The year is 2000. You are a 12-year-old boy. You spend your days watching Total Request Live and hoping they’ll man up and play “Stellar” by Incubus. You spend an inordinate amount of time choosing the coolest song lyrics to leave as your AOL Instant Messenger away message. And you head out to the cinematorium to see three women kick ass in Charlie’s Angels. You like it a lot, but you have difficulty explaining why.
Well, revisiting it 25 years later, it’s actually pretty easy to see why: It’s kind of just a straightforward, fun, slightly silly action movie. In Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, and Cameron Diaz, you have three extremely likable and charismatic performances. And, in the biggest shocker of all, the much-maligned McG is able to direct some fairly competent action sequences. Who knew?
Watch this episode in full: https://youtu.be/YjkwufNEA8M
Next week: Dennis the Menace (1993)
Bonus videos:
Time stamps:
- 00:04:08 — Opening thoughts on Charlie’s Angels
- 00:19:15 — History segment: The 1970s Charlie’s Angels TV show and the advent of “Jiggle Television”; the movie’s development with Drew Barrymore as producer and the hiring of McG; the “complicated legacy” of the 2000 movie as the 2019 reboot movie starring Kristen Stewart came out and was then poorly received
- 00:43:00 — Movie discussion
- 01:59:45 — Final thoughts and star ratings
Sources:
- "The Complicated Legacy of the 2000 Charlie’s Angels" by Ashley Spencer | Vanity Fair (2019) - https://bit.ly/41Jk5jS
- “Drew Barrymore: I Need to Be the Person to Rescue Myself in Life” by Alyssa Bailey | Elle (2016) - https://bit.ly/467UW3D
- “Bill Murray says 'Charlie's Angels' director 'deserves to die'” by Chris Nashawaty | Entertainment Weekly (2009) - https://bit.ly/46hMOOl
- "Post-Godzilla: Broad Sony agenda shows there's life after lizard" by Dan Cox & Benedict Carver | Variety (1998) - https://bit.ly/3JROC93
- Review of 'Charlie's Angels' by Roger Ebert | The Chicago Sun-Times (2000) - https://bit.ly/46lwSL0
- “Charlie's timeless angels: Women who transformed television” by David Usborne | The Independent (2006) - https://bit.ly/4geLO1P
- "Elizabeth Banks Thinks This Interview Is Dangerous for Her" by David Marchese | The New York Times (2022) - https://nyti.ms/3Ihons9
Artwork by Laci Roth.
Music by Rural Route Nine. Listen to their album The Joy of Averages on Spotify (https://bit.ly/48WBtUa), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3Q6kOVC), or YouTube (https://bit.ly/3MbU6tC).
Songs by Rural Route Nine in this episode:
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