They’re beautiful, they’re brilliant, and they work for Charlie. In a smart, sexy update of the 70’s TV show, “Charlie’s Angels” revolves around three female detectives – Natalie the bookworm, Dylan the tough girl, and Alex the class act – as intelligent and multi-talented as they are ravishingly gorgeous and utterly disarming.
What can be done when Eric Knox, a soon-to-be billionaire, is kidnapped from his own office at Knox Technologies, and the company is in jeopardy of losing a million dollars? Under the sure hand of their suave playboy boss, notorious for his clever ways of avoiding face-to-face meetings with his employees, the Angels use their feminine charm, high-tech gadgets and hand-to-hand combat to save themselves, Charlie, and thousands of innocent people.
Charlie’s Angels is a 2000 American action comedy film based on the television series of the same name created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Unlike the original series, which had dramatic elements, the film featured more comical elements.
The film was directed by McG, adapted by screenwriters Ryan Rowe, Ed Solomon and John August, and starred Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu as three women working in a private detective agency in Los Angeles. John Forsythe reprised his role as the unseen Charlie’s voice from the original series. Making cameo appearances are Tom Green (who was dating Barrymore at the time of production) and LL Cool J.
The film was released on November 3, 2000 in the United States by Columbia Pictures and grossed $125.3 million domestically and $148.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $264.1 million, becoming the 12th highest-grossing of 2000. Against a budget of $93 million, the film was a box office success.
About the Story
Natalie Cook (Cameron Diaz), Dylan Sanders (Drew Barrymore) and Alex Munday (Lucy Liu) are the “Angels”, three talented, tough, attractive women who work as private investigators together for an unseen millionaire named Charlie (voiced by John Forsythe). Charlie uses a speaker in his offices to communicate with the Angels, and his assistant Bosley (Bill Murray) works with them directly when needed.
Charlie assigns the Angels to find Eric Knox (Sam Rockwell), a software genius who created a revolutionary voice-recognition system and heads his own company, Knox Enterprises. Knox is believed to have been kidnapped by Roger Corwin (Tim Curry), who runs a communications-satellite company called Redstar. The Angels infiltrate a party held by Corwin and spot the Creepy Thin Man (Crispin Glover) who was seen on the surveillance videos during Knox’s kidnapping. They chase and fight the Creepy Thin Man.
After the Angels reunite Knox with his business partner Vivian Wood (Kelly Lynch), Charlie explains that they must determine whether the Creepy Thin Man has stolen Knox’s voice-recognition software. The Angels infiltrate Redstar headquarters, fool the security system, and plant a device in the central computer that will enable them to explore it remotely.
They retire for the night after giving Bosley the laptop computer that communicates with the Redstar computer. Dylan takes up Knox’s offer to spend the night with him, end up in making love but he betrays her later that night, explaining that he faked the kidnapping with help from Vivian and the Creepy Thin Man. He has kidnapped Bosley, and, with access to Redstar’s central computer, he intends to use his voice software with the Redstar satellite network to find and kill Charlie, who he believes had killed his father in the Vietnam War.
Knox shoots at Dylan, seemingly killing her, but she escapes unharmed. Natalie and Alex are also attacked, and Corwin is murdered by the Creepy Thin Man. When the Angels regroup together, all uninjured, Charlie’s offices are blown up. A radio receiver survives in the rubble, and Natalie deduces Bosley’s location as he speaks to the Angels using a radio transmitter implanted in his teeth, explaining how to spot his location where he is being held captive.
With help from Dylan’s current boyfriend Chad (Tom Green), the Angels approach the abandoned lighthouse where Knox is holding Bosley prisoner. The Angels rescue Bosley and defeat Vivian, the Creepy Thin Man, and some henchmen before Knox blows up the lighthouse, but Knox uses his software and the Redstar satellite network to locate Charlie when he telephones Bosley. When Knox programs a helicopter with a missile towards Charlie’s house, Bosley helps the Angels board the helicopter, and Alex reprograms the missile to have it shoot backwards, which blows up the helicopter and kills Knox while all of the Angels land safely together on the beach.
Charlie’s Angels (2000)
Directed by: McG
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Bill Murray, Kelly Lynch, Crispin Glover, Matt LeBlanc, Tom Green, Luke Wilson, Sean Whalen
Screenplay by: Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts
Production Design by: J. Michael Riva
Cinematography by: Russell Carpenter
Film Editing by: Peter Teschner, Wayne Wahrman
Costume Design by: Joseph G. Aulisi
Set Decoration by: Lauri Gaffin
Music by: Ed Shearmur
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for action violence, innuendo and some sensuality / nudity.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: November 3, 2000
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