So… Do McG’s ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Movies Hold Up?

https://collider.com/does-charlies-angels-hold-up/

Ah, the early 2000s. A time of flashy excess. A time when monoculture still existed, and we were all soaked in it. A time when the gritty ironies of ‘90s Gen-Xers became candy-coated and magnified into multi-colored pastiches of bubblegum irony. This new flavor of irony was so sincerely manufactured, it turned a corner and became “real” again. We were having fun, and we knew we were having fun, and we winked loudly about it all along the way. All of these cultural impulses and more coalesced together in two 2000s-defining (for better and for worse) action magnum opuses: Charlie’s Angels (2000) and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003).

These films, the debut features from music video director turned vulgar auteur extraordinaire McG (born Joseph McGinty Nichol), are based on the classic 1970s TV series of the same name. The premise, as explained neatly in a crackerjack opening title sequence, is simple: Three incredible cops, who happen to be beautiful women, work the highest-stakes, most action-packed cases available for the Charles Townsend Agency. Their boss, Charlie, only gives his “Angels” missions through a speaker, though they’re assisted by the flesh-and-blood Bosley. In the show, the rotating cast of Angels were played throughout the five-season run by Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack, and Tanya Roberts. For the 2000s update, the Angels were played by Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, and Drew Barrymore (who produced the films and recommended McG for the directing gig).

There’s a new Charlie’s Angels film coming soon from writer/director Elizabeth Banks and new Angels Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska. And somewhat surprisingly, the film is not a reboot but a continuation of the entire series, incorporating both the TV show and McG’s 2000s films. So, in celebration of the upcoming entry to the Extended Charlieverse, I decided to rewatch McG’s 2000s fever dream Charlie’s Angels flicks with just one question on my mind: Do they hold up?

It’s… complicated! And stuffed! Charlie’s Angels has so much “stuff” going on, it’s truly intimidating to reckon with. Just when I had a critical thought about one interesting moment, 900 other interesting moments were there to smash cut in my face and demand my attention. And attention I paid it: Charlie’s Angels is, first and foremost, interested in entertaining you. And it will throw the kitchen sink to get it. And then blow up the kitchen sink. And then hurl the bathroom sink and blow that up and then suddenly it’s not sinks anymore it’s inflatable pool toys and then… like I said, there’s a lot of “stuff” going on. And I was thoroughly engaged throughout the experience. But there’s something insidious going on underneath the pervasive pleasures of the flick. In ways both subtle and — more often than not — embarrassingly obvious.

First of all: It’s casually problematic throughout. Its opening sequence, an impressive one-shot wonder (a move McG will return to a few more times during the franchise), features a stereotypically gay flight attendant making a fat shaming joke about a customer before acting racist toward LL Cool J. It’s almost like McG and writers Ryan Rowe, Ed Solomon, and John August were playing “Icky Comedy Bingo” and were determined to cover all the squares as quickly as possible. The film rocks and rolls along in its determination to sneakily offend — or, more accurately, to bluntly depict offensive things without any idea they’re offensive. For one undercover mission, the three Angels — Barrymore being white, Diaz being half-Cuban, and Liu being Chinese-American — wear dark wigs, don kimonos, slap on makeup, and behave like stereotypical Japanese geishas. All to the tune of “Turning Japanese.” It’s an egregiously, vilely, unconscionably racist sequence. And it is, if not bested, at least equaled by a sequence that immediately follows it up, in which two celebrated comedic actors (Tim Curry and Bill Murray, which rhymes) put on big sumo wrestling outfits and fight each other while grunting and making stereotypically Asian noises. Only one word comes to mind: Yikes!

In a scene later in the film, we cut suddenly to two boys playing some violent video games in their living room. They’re having a debate — one of them claims he’s seen actual breasts in real life, the other claims he’s lying. Then, they’re interrupted by Barrymore knocking at their see through door — and she’s fully nude, covering herself up with nothing but pool toys. If these boys haven’t seen boobs before, they’re about to now! LOL!

I would call this comedy set piece indicative of the film’s, and McG’s, relationship to gender and sex. Female sexuality is something that both titilates and terrifies, punctuating a dull roar of casual violence. McG and Academy Award-winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter ogle the hell out of their female subjects.