It was a silly premise from the start, but still, on some level, success is success, right? There's a new Charlie's Angels movie out tonight. I doubt it'll be good just because of the franchise's track record. But I'll also say the trailers didn't immediately make me hate it. Regardless of how good or bad tonight's premiere is, I believe the franchise peaked in 2000.
The franchise doesn't peak very high, mind you, but out of everything from 1976 to now, the 2000 movie is the best it has to offer. And at best, it's a cheesy but fun action movie covered in '90s remains that somehow survived Y2K into the next decade.
For those unfamiliar with the series' origin, we'll have to travel back in time to March 21, 1976, when the series made its debut on ABC with a 74-minute pilot film. Everything about the original series is hilarious, from a premise that just couldn't admit it was cheesy to how little faith network executives had in the series.
It's easy to be critical of the original series with Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith. The show's premise was to take three women who were written in as eye candy to play detective and take down whatever villain the writers created for the week. Though it's amazing how many recognizable names the series had as guest stars (Jamie Lee Curtis, Tommy Lee Jones, Christopher Lee and the list goes on).
I still laugh at how ABC executives viewed the original series, though. It was called "jiggle television." Were the girls often scantily clad when undercover? Yup. Did it bring in viewers? Yup. The first two seasons of the show were ratings hits. In spite of, and this is true, ABC network executives said Charlie's Angels was "one of the worst ideas for a TV series they'd ever heard."
When the pilot film aired, it received enormous ratings. But ABC executives didn't believe the metrics. So they actually re-aired it again, and the ratings were just as high the second time around.
Despite claims that no one would ever watch it, the angels stuck around for five seasons and 110 episodes, a successful series by any metric. Of course, I still think the weakness of the original series was it failing to admit just how cheesy it was and have more fun with the premise.
There's certainly an argument to be made for female empowerment with financially independent women leading their own lives and fighting crime. But the show still clearly has a campy premise. It's not that women can't be serious and fight crime. Lord knows Mariska Hargitay has been doing it for years on SVU. It's just, as much as the show writers might have wanted to make this a serious show ... it wasn't ever going to be. The original series could have benefited more from embracing its campiness and laughing at itself. That's certainly what made the 2000 film Charlie's Angels so great.
For anyone that managed to miss this flick, it starred Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz. And the show managed to again bring in a surprising number of guest stars including Tim Curry, Luke Wilson and Matt LeBlanc. Joey Tribiani from Friends really shouldn't surprise me since the television series was just growing more popular when this movie came out, but he still strikes me as one of the more random celebrities cast in this film.
This movie was cheesy as all get-out. There were ridiculous gadgets, impossible heists and some fantastically '90s fight choreography. But it all came together into a nice, fun little package. The movie wasn't scared to embrace its goofiness. It leaned in hard.
This movie had undercover missions, explosions, alley fight scenes, lots of dancing, flirting and five tons of innuendos. But it also made me laugh. There were some real funny and cute scenes, like Drew Barrymore tied to a chair and telling all the henchmen how she's going to escape, beat all of them move-by-move, and then dance out of the room. Then she does it, and her little dance out of the room makes me laugh every time.
And of course, 40% of the movie is slow-motion hair flips. I remember watching it at the time and wondering when the action was going to stop and the Garnier Fructis logo was going to pop into focus.
Perhaps my favorite part about this movie, though, is the chemistry the angels had with one another. Yeah, they're fighting crime and kicking tail, but these girls are also best friends. That really came through in this movie and helped make it extra fun. And you know what? Barrymore, Liu, and Diaz are all fantastic actresses. They make Charlie's Angels look fun.
While I consider the 2000 film to be when the franchise peaked, I wasn't lying when I said the franchise also had some duds. Whereas the 2000 Charlie's Angels received positive reviews, the sequel was much more lukewarm and ceased to be quite so fun. Maybe the second movie made the mistake of the original series and tried to be a little more serious. Maybe it was just a bit too much. Cheesy can be fun, but there's a line or a limit. And I feel like Full Throttle crossed that line and became a worse movie for it.
The original series tried spinoffs and reboots in 1989. None of them really caught on. And in 2011, the show made a brief return to ABC. I remember watching the premiere and being thoroughly disappointed. The show was bland and really didn't connect with audiences. Nobody really asked for the series to make a comeback, and it showed. After airing a handful of episodes, ABC canned the show, another stinker for the franchise.
So it's understandable I'm skeptical about the new movie coming out tonight. It stars Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska as our angels. The trailers admittedly do make it look fun. I just hope it doesn't become preachy. Stewart has come quite a ways since her Twilight days. Scott gets credit for helping to make this year's Aladdin the only likeable live-action Disney reboot thus far (plus she can sing). And Balinska ... I admittedly know nothing about.
One way or another, I'll be in a reclining seat at my local AMC tonight watching this movie. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll have fun. But I also suspect that Ford v Ferrari will be the superior film this weekend.
MovieStyle on 11/15/2019