Charlie's Angels (2000)
Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Lui; d. McG; C

When you're a music video director who's been offered to do a movie, what are you going to do? How are you going to approach it? And what are you going to do when the movie you've been offered to do is a big-budget action/comedy based on an old TV show?

Hire big stars and stuff it with as many visual affects as you can, that's what McG did.

I admit, I was expecting more out of Charlie's Angels. I wasn't expecting it to be a great movie, though. I was only hoping that it wouldn't look like it did in the trailer. Instead, what I got was a two hour extended version of the trailer. I can't honestly say that I enjoyed this movie, because as a mindless fluff action film, it fails.

McG, if you don't know already, is a popular music video director. He usually makes 4 minute technicolor spectacles for artists such as Smash Mouth and Barenaked Ladies. Why this man was given a movie offer I'll never know, because his videos lack in variety. But hey, if Hype Williams can make a movie, why can't he? Of course, like Spike Jonze's signature spontinaenty and imagination of his music videos filtered in to his debut, Being John Malkovich, McG's flashiness spills onto, and ruins, Charlie's Angels. This isn't to bash McG's first attempt at film directing. One can't expect an Orson Welles out of every new film director. Charlie's Angels certainly is well-directed, I will give him that. The bad thing is that McG just doesn't know what to do with himself. And it's obvious that he has no idea what he's doing, because he's not used to what he's doing. He's used to directing music videos, and in music videos pacing is usually not an option: You have to stuff your video with lots of, for lack of a better word, stuff with few breaks in between in order to make it interesting. In movies, though, that just doesn't work, and that's certianly true of McG. You simply can not make a movie of continuous action with five minute breaks in between and expect to dazzle and excite your audience when it comes to the climax. This is exactly what happens in Charlie's Angels. McG is so busy trying to pull out every visual affect in the book so busy trying to shoot flattering shots of his lead actresses (especially Cameron Diaz), so busy trying to explode everything, that whenever something exciting is supposed to happen you simply just can't tell the difference between that and the rest of the movie.

However, there are a few good things about the movie. I must admit that the performances were excellent, and that all the actors seemed comfortable in their roles. Bill Murray and Tom Green were superb choices for comic relief, and fulfilled their roles to the fullest extent. If anything, the actors shine above the monotonous evens they're involved in.

Reccomended for those who are actually able to watch MTV2 for hours on end.

© Vert A Go Go Reviews 2000