Charlie's Angels (film)

Charlie's Angels

Theatrical release poster
Directed by McG
Produced by Leonard Goldberg
Drew Barrymore
Nancy Juvonen
Written by Ryan Rowe
Ed Solomon
John August
Based on Charlie's Angels 
by Ivan Goff
Ben Roberts
Starring Cameron Diaz
Drew Barrymore
Lucy Liu
Bill Murray
Sam Rockwell
Kelly Lynch
Crispin Glover
Tim Curry
Narrated by John Forsythe
Music by Edward Shearmur
Cinematography Russell Carpenter
Edited by Wayne Wahrman
Peter Teschner
Production
company
Flower Films
Tall Trees
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
 November 3, 2000
Running time
 98 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $93 million
Box office $264.1 million

Charlie's Angels is a 2000 American action comedy film directed by McG, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu as three women working for a private investigation agency. The film is based on the television series of the same name from the late 1970s, which was adapted by screenwriters Ryan Rowe, Ed Solomon, and John August. Unlike the TV series which had dramatic elements, the film featured more comedic elements than seen in the series.

Co-produced by Tall Trees Productions and Flower Films, Charlie's Angels was distributed by Columbia Pictures, and co-starred Bill Murray as Bosley, with John Forsythe reprising his role from the original TV series as the unseen Charlie's voice. Making cameo appearances are Tom Green, who dated Drew Barrymore at the time of the making of this film, and L.L. Cool J.

The film was followed with the 2003 sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.

Plot

Natalie Cook (Cameron Diaz), Dylan Sanders (Drew Barrymore) and Alex Munday (Lucy Liu) are the "Angels," three talented, tough, attractive women who work as private investigators for an unseen millionaire named Charlie (voiced by Forsythe). Charlie uses a speaker in his offices to communicate with the Angels, and his assistant Bosley (Bill Murray) works with them directly when needed.

The Angels are assigned to find Eric Knox (Sam Rockwell), a software genius who created a revolutionary voice-recognition system and heads his own company, Knox Enterprises. Knox is believed to have been kidnapped by Roger Corwin (Tim Curry), who runs a communications-satellite company called Redstar. The Angels infiltrate a party held by Corwin and spot the Thin Man (Crispin Glover) who was seen on the surveillance videos during Knox's kidnapping. They chase and fight the Thin Man, but he runs away. When they follow him, they discover Knox.

After the Angels reunite Knox with his business partner Vivian Wood (Kelly Lynch), 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, but he betrays her later that night, explaining that he faked the kidnapping with help from Vivian and the Thin Man. He has kidnapped Bosley, and, with access to Redstar's central computer, he intends to use his voice software with the Redstar satellite network to find and kill Charlie, who he believes killed his father in the Vietnam War.

Knox shoots at Dylan, apparently killing her, but she escapes unharmed. Natalie and Alex are also attacked, and Corwin is murdered by the Thin Man. When the Angels regroup, Charlie's offices are blown up, but a radio receiver survives in the rubble, and the Angels deduce Bosley's location as he speaks to them using a radio transmitter implanted in his teeth.

With help from Dylan's current boyfriend Chad (Tom Green), the Angels approach the abandoned lighthouse where Knox is holding Bosley prisoner. The Angels rescue Bosley and defeat Vivian, the Thin Man, and some henchmen before Knox blows up the lighthouse, but Knox uses his software and the Redstar satellite network to locate Charlie when he telephones Bosley. When Knox escapes in a helicopter armed with a missile, Bosley helps the Angels board the helicopter, and Alex reprograms the missile, which blows up the helicopter and kills Knox while the Angels land safely in the ocean. Seeing the opportunity to finally meet Charlie in person, the Angels enter the beach house that Knox targeted, but Charlie has already left. He remotely congratulates them on a job well done, and treats them and Bosley to a vacation. Charlie tells them that Knox's father was undercover; however, he was discovered and he was killed by someone else not Charlie. When Charlie speaks to the Angels by telephone on the beach, unseen by most of the group, Dylan suspects that she sees him nearby talking into a cell phone.

Cast

One of the most widely reproduced publicity images from Charlie's Angels features (L to R) Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz, and Drew Barrymore in defensive posture as they prepare to subdue the Thin Man.

Soundtrack

Released October 24, 2000.

  1. "Independent Women Part I" by Destiny's Child
  2. "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel" by The Tavares
  3. "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" by Leo Sayer
  4. "True" by Spandau Ballet
  5. "Dot" by Destiny's Child
  6. "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot
  7. "Angel's Eye" by Aerosmith
  8. "Barracuda" by Heart
  9. "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors
  10. "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" by Looking Glass
  11. "Got to Give It Up (Part 1)" by Marvin Gaye
  12. "Ya Mama" by Fatboy Slim
  13. "Groove Is in the Heart" by Deee-Lite
  14. "Charlie's Angels 2000" by Apollo 440
  15. "Tangerine Speedo" by Caviar
Other songs used in the film

Reception

Charlie's Angels received generally favorable reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 67% "Fresh" rating based on 141 reviews, despite the lower 45% audience rating. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, it has a rating score of 52, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

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.[1] "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."[1]

Home media

Charlie's Angels was released on both VHS and DVD on 27 March 2001.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Production Workshop" documentary. Blade II DVD. Roadshow Entertainment, 2002.

External links

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