Charlie's Angels

Herald rating: * *

Cast: Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Bill Murray

Director: McG

Rating: M (low-level violence)

Running time: 92 mins

Screening: now at Village, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas

Review: Tim Watkin

The sheer pointlessness of it all is enough to leave you stunned. Loyal to the hit 70s TV show, Charlie's Angels begins "This is the story of three very different girls ... " .

Within a couple of minutes you realise that nobody's taking this seriously. An airline passenger looks up to see TJ Hooker - The Movie starting as the in-flight movie.

"Another movie from an old TV show ... " he says, rolling his eyes. "What are you gonna do," the guy beside him asks, "walk out?"

It's a challenge you might want to take up. With its barrage of post-feminist, 70s chic, pop video, adventure movie, TV take-off styles, the movie drowns under its self-indulgent pretensions. The in-jokes and visual conceits don't add to the movie. They are the movie.

Bond films get away with merging camp and action, you might say, so why not a team of high-kickin' chicks? The difference is that Bonds are action movies, with lots of wry asides and scenes contrived to create tension, while Angels is a series of scenes contrived to show off as much cleavage as possible.

The action isn't tense, it's too busy being pretty. Is there a story? Yeah, something to do with a bad guy wanting to control satellites and to kill Charlie. But if you missed it, don't worry, you didn't miss anything crucial.

Which leaves us with the style. Natalie (Diaz) dreams of disco dancing with all the multi-coloured lights flashing, Dylan (Barrymore) wears 70s skivvies, while Alex (Liu) keeps tossing her Jaclyn Smith-style hair. The trio operates in a hammed-up world where the baddies look or sound English, the alleys are full of steam and the goodies avoid explosions by a split second.

Their dialogue, sadly, doesn't have the same dynamite quality. "I don't know what his plan is, but I know that we can stop him," is a typical line. And Bill Murray as Bosley? Please.

Through it all plays a soundtrack that includes every song written that has the word angel in the chorus. And all the while Diaz grins. Natalie is, perhaps, the best bimbo in film history.

The poor continuity - chasing baddies through unopened doors and crashed cars that are empty, for example - means the audience must make leaps as athletic as the Angel's Matrix-imitating kicks.

Many will think the film is a load of fun. It does have energy. But Angels is the ultimate in style over substance, of post-modern meaninglessness. It exists as a series of stylised images, poses, and nostalgia laughs.