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Charlie's Angels (2000 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Charlie's Angels' is a 2000 American action comedy film directed by McG in his feature film directorial debut, and written by Ryan Rowe, Ed Solomon, and John August. It is the first installment in the 'Charlie's Angels' film series, a continuation of the television series of the same name created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, which is also a continuation of the series story. Unlike the original series, which had dramatic elements, the film features more comical elements.
It stars Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu as three women working in a private detective agency in Los Angeles. John Forsythe reprised his role as the unseen Charlie's voice from the original series. Bill Murray also stars as John Bosley, replacing David Doyle who played the role in the original series. It also stars Sam Rockwell, Tim Curry and Kelly Lynch while Crispin Glover, Matt LeBlanc, Luke Wilson and Tom Green appear in supporting roles.
It was released on November 3, 2000, in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing under its Columbia Pictures label, and has grossed $264 million worldwide. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the performances of Diaz, Barrymore, Liu and Murray as well as its action sequences and humor, but criticisms aimed at the plot and "lack of originality".
Plot
Natalie Cook, Dylan Sanders, and Alex Munday are the "Angels", three talented, tough, attractive women who work as private investigators together for unseen millionaire Charlie Townsend. Charlie uses speakers in his offices to communicate with the Angels, and his assistant Bosley works with them directly when needed.
Charlie assigns the Angels to find Eric Knox, a software genius who created a revolutionary voice-recognition system and heads his own company, Knox Enterprises. He is believed to have been kidnapped by Roger Corwin, who runs a communications-satellite company called Redstar.
The Angels infiltrate a party held by Corwin and spot a suspicious-looking man that they had previously seen from surveillance videos of Knox's kidnapping. Dubbing him the "Thin Man", the Angels chase him down and fight him; he gets away, but the Angels find Knox, safely held nearby.
After the Angels reunite Knox with his business partner Vivian Wood, Charlie explains that they must determine whether the Thin Man has stolen Knox's voice-recognition software. The Angels infiltrate Redstar headquarters, fool the security system, and plant a device in the central computer that will enable them to explore it remotely. They retire for the night after giving Bosley the laptop computer that communicates with the Redstar computer.
Dylan takes up Knox's offer to spend the night with him, and they end up having sex. Afterwards, he betrays her; simultaneously, attacks are made on Natalie and Alex, Bosley is captured by Vivian, and Corwin is murdered by the Thin Man. Knox tells Dylan his kidnapping was all faked to get the Angels to help him access the Redstar satellite network. He plans to use it along with his voice recognition software to find and kill Charlie, who Knox asserts killed his father in the Vietnam War.
Dylan escapes and reunites with Natalie and Alex, who also survived their attacks. They approach Charlie's office just as the building explodes. They find a radio transmitter that Bosley is able to communicate through via a tooth implanted radio transmitter. Bosley provides enough information of where he's captured to allow Natalie to deduce its location, an abandoned lighthouse. With help from Dylan's boyfriend Chad, the Angels stealthily approach it. Upon finding Knox, Dylan is captured by his henchmen, and is tied up and gagged.
The Angels are too late to stop Knox from determining Charlie's location, though they rescue Bosley while Dylan fights off her captors. They come together to defeat Vivian, the Thin Man, and other assorted henchmen, but Knox blows up the lighthouse and flies off in an attack helicopter towards Charlie's house. Bosley helps the Angels board it, where Alex reprograms the missile to have it shoot backwards; blowing up the helicopter and killing Knox while the Angels land safely.
Seeing the opportunity to finally meet Charlie in person, they enter the nearby beach house that Knox had targeted, but he has already left. He remotely congratulates the Angels on a job well done through another speaker, and treats them and Bosley to a vacation. Charlie also tells them that Knox's father was undercover; he was discovered and killed, but not by Charlie.
When he speaks to the Angels by telephone on the beach, they ask if they could ever meet him in person. Dylan suspects she sees him nearby talking into a cell phone, but does not tell the group; opting to raise a toast to Charlie instead. Bosley playfully douses the Angels with his drink, and they chase him towards the ocean. From afar, a silhouetted Charlie watches them and walks off.
Cast
* Cameron Diaz as Natalie Cook
* Drew Barrymore as Dylan Sanders
* Lucy Liu as Alex Munday
* Bill Murray as John Bosley
* Sam Rockwell as Eric Knox
* Kelly Lynch as Vivian Wood
* Crispin Glover as the Thin Man, a mysterious assassin
* Matt LeBlanc as Jason Gibbons, Alex's boyfriend
* Luke Wilson as Pete Kominsky, Natalie's love interest
* Tim Curry as Roger Corwin, head of communications-satellite company Redstar
* John Forsythe as the voice of Charles "Charlie" Townsend, the owner of the Townsend agency
* Tom Green as Chad, a fisherman whom Dylan is dating
* LL Cool J as Mr. Jones, Dylan's secret identity in the first scene
* Melissa McCarthy as Doris, a secretary at Redstar
* Sean Whalen as Pasqual, a terrorist
* Karen McDougal as Roger Corwin's girlfriend
Production
According to Thandiwe Newton, she was the original choice for Alex Munday, but declined as she did not want to be "objectified" or play racial stereotypes. In 1999, rapper Foxy Brown was offered the role, and she went so far as to announce such on 'The Ricki Lake Show'. After Brown ran into legal troubles the role went to Lucy Liu.
Reception
Box office
The film opened on November 3, 2000, earning $13.7 million in its opening day, debuting at the top of the box office. For its first weekend, the film grossed $40.1 million dethroning 'Meet the Parents', which had stayed at number-one for four weeks. Eventually, 'Charlie's Angels' grossed a total of $125,305,545 domestically.Against a budget of $93 million 'Charlie's Angels' grossed $125.3 million in North America and $148.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $264.1 million, making it the 12th highest-grossing film of 2000.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 68% approval rating based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 6.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Mixing tongue-in-cheek cheesecake with glossy action set pieces, 'Charlie's Angels' is slick and reasonably fun despite its lack of originality". On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score, it has a score of 52 out of 100 based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".David Edelstein for 'Slate', wrote, despite expecting to hate the film, he found he loved it, calling it "a charming, hyper-energetic, and wittily self-aware action comedy about gorgeous girls". Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B grade, with particular praise for Cameron Diaz's performance, saying "not just an Angel that's a star". Peter Travers of 'Rolling Stone' called the film a "guilty pleasure" and praised the wire work and fight choreography of Cheung-Yan Yuen. Travers was critical of the thin plot but said it is "the film's quirky sense of mischief, which sets it apart" from lesser television to film adaptations. Desson Howe of 'The Washington Post' said "the gals are fab. And so's the movie". He expressed mild disappointment at the men, commenting that Murray is funnier than the role written for him, and that even though Tom Green "does his weirdest best" he is only mildly amusing.
Roger Ebert of the 'Chicago Sun-Times' called it "a movie without a brain. 'Charlie's Angels' is like the trailer for a video game movie, lacking only the video game, and the movie" and gave it half a star out of a possible 4 stars. Manohla Dargis wrote: "Of course, it's terrible but did it have to be this bad?"
Mick LaSalle of the 'San Francisco Chronicle' called it "an utter debacle" and said the film "makes the show look like the height of creativity, imagination and restraint". LaSalle blames director McG comparing the film to a trailer or music video. He was also critical of the deliberate decision to make the three women very similar, and says "the Angels' goofiness is a big disappointment, second only to the shocking ineptitude of McG".
Other responses
During the making of 'Blade II', Guillermo del Toro commented that while films like 'Charlie's Angels' had helped to popularize the wire fu style of fighting choreography in Western films, they also served as a "nail in the coffin" and prompted many filmmakers to want to get back to more "hard-hitting" action."Production Workshop" documentary. 'Blade II' DVD. Roadshow Entertainment, 2002. In his commentary: "The moment you see Cameron Diaz flying in the air, and you 'know' that she is incapable of flying in the air and kicking five guys... you realize that it is done using wires. [...] I mean, 'Charlie's Angels' was great, but it[s fighting style] was almost satirical".2019 retrospective analysis
With the reboot releasing in 2019, a number of articles focused on retrospective analysis of the 2000's film. Reviews largely stated the film had many problematic elements, though it remained fun and campy.'Vanity Fair' writer Ashley Spencer stated the film, which had been released 19 year prior, left a "complicated legacy". She wrote there were multiple scenes of cultural appropriation, including Barrymore's character in brownface; the Angels wearing geisha costumes while posing as massage therapists; and Diaz and Liu's characters bellydancing with bindis. Mamamia writer Jessica Wang called the film "pretty problematic", positing four points that made the film outdated: 1. The film was made for the male gaze; 2. The cultural appropriation; 3. Liu's character not being empowering; and 4. Employing the "ditzy female trope". Adam White of 'The Independent' called the film "something of a masterpiece", also writing it was "an unintentional art film, such a maximalist and ambiguously knowing film that it becomes almost Warholian." 'The Ringer's Manuela Lazic wrote the film was largely goofy, fun, and entertaining, albeit using "racist imagery".
Home media
'Charlie's Angels' was released on both VHS and DVD on March 27, 2001, in widescreen-only on both formats.
It became the first film to be released on Blu-ray Disc in 2006. It was then released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on October 22, 2019.
Soundtrack
'Charlie's Angels' is the soundtrack album from the film of the same name. The album was released on October 24, 2000 by Hollywood Records and Columbia Records.
{{Infobox album
| name = Charlie's Angels
| type = soundtrack
| artist = Various artists
| cover =
| alt =
| released =
| recorded =
| venue =
| studio =
| genre =
| length =
| label = * Columbia
* Hollywood
| producer =
| chronology = 'Charlie's Angels' soundtracks
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| next_title = Charlie's Angels:
Full Throttle
| next_year = 2003
| misc =
}}
{{Album ratings
|rev1 = AllMusic
|rev1score =
}}
;Other songs are not included in the soundtrack
* "All the Small Things" by Blink-182
* "Blind" by Korn
* "Live Wire" by Mtley Cre
* "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" by Wham!
* "Money (That's What I Want)" by The Flying Lizards
* "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
* "Angel of the Morning" by Juice Newton
* "Undercover Angel" by Alan O'Day
* "Principles of Lust" by Enigma
* "Twiggy Twiggy" by Pizzicato Five
* "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto
* "Zendeko Hachijo" by Zenshuji Zendeko
* "Smack My Bitch Up" by The Prodigy
* "Another Town" by Transister
* "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News
* "Belly" by Nomad
* "When Angels Yodel" written and arranged by Frank Marocco
* "The Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground
* "Miami Vice Theme" by Jan Hammer
* "Simon Says" by Pharoahe Monch
* "Leave You Far Behind" by Lunatic Calm
* "Skullsplitter" by Hednoize
* "Song 2" by Blur
* "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson
* "Angel" by Rod Stewart
Year-end charts
Certifications
Sequels
A sequel called 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle' released in 2003. Diaz, Barrymore and Liu reprised their roles, as did John Forsythe as the voice of Charlie in his last film role. Following Murray's departure from the franchise, Bernie Mac joined the cast as Jimmy Bosley, John's adoptive brother, while Demi Moore had a major role, and Jaclyn Smith reprised her role as Kelly Garrett from the original television series. The franchise was confirmed for a third and fourth film, but in 2004, the ideas were cancelled.
In 2015, Sony began the development on new 'Charlie's Angels' installment. Elizabeth Banks directed and produced the film with her producing partner and husband Max Handelman. Initially developed as a reboot of the franchise, the film is a continuation of the original TV series and the McG-directed 2000s films.
The 2019 follow-up film starred Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska as the new generation of Angels. Banks and Djimon Hounsou also starred as Charlie's assistants, known as Bosleys, while Patrick Stewart replaced Murray in the role of John Bosley and Jaclyn Smith reprised her role as Kelly Garrett for the second time for a cameo appearance. It was also the first installment to feature Robert Clotworthy as the voice of Charlie, replacing Forsythe following his death in 2010.
Accolades
References
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