CHARLIE’S ANGELS (M)

NEW WINGS CAN’T CARRY OLD IDEAS TO MOVIE HEAVEN, US, 117 min

A check of the time tells us it is reboot o’clock. This time it is the turn of Charlie’s Angels to bring on the brand reactivation and bland modernisation to moderate effect. The premise remains the same: three good-looking spies-forhire glamorously globe-trot the world to teach bad dudes all the lessons they had coming. Our trio of high-flying, haute couture heroines are comprised of a rebellious one, Sabina (Kristen Stewart), a conscientious one, Elena (Naomi Scott), and a learning-on-the-job one, Jane (Ella Balinska). The Angels get caught up in a nefarious plot involving a life-changing gizmo that could become a world-ending one, should it fall into the wrong hands. Trained as a scientist, Jane had a hand in developing the dodgy tech. She’ll come in useful later, once Sabina and Elena have stopped their bickering and completed her training. All three leads run hot and cold throughout, but so too does the movie, which never quite nails the right tone of flippant humour needed to keep an audience on-side. As director, writer and featured support player, Elizabeth Banks labours hard to inject some feisty, #MeToo-inspired spirit into

Charlie’s Angels, but the initiative falls flat on most fronts. Where Banks does excel, however is during the movie’s many set-piece action sequences. Each one of them is terrific in its own right, and very well-designed for a movie of this type. Deeper into the supporting ranks, veteran campaigner Patrick Stewart – playing one of multiple Angels handlers named Bosley – acquits himself very well indeed.