*Its Charlies Angels…

IMDB Synopsis

A brilliant scientist invents Calisto — a sustainable energy source that will revolutionize the way people use power. But when Calisto falls into the wrong hands, the Angels must retrieve it before it can be used as a weapon of mass destruction.

REBOOT SEASON is in full effect ladies and gentlemen. Have we not learned anything from Ghostbusters, Hellboy, The Mummy, and on and on that sometimes you need a fresh idea in order to make something old work again. Charlie’s Angels is another in this line where this is not technically a reboot it is a sequel to the tv show and the early 200’s movies. Remember those?

Yeah those….they were not even that good in their time. Yet Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu were huge stars at the time so they made a ton of money. This new Angels went a different route drafting: Twilight Veteran Kristen Stewart, our lovely Princess Jasmine Naomi Scott, and unknown Ella Balinska as the titular heroes. On the one hand it is a good idea to push new stars on audiences, but it was a big risk for a big studio project to not have those big movie star names attached.

This movie opens showing us how the Townsend organization has grown to global standards and now their our teams and Bosley’s all over the place on missions. Bosley’s include Michael Strahan, Djimon Hounsou (who’s in everything), Patrick Stewart!, and of course Writer, Director, Producer Elizabeth Banks. Our team is assigned to Banks and of course they do not like each other at first, but will they learn to? They are assigned to secure a program called Calisto (McGuffin alert!!) which can of course be weaponized somehow.

They pick up Elena (Naomi Scott) along the way who works for the company who wants to shut down the program as well. The three girls along the way form the Angels and become better while being with each other.

Pretty straight forward plot but there are some awful twists and turns that I wont quite spoil for you here. The action and the comedy all is pretty entertaining especially compared to the awful dialogue and slow mo from the old movies. This is competently made especially seeing as this is Elizabeth Banks Directorial Debut. She does try to use a ton of girl power in this, to good and bad effect. We also see Angel cameos from Ronda Rousey, Lili Reinhart, Danica Patrick, and more so it really is an all girls affair.

Stock Watch

Stock Up – Kristen Stewart has been semi quiet since she burst onto the scene but she was far and away the best part of this movie. She was hilarious in every scene and had that nonchalant kick your ass attitude that was just so appealing. I really loved what she was doing in this.

Stock Down – LISTEN HERE JUICERS I AM A MASSIVE ELIZABETH BANKS FAN. On my Letterboxd account it calculated that I have seen more of her movies than any other female actor. So yes I am a fan and it hurts me to say this was a miss for her directorial debut. She was credited as a writer and the script stunk, her acting seemed to miss a bit (maybe because she had 4 jobs on this), and besides a couple interesting tracking shots the movie is pretty formulaic. Love Elizabeth so that really stunk to see.

Stock Neutral – Naomi Scott obviously got a massive boost from Aladdin, this performance did nothing to hurt that. She did not get nearly enough to do but I still enjoyed her every time she is on screen. After Power Rangers, Aladdin and this I would like to start seeing some non franchise roles out of her soon.

Stock Neutral – Ella Balinska was a complete unknown going into this movie and I truly do not know if this helped her at all. She was fine in this and obviously has the tall looks of a model, but I just do not know if I buy her as a full blown movie star yet.

*A couple other tidbits

• Patrick Stewart seemed like he was having a ton of fun in this.
• They really did my guy Djimon Hounsou dirty in this.
• Noah Centineo, creeper?
• They made the audience feel dumb numerous times with over explanations of situations that was a real turn off.

Was this movie Necessary? No, Was it watchable? Yes, that is about all I have to say about this one.

Juice Rating:

*All of my Movie Ratings can be found here.