Charlie’s Angels nothing but stupid fun for everyone

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“Charlie’s Angels” is the stupidest movie I’ve seen in a long time. The
film has something resembling a plot, but it’s merely an excuse for a bunch of action scenes and shots of cleavage.
That being said, “Charlie’s Angels” is also the most fun I’ve had at the
movies in a long time. People may walk out and call the film an idiotic
mess, but they would be missing the point: entertainment. Too many films
nowadays try unsuccessfully to force-feed its audience some sort of deeper
message (“Pay It Forward”). “Charlie’s Angels” exists not to teach its audience
about life but just to have a damn good time.
Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu play the title characters: three
private investigators trained as experts in espionage, martial arts and
seducing vulnerable men. The three actresses manage to bring some character
to each Angel, most notably is Diaz’s “Natalie”, who is a beautiful nerd
who loves to dance dorky. All three seem to have equal amounts of screen
time acting goofy, being sexy, and kicking butt.
As previously noted, the plot of the film is not really a story, but an
excuse for the endless action setups and scenes of the Angels dressed in
skimpy clothes. It’s as if the film crew got together and taped together
a hundred different scenes with scotch tape. Sometimes it works, sometimes
it doesn’t. Either way, it’s a lot of fun.
“Charlie’s Angels” is dumb, but the film works because it knows it’s dumb.
The cast seems to be having a blast in every scene, as if they were just
partying with a camera conveniently turned on. The film never stops to take
a breath, with wall-to-wall action and loud thumping techno music blaring.
In fact, the movie moves so fast you never really have time to think about
it until after you leave the theater, which actually works to it’s advantage.
For 90 minutes you are watching this big, bright, entertaining blur whirling
past you. You are not always sure why stuff is happening, but you are enjoying
every moment of it. As soon as it ends, you may try and assess what just
happened, but you shouldn’t. The film should be taken as popcorn, no more,
no less.
The chaos that is “Charlie’s Angels” also manages to pack in literally dozens
of celebrity cameos. Although featured heavily in the previews, Bill Murray’s
role is really just an extended cameo. Murray joins Matt LeBlanc, Tim Curry,
Tom Green, LL Cool J, Steve Bushemi and many others who all make the most
of their five minute roles. The purpose of all these appearances is to further
distract the audience from the nonexistent story, but like the film itself,
they also are a lot of fun.
The film works as a reminder as to why movies were created in the first
place: entertainment and escapism. Movies can make us shed tears, make us
think about larger issues and deeper meanings, but in the end, if you’re
not entertained, what’s the point? “Charlie’s Angels” doesn’t pretend to
be an important film. Its self-proclaimed fluff. There are plenty of things
you could criticize about this movie, but you probably won’t feel like it
after seeing it. Enjoy the ride people, that’s what it’s there for.

****/5