... just sayin'.
⋅ Okay, forget about the neo-Dadaist culture jamming, whether or not they were really doing that (I honestly don't want to give McG the credit), what really scrambles my egg is how Charlie's Angels (2000) prophecised the technological shift towards surveillance capitalism. The villain wants to pair vocal recognition tech with global satellite tech to "turn every cell phone into a homing beacon" (paraphrased). Hmmmmmmmm... would be a real shame if that ended up happening... right?
Then there's this other small part where Lynch and Rockwell are trying to get the Angels to hand over access to Curry's servers and they say that that would be "unethical". I'm sorry but can you get any more pro-privacy than that? This is supposed to be a Bush-era action/comedy.
⋅ Finally, and this is such a miniscule part of the film too, I want to talk about Lucy Liu's dominatrix bit at Red Star company HQ. She has this monologue where she's explaining to a room full of workers that they're the ones who should be making the decisions and that the managers should be subserviant to them. Um... hello? Based department? And why is she saying this between male drag Diaz and Barrymore? Is it because without two men in suits flanking Liu her position of perceived power is illegitimate? Foooooood for thought.
EDIT
Had to come back to say that if you're trying to look for an example of male gaze then just show them the first half hour of this film (if not the whole thing). Cameron Diaz's opening scene is absolutey cooked.
Alright that's enough for now, but I have to give this 4 stars. It's doing too much with so little. If you don't read into it then it's easily 2-3 stars, I mean, obviously.
EDIT
4 stars does not redeem this film's crimes against humanity, it merely reflects its potency as an encapsulation of the zeitgeist of the time (the turn of the millennium).
P.S. It goes without saying but it's so offputting watching Murray be the way he is on-screen with the Angels after... you know... the allegations.
Rewatching it after 20 years was not so bad. Girls are pretty and the score is great.
It is still a good fun without complications, Cameron Díaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu make the movie shine. I would say it is satire from action movies
Enjoyed the action sequences but the dialogue and off shoot story lines could be downright cringe worthy unfortunately.
Loved it as a kid, but it just doesn’t hold up any more. What does hold up is the Destiny’s Child soundtrack.
Generic oversexualized action movie. The three leads looked like they had a good time
Mediocre action flick building on "sex sells" paradigm.
Anyone else just watched this just for the girls...then ended up kinda liking it??? :)
Shout by RiGHTBlockedParent2013-12-11T19:37:44Z
the movie isn't that bad actually... kinda enjoyable :) simple action packed movie with cute girls enjoying their crazy lives.