Elizabeth Banks brings a new team of Angels to filmgoers in an enjoyable action blast that may have been treated unfairly at the box-office!
Its strange that at times when you go into a movie with low expectations that you end up really enjoying yourself. I honestly wasn’t expecting anything from this 2020 sort of sequel to one of the first action films of the noughties!
While the likes of Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu are nowhere to be seen and replaced by a new batch of faces that include Jane (Ella Balinska) Elena (Naomi Scott) and Sabrina ( a very impressive Kristen Stewart), you do see the Angels of old in photographs which prove to the viewer that this entry does share the same universe.
There are a few tweaks. Barrymore’s insistence that her girls don’t use any guns is long gone as the franchise moves with the times and instead of having the problem of replacing Bosley with yet a different actor – knowledgeable film fans will remember Bill Murray infamously fell out with Liu and then oddly replaced by Bernie Mac-, here the name is used as a higher rank, which means the likes of Patrick Stewart and Elizabeth Banks herself carry the title.
The goofy tone of the Mc G era is also long gone, with daft sexual gags replaced with some seriously good action sequences that make you question why the film flopped so badly at the box-office?
The plot is simple enough! Elena has created this programme called Calisto, a new form of energy in which fallen into the wrong hands can become a dangerous weapon to the world. Soon her life is in danger and her path crosses with the two Angels Sabina and Jane in which they team up to become the franchise established trio to bring down the bad guys.
Banks brings the action right smack to the screen with some surprisingly great sequences, with the climatic showdown being a real highlight as it kind of brings the glory days of 90’s action films, but at the same time feeling fresh and enjoyable.
And do these girls kick ass!
Balinska is fantastic, handling the action scenes with aplomb, belittling the fact that its her feature debut, while Stewart is clearly having fun for what seems a long time we have seen that in a movie. Scott as more to do, a young woman not accustomed to this way of life, but grows as the film progresses and by the end you totally believe that these three woman can even give 007 a run for his money.
Why this never found an audience at the box-office is a shame because Banks as managed to create an addition to a long running series that could easily have opened up a whole new movie franchise.
There are some bad action movies out there, but Charlie’s Angels isn’t one of them! Its a wildly entertaining movie that sparkles with energy and if any film deserves a second chance on streaming….then surely these Angels deserve to spread their wings and fly…
Can’t think of a more underrated movie of 2020….so far!
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