Charlie's Angels is not heavenly, but it is filled with heavenly bodies. The Angels are back though with a new trio and, of course, a bigger bust, uh, I mean budget for special effects. When the Angels are hired to recover a kidnapped software mogul and his stolen technology things begin to move pretty fast. Probably too fast since there are layers upon layers, not of clothing, but of plots and counter-plots going on from the beginning. Will the Angels figure out what's going on in time to stop it? Well, yeah, and they'll look really good doing it too.

Take the most mindless James Bond film you've ever seen. Add lots of the over the top martial arts moves from any Jackie Chan film. Pour in some T&A; no, make that a lot of T&A; actually make that a WHOLE lot of T&A. And finally, stir in some of the grotesque, larger then life, but fun villains from the Dick Tracy comic strip and you've got your own recipe for Angel Food Cake a la Charlie's Angels.

There were places in this film that were tremendous fun with lots of action, great humor and wonderful special effects. That's the good news. The bad news is that there were other places that were so absolutely, painfully dumb you could only roll your eyes and think, "Didn't they even have a clue as to how stupid that is?" In the end though the fun part won out for me and I found myself enjoying Charlie's Angels. The new Angels were a nice addition to the ranks of Charlie's lady P.I.'s though the idea that they now have "secret identities" and try to keep the people close to them from knowing they work for Charlie stinks and involved them in unnecessary, and silly, sub-plots. As in the television show each Angel had her own identity for example one is street tough and slightly slutty, but with the heart of, well, an angel. Then there's the professionally competent one who's a complete ditz when it comes to her personal life. And finally the brainiac who wants to be Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart, but is about as domestic as a wildcat. The villains were also a lot of fun, especially the Thin Man, who almost single handedly whips all three Angels at one time in the sort of comic book battle found in films of this type that barely raise a bruise on the participants, let alone draw blood. My biggest objection, cast wise, is that Bill Murray was tapped to fill the shoes of David Doyle as Bosley. As he does with almost every character he plays Mr. Murray basically made Bosley into an idiot whereas I preferred Mr. Doyle's portrayal in the television series of Bosley as a loyal, intelligent and competent aide/supervisor of the Angels. But even so, as Bosley Mr. Murray seemed to have a good chemistry with the new Angels just as they did with each other which helped the film a great deal.

Besides the dumb parts, and there are a **lot** of those, Charlie's Angels disappointed me in two other ways. First, it would have been nice to have seen one of the former Angels from the television show at least make a cameo so as to reinforce the history of the series. Second, when you get down to it, the script itself was nothing special; not that it was bad, but take out the expensive special effects and it could have easily served as a slightly longer episode of the television show itself. Other television shows, such as The X-Files, Highlander:Endgame and The Twilight Zone, have had this same problem while making the transition from the little screen to the big screen, but it seems that you should bring some idea with you big enough to make that transition worthwhile.

So, if you want some mindless, but fun entertainment you'd probably enjoy Charlie's Angels. It's not bad enough to be a sin; nor good enough to be a blessing, but it is entertaining.

Grade: B

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