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- Condition: New
- Format: Blu-ray
- AC-3; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; Subtitled; Widescreen
Once upon a time, Jill, Sabrina and Kelly were police officers whose skills were being wasted in menial duties such as answering phones and filing. A mysterious millionaire named Charles Townsend took them away from all that by opening his own private investigation agency and hiring these gorgeous ladies as his operatives with John Bosley acting as their assistant and liaison. America's guiltiest pleasure of 1976--the inaugural season of Charlie's Angels--has returned in all its jiggly, jolly glory in this tidy boxed set. It's hard to describe just how captivated the nation's! media and viewing public were with cheesemeister Aaron Spelling's ABC-TV hit, but for awhile Charlie's Angels was wildly popular appointment television at its most self-consciously banal. The first season's three (and best-remembered) belles--lioness Farrah Fawcett (then Farrah Fawcett-Majors), pin-up babe Jaclyn Smith, and Thinking Man's beauty Kate Jackson--were something like primetime Spice Girls, gracing countless magazine covers and bestselling posters. The idea (even if a fan of the show didn't happen to be a straight male) was that one was compelled to choose a favorite angel as a kind of ink-blot window onto one's subconscious life.
While the 2000 Angels feature film (starring Cameron Diaz, etc.) kept faith with the original show's self-mockingly sloppy storytelling, there's nothing like seeing the old episodes for a lesson in narrative hubris. Basically, the three leading characters were bored policewomen wooed away to a private firm owned and ! operated by the unseen sybarite, Charlie (voiced--over speaker! phone--b y an uncredited John Forsythe). After a long set-up each week, the girls' investigations typically saw them going undercover: as fashion models--no great stretch--in "Night of the Strangler"; nurses in "Terror on Ward One"; roller-derby stars in "Angels on Wheels"; and vulnerable convicts (of course) in "Angels In Chains." The exploitation factor is not as bad as it might have been. The cast was so glamorous, their chemistry so perfect, Charlie's Angels never became a mere meat market. Despite such nods to modernity as Fawcett's no-bra look, the episodes were old-fashioned in their heroine-in-peril appeal, yet there was a difference: The Angels looked out for themselves and each other. --Tom KeoghAdventure has never been more beautiful than Charlie's Angels! Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu star as the captivating crime-fighting trio who are masters of disguise, espionage and martial arts. When a devious mastermind embroils them in a plot to destroy in! dividual privacy, the Angels are on the spot with their brains, brawn and high-tech toys. Aided by their loyal sidekick Bosley (Bill Murray), the girls are about to bring down the bad guys when a terrible secret is revealed that makes the Angels a target of assassination. Now, it's a matter of life or death as the stunningly smart detectives use their state-of-the-art skills to kick evil's butt in this sexy, high-octane comedy!For every TV-into-movie success like The Fugitive, there are dozens of uninspired films like The Mod Squad. Happily--and surprisingly--this breezy update of the seminal '70s jiggle show falls into the first category, with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore (who also produced), and Lucy Liu starring as the hair-tossing, fashion-setting, kung fu-fighting trio employed by the mysterious Charlie (voiced by the original Charlie, John Forsythe). When a high-tech programmer (Sam Rockwell) is kidnapped, the angels seek out the suspects, with the daff! y Bosley (Bill Murray in a casting coup) in tow. A happy, corn! ball pop corn flick, Charlie's Angels is played for laughs with plenty of ribbing references to the old TV show as well as modern caper films like Mission: Impossible. McG, a music video director making his feature film debut (usually a death warrant for a movie's integrity), infuses the film with plenty of Matrix-style combat pyrotechnics, and the result is the first successful all-American Hong Kong-style action flick. Plenty of movies boast a New Age feminism that has their stars touting their sexuality while being their own women, but unlike something as obnoxious as Coyote Ugly, Angels succeeds with a positive spin on Girl Power for the new millennium (Diaz especially sizzles in her role of crack super agent/airhead blonde). From the send-up of the TV show's credit sequence to the outtakes over the end credits, Charlie's Angels is a delight. --Doug ThomasAnother season of the hit classic series comes to DVD! This season, the A! ngels go on the Love Boat to investigate a major art theft, go back to college to stop a white slavery ring, and find more than just fingerprints when Charlie's yacht is stolen. Jill gets help from the Angels after her date with a crown prince is interrupted by sniper fire, and Kelly meets a man who may be her long-lost father.The Angels continue to fight the bad guys, with Jill’s little sister Kris taking her place and Charlie's voice guiding them all. Stars Jaclyn Smith, Kate Jackson and introducing Cheryl Lad. Includes all 26 episodes from the second season.Charlie's Angels: The Complete Second Season has no shortage of the good-natured cheese and eye candy that made the primetime television show's debut season wildly popular in 1976. The Angels had a new look in their second year: Farrah Fawcett, arguably the most popular of the show's three actresses, departed before the sophomore season and was replaced by another blonde dazzler, Cheryl Ladd. (Ladd's characte! r, Kris Munroe, was the younger sister of Fawcett's Jill Munro! e, whose exit is explained in the premiere episode as a liberated woman's career move: Jill has decided to race cars in Spain.)
No sooner does Kris settle in than a crisis sweeps through off-screen Charlie's private investigation agency. While cavorting on Oahu in the two-part "Angels in Paradise," Charlie is kidnapped by a smuggler (France Nuyen), who demands the Angels break her husband out of jail in exchange for their boss's life. Bubbly Kris, brainy Sabrina Duncan (Kate Jackson), beauteous Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith), and sidekick Bosley (David Doyle) are compelled to soak up rays and sip fruity mixed drinks in Waikiki while fighting crime in various guises, re-establishing, for another season, Charlie's Angels' dramatic and aesthetic game plan for every episode: start slow with lots of idle chatter, put the girls in a ridiculous undercover situation, and get them out of their clothes as much as possible.
The pattern continues in the silly "Angels on Ice," star! ring old hands Phil Silvers and Jim Backus, in which our heroines join an ice show to find out who kidnapped a pair of skaters. "Pretty Angels All in a Row" finds Kelly and Kris reluctant entrants in a "Miss Chrysanthemum Pageant" (no, you won't find Kate Jackson in a swimsuit this year, either) rigged by organized crime. "Circus of Terror," co-starring James Darren, enlists the Angels in the carney life. If there is anything to complain about regarding season 2, it is that the novelty of Charlie's Angels has worn a little thin, and every episode feels the same. Still, there are surprises: "The Sammy Davis Jr. Kidnap Caper" stars the late rat-packer in peril and much bemused by the presence of three comely bodyguards. --Tom KeoghThe Superbit titles utilize a special high bit rate digital encoding process which optimizes video quality while offering a choice of both DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. These titles have been produced by a team of Sony Pictures Dig! ital Studios video, sound and mastering engineers and comes ho! used in a special package complete with a 4 page booklet that contains technical information on the Superbit process. By reallocating space on the disc normally used for value-added content, Superbit DVDs can be encoded at double their normal bit rate while maintaining full compatibility with the DVD video format.For every TV-into-movie success like The Fugitive, there are dozens of uninspired films like The Mod Squad. Happily--and surprisingly--this breezy update of the seminal '70s jiggle show falls into the first category, with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore (who also produced), and Lucy Liu starring as the hair-tossing, fashion-setting, kung fu-fighting trio employed by the mysterious Charlie (voiced by the original Charlie, John Forsythe). When a high-tech programmer (Sam Rockwell) is kidnapped, the angels seek out the suspects, with the daffy Bosley (Bill Murray in a casting coup) in tow. A happy, cornball popcorn flick, Charlie's Angels is played for laugh! s with plenty of ribbing references to the old TV show as well as modern caper films like Mission: Impossible. McG, a music video director making his feature film debut (usually a death warrant for a movie's integrity), infuses the film with plenty of Matrix-style combat pyrotechnics, and the result is the first successful all-American Hong Kong-style action flick. Plenty of movies boast a New Age feminism that has their stars touting their sexuality while being their own women, but unlike something as obnoxious as Coyote Ugly, Angels succeeds with a positive spin on Girl Power for the new millennium (Diaz especially sizzles in her role of crack super agent/airhead blonde). From the send-up of the TV show's credit sequence to the outtakes over the end credits, Charlie's Angels is a delight. --Doug ThomasThree beautiful private detectives who work for a suave playboy boss are called in to rescue soon-to-be billionaire software mo! gul Eric Knox, when he is kidnapped from his office at Knox Te! chnologi es. While rough-and-tumble Alex, wild-child Dylan, and nerdy Natalie use an impressive array of high-tech gadgetry and martial arts moves to retrieve Knox from the clutches of rival Roger Corwin and his goons, they unwittingly become embroiled in a battle to protect the world from a wide-scale invasion of privacy that threatens to occur when good technology falls into the hands of bad people.For every TV-into-movie success like The Fugitive, there are dozens of uninspired films like The Mod Squad. Happily--and surprisingly--this breezy update of the seminal '70s jiggle show falls into the first category, with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore (who also produced), and Lucy Liu starring as the hair-tossing, fashion-setting, kung fu-fighting trio employed by the mysterious Charlie (voiced by the original Charlie, John Forsythe). When a high-tech programmer (Sam Rockwell) is kidnapped, the angels seek out the suspects, with the daffy Bosley (Bill Murray in a casting co! up) in tow. A happy, cornball popcorn flick, Charlie's Angels is played for laughs with plenty of ribbing references to the old TV show as well as modern caper films like Mission: Impossible. McG, a music video director making his feature film debut (usually a death warrant for a movie's integrity), infuses the film with plenty of Matrix-style combat pyrotechnics, and the result is the first successful all-American Hong Kong-style action flick. Plenty of movies boast a New Age feminism that has their stars touting their sexuality while being their own women, but unlike something as obnoxious as Coyote Ugly, Angels succeeds with a positive spin on Girl Power for the new millennium (Diaz especially sizzles in her role of crack super agent/airhead blonde). From the send-up of the TV show's credit sequence to the outtakes over the end credits, Charlie's Angels is a delight. --Doug Thomas
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