Charlie`s Angels Review

The film doesn`t take long to get into action with a pre-credit sequence involving a bomb on board a plane, death defying leaps from the sky and the girls wrapping things up nicely... Natalie - Cameron Diaz, Dylan - Drew Barrymore and Alex - Lucy Liu work for mysterious millionaire Charlie whom they never meet, they get their instructions via telephone and from Charlie`s representative Bosley - Bill Murray. Their post credit assignment is to solve the kidnapping of software whiz-kid Eric Knox - Sam Rockwell. His business partner Vivian Wood - Kelly Lynch - suspects satellite mogul Roger Corwin - Tim Curry... it`s not long before they`re able to track Knox down but the case isn`t quite over yet....Directed with irreverent flair by music video and commercials dynamo McG the picture basks in a warm bronzed glow, not that Cameron Diaz needs anything to enhance her, she practically leaps off the screen to embrace you, she`s so beautiful and intelligent in her portrayal of Natalie who`s just a touch naive...... but they all look great in their skintight outfits in high action acrobatic mode. Sam Rockwell is fun as Knox and Bill Murray is... well.... Bill Murray. Kelly Lynch is OK in a role that I would have loved to see Toni Collette play - she was cast originally. The film plays around with 70`s sensibility without being a slave to it, this is definitely a film for the 90`s. The screenplay by Ryan Rowe, Ed Solomon and John August has a delicious sense of irony and fun. I can only say it`s good to welcome the return of hair tossing as a female power device... David`s Comment:The three women are obviously having fun, and so is Bill Murray - and the film is reminiscent of old serials, like FANTOMAS, with their agile women heroines. It`s nonsense, of course, but sleekly handled nonsense very much in the James Bond tradition, complete with double entendre wisecracks.