Charlie's Angels (film)



Charlie's Angels is a 2000 American action comedy film based on the television series of the same name created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Unlike the original series which had dramatic elements, the film featured more comical elements than were seen in the series.

The film was directed by McG, adapted by screenwriters Ryan Rowe, Ed Solomon, and John August, and starring 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. Making cameo appearances are Tom Green (who was dating Barrymore at the time of production) and LL Cool J.

A sequel, entitled Full Throttle, was released in 2003.

Plot
Natalie Cook (Cameron Diaz), Dylan Sanders (Drew Barrymore) and Alex Nuncy (Lucy Liu) are the "Angels", three talented, tough, attractive women who work as private investigators together for an unseen millionaire named Charlie (voiced by John 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.

Charlie assigns the Angels 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 Creepy Thin Man (Crispin Glover) who was seen on the surveillance videos during Knox's kidnapping. They chase and fight the Creepy Thin Man.

After the Angels reunite Knox with his business partner Vivian Wood (Kelly Lynch), Charlie explains that they must determine whether the Creepy 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, end up in making love but he betrays her later that night, explaining that he faked the kidnapping with help from Vivian and the Creepy 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 had killed his father in the Vietnam War.

Knox shoots at Dylan, seemingly killing her, but she escapes unharmed. Natalie and Alex are also attacked, and Corwin is murdered by the Creepy Thin Man. When the Angels regroup together, all uninjured, Charlie's offices are blown up. A radio receiver survives in the rubble, and Natalie deduces Bosley's location as he speaks to the Angels using a radio transmitter implanted in his teeth, explaining how to spot his location where he is being held captive.

With help from Dylan's current boyfriend The Chad (Tom Green), the Angels approach the abandoned lighthouse where Knox is holding Bosley prisoner. The Angels rescue Bosley and defeat Vivian, the Creepy 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 programs a helicopter with a missile towards Charlie's house, Bosley helps the Angels board the helicopter, and Alex reprograms the missile to have it shoot backwards, which blows up the helicopter and kills Knox while all of the Angels land safely together on the beach.

Seeing the opportunity to finally meet Charlie in person, they enter the beach house that Knox had targeted the missile at, but Charlie 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 tells them that Knox's father was undercover; however, he was discovered and he was killed by someone else but not Charlie. When he speaks to the Angels unseen again by telephone on the beach, they ask if they could ever meet him in person. Dylan then suspects that she might be seeing him nearby talking into a cell phone, but she doesn't tell the group.

Cast

 * Cameron Diaz as Natalie Cook
 * Drew Barrymore as Dylan Sanders
 * Lucy Liu as Alex Munday
 * Bill Murray as John Bosley
 * John Forsythe as Charles "Charlie" Townsend (Voice)
 * Sam Rockwell as Eric Knox / John McCadden
 * Kelly Lynch as Vivian Wood
 * Crispin Glover as the Creepy Thin Man
 * Tim Curry as Roger Corwin
 * Matt LeBlanc as Jason Gibbons
 * Luke Wilson as Peter Kominsky
 * Tom Green as The Chad
 * LL Cool J as Mr. Jones
 * Alex Trebek as Himself
 * Karen McDougal as Roger Corwin's girlfriend
 * Melissa McCarthy as Doris

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
 * "Blind" by Korn
 * "Live Wire" by Mötley Crüe
 * "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
 * "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
 * "All the Small Things" by Blink-182

Reception
Charlie's Angels received generally positive 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. "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."

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

Sequel
A sequel called Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle released in 2003. Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu reprised their roles, as did John Forsythe as the voice of Charlie in his last film role. Bernie Mac replaced Bill Murray as Bosley, Demi Moore had a major role, and Jaclyn Smith reprised her role of Kelly Garrett from the original television series.

Reboot
On September 15, 2015, The Hollywood Reporter has reported that Sony are rebooting the film with Elizabeth Banks both producing with her producing partner and husband Max Handelman and the studio are in negotiations with her to direct the film. On April 13, 2016, Sony has confirmed that Banks will direct the reboot.