Redbox let me stream the most recent Charlie's Angels (2019) for 99 cents, so I was like wth -- I heard Kristen Stewart was interesting. I also got a $2 off coupon to use on another redbox stream in the next month, so that's cool.
I'm not exactly sure what I want to say so maybe I'll just make some bullet points.
- Stewart does play her role in an unexpected way. It's kind of a vapid part played in an arthouse fashion, which makes it more interesting. I think she gets a bad rap because of some serious high exposure pics she has done over the years (esp Twilight), but I've been blown away by much of her work in the foreign indie market. She just wasn't in the right niche. I think I've mentioned before that she was the first American woman to win a Cesar award (equivalent of our oscar here, for non-American films), for "Clouds of Sils Maria."
- Not sure how I should feel about Elizabeth Banks. She has managed to build a film industry career by moving from acting into producing and now directing. She's not awful, but she's not great either. (I think I liked her best as Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games series, but in general I am lukewarm to her other performances.) Here, she wrote the screenplay for this film based on story treatments by other writers. It's not utter shit, but it's not really that good either. It feels a bit idiosyncratic at times without being funny, and otherwise kind of unfocused and, well, messy. She also directed this movie. I've seen a lot WORSE from people but I've seen a lot better. I guess she got the film over the finish line but with only middling results. It's obvious she is ambitious and has worked her way into getting opportunities women sometimes struggle with, so that is positive; but I'd say she's more of a workhorse than an artist / someone with obvious talent for the work. (Compare her to Penny Marshall, who got a lot of exposure on "Laverne and Shirley" and had a dad in the business, but actually had some talent directing comedy with some drama added.)
- There was no demand for another Charlie's Angels movie. The movie is definitely aimed at young girls (there's a lot of encouraging comments towards younger women, plus it's styled as a female action film) and nostalgic older people who liked the TV show. Neither group was really interested in the film. It totally bombed in the box office. Just a really bad studio decision.
- The plotting was a bit confusing, the action didn't ratchet up well and it comes off more like "The Heat" or some female buddy comedy without serious stakes, despite the stakes supposedly being series.
- Naomi Scott was one of the best (well, maybe the only good part) of the Aladdin live-action remake. Here she is wasted. She plays her part as well as she could, but it's not a well-written part.
- The third "Angel" is 23-year-old Ella Balinska, she has actual martial arts training and was actually pretty intimidating (it helps when you're 5 10-11" as well). I'd watch her in something else, she was competent and better actress than, oh, other martial arts women who made their way into movies (like Gina Carano, definitely).
- They ripped the assassin off Robert Patrick's T2 performance. he's kind of bland and uninteresting.
- Patrick Stewart. I guess he was having fun, so I'll give him a break -- he has reached a place in his career where he can just try different shit and no one will think poorly of him if it doesn't work out.
- Apparnetly Bosley isn't a real name, it's a ranking. So everyone is called Bosley in all the Angels groups scattered around the world now. (Maybe the original Bosley was real, as part of the prototype Angels group -- so they took his name as a homage?)
- After all the shocking "Blahness" of the film, the end credits sequences were actually pretty fucking funny and have a TON of cameos. Also a sweet cameo showing who is actually running the enterprise now, that was nice. I could have actually appreciated the film better if it took the crazy, frenetic, light-hearted approach completely through rather than the weird tone it had.
Not recommended, really. I think they wanted to reboot the franchise (it's a continuation of the past entries) with this based on ending, but I doubt that will happen.