Charlie´s Angels

Female empowerment is important. I believe that all women should have the same rights as men and be treated with respect. I know that a lot of women are fighting for their lives, and i feel it is important to support this. Since i started working in health care over 20 years ago, i have worked with almost only women for many years. And i have to say, i have had a really good time in their company. In some ways, i feel that it is easier to work with women, because they always find ways to solve problems ( maybe not every single one, but most of them ). Female empowerment in films and TV shows can be found in many different formats. But one of the most well known TV shows ( that i remember watching back in the early 80´s ) is of course Charlie´s Angels. This TV show started in 1976 and ended in 1981 with legendary female actors Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith. The plot is basically about three crime fighting women working for a private detective agency in Los Angeles, run by their boss Charlie Townsend. Charlie´s Angels is a fun, action packed TV show with a lot of fun dialogue, and the female characters are also fun to watch as they kick ass. Let´s move forward to the year of 2000, when Hollywood released a film, based on the TV series with the female cast of Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore, portraying Charlie´s Angels. This is a fun film, that may have cheesy dialogue, but if you enjoy female empowerment with lots of action scenes, this is the film to see. It is also nice to see legendary actor Bill Murray as John Bosley, a perfect choice for this character. The sequel Charlie´s Angels: Full Throttle, released 3 years later, had some fun moments, but i prefer the first film to be honest. So when i heard that Hollywood would do another remake of Charlie´s Angels i was hoping this would be entertaining. Is this remake better than i expected, or should Charlie´s Angels be left alone with no more remakes or sequels ?

A team of angels, led by senior John Bosley ( Patrick Stewart ), capture international embezzler Jonny Smith ( Chris Pang ) in Rio De Janeiro and turn him over to the American authorities. A year later, the European division of Townsend Agency is informed that Elena Houghlin ( Naomi Scott ), an engineer and programmer employed by entrepreneur Alexander Brok ( Sam Claflin ), wants to expose her superiors, namely Brok´s head of development, Peter Flemming ( Nat Faxon ), for covering up a discovery about how an energy conservation device that she helped invent, named Calisto, has the potential to trigger fatal seizures when used. She meets with operative Edgar " Bosley " Dessange ( Djimon Hounsou ) to turn over her findings, but an assassin named Hodak ( Jonathan Tucker ) ambushes the meeting and kill Edgar and leaves Elena to drown. Thanks to angel angents Sabina Wilson ( Kristin Stewart ) and Jane Kano ( Ella Balinska ), Elena is saved and taken to a safe location. She is informed that they will be working together, through the Townsend Agency known as angels, where Rebekah " Bosley " ( Elisabeth Banks ) will be their guide and informer. Someone wanted Elena killed, and it seems that the assassin Hodak is working for some very important people, that needs to be stopped. 

I always have a certain way to look at remakes. Either do them better than the original, or at least make them good enough for the audience to enjoy them. In the case of this new Charlie´s Angels remake, we do have some problems. First of all the casting of Charlie´s Angels feels odd. I have no problem with actors Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska in other films that they have been in. My problem with this formation of Charlie´s Angels, is that you don´t feel the same chemistry between the angels, like you did with Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore. They knew exactly how to portrait a modern version of Charlie´s Angels, and still throw in some surprises as well, that felt like a connection to the TV series. I understand that this film is trying to show a more updated version of Charlie´s Angels, and i am ok with that, as long as it works with the casting. One odd thing about this film, is the song Don´t Call Me Angel, that singers Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey perform together. Since this film is about Charlie´s Angels, and we have a song playing that says Don´t Call Me Angel, you start to wonder if they don´t want to be connected to Charlie´s Angels, having a song like that in this remake. Very strange choice, but who knows, i might have missed the point with the song. The comedy scenes falls pretty flat, and i think this is also a mistake. Since the previous Charlie´s Angels films had good comedy timing, this remake does not really deliver any really funny moments. One of the few positive things is that there are a few action scenes that works, and legendary actor Patrick Stewart is good as the bad guy. Director Elizabth Banks ( loved her performance in the drama film Love & Mercy ) have tried bringing back Charlie´s Angels to a modern world. If she only could have made the angels chemistry more powerful, this could have been entertaining. I suggest you see the film from the year 2000 instead, and i guarantee you will have a much more fun moment.

Rating: DD