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This critic stands by his belief that Charlie's Angels is a wondrous shot in the arm for a tired Hollywood. It is a movie that isn't a groundbreaker, just is a marvelously entertaining blender of pop culture savvy. It literally has everything any multiplex-goer could want - car chases, kung fu scenes, girls in bikinis, Bill Murray and helicopter missiles, not to mention Lucy Liu, my girl Drew and Cameron D., all in lovable riot-grrl mode. It's a giddy souffle of a picture, a movie as dumb as a bag of hammers but with more energy than ten other action films combined.

While I must thumb my nose at the obvious cash-cow nature of this Superbit re-release, I can't deny that as a movie, Charlie's Angels holds up wonderfully well as an endlessly watchable pastiche of neo-feminist crime fighting and ennui-laden colloquialism. It's a picture that horny teens can gawk over, young girls can be empowered by, and for even the most seasoned cineaste, prove to be a gas to analyze, all meaningful content excised in favor of nonstop music and slo-mo shots of Lucy Liu whipping her mane of hair all around for minutes on end.

Charlie's Angels is dumb. It doesn't care. And in this summer season of overcooked science fiction bullshit and touchy-feely mush, it's nice to know that the Angels are yours to see on DVD whenever you want, just waiting to reintroduce you to how fun mainstream movie-watching can be.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

I'm still not completely sold on the Superbit concept. The quality is marginally better, yes, but as far as whether or not it merits buying a brand-new edition solely for the moderate upgrade is still up for debate. The film's theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in anamorphic video, just as it was on the original release. Since the original release of Charlie's Angels had an almost reference-quality transfer to begin with, this isn't a huge improvement.

The picture is extremely well defined with excellent detail visible and only a handful of shots appearing somewhat soft, the same as on the previous release. Blacks are rich and solid with excellent contrast that offers stunning detail, even in the darkest of scenes. The explosive colors are really where the disc sets itself apart, with vibrant, glowing hues that are positively eye- popping. The trouble is that some of the colors occasionally appear oversaturated, giving the image a slightly heavy feel that can seem synthetic and painted. But unlike some other Superbit releases that still suffered from edge enhancement, this one minimizes it and is slightly less edgy than the previous version. Excellent to be sure, but is this a necessary upgrade? Except for the super techno-file, probably not.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track here is for all intents and purposes a note-by-note recreation of the original DVD mix. Directionality is terrific with strong, frequent pans in all directions bombarding the listener. Surrounds use is aggressive with heavy split activity that images extremely well across the expansive front soundstage. Dialogue is well recorded and never masked by competing effects or music. I noticed no distortion anywhere throughout the track. The one area I did find slightly lacking though was the .1 LFE. While integrated well, I felt that it never reached all the way down to where I would have expected it to be. During explosions and other similar effects, the low end seemed limited, without that truly deep rumble. But that's a minor complaint, and one that fortunately doesn't detract too much from this excellent mix.

As good as the Dolby track is, however, the DTS mix one-ups it in sheer robustness. Imaging is slightly improved, but where the DTS really shines is in the low-end. It is really powerful and packs a wallop, just like those Angel kicks. It is not a huge but a noticeable step up from the 5.1 track, and if you want the best the format has to offer, this is where you should go.

Also included are English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Thai subtitles. (Unfortunately, as on the previous release, Columbia has removed the original, burned- in subtitles that accompanied the film in a few scenes, and replaced them with player-generated titles that completely ruin the look of the film in those instances and, for me, disrupt the flow of the film. With this technique, it seems that the player has gone on the fritz and the subtitles seem to pop out of nowhere instead of being smoothly incorporated into the film. The subtitles are also missing from one shot completely, but it's not a major shot and probably won't be noticed by anyone? I'm not going to mention where the missing subtitles are, so you won't be irritated when they don't happen.)

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

So, what's new this time? Not much. First we have a Sneak Peek at Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, a cute if incidental 3-minute press kit piece that features the filmmakers and the angels themselves talking about how bitchin' the new pic is going to be. Then way down at the end of the menus, we have some theatrical trailers for Charlie's Angels, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and National Security (all presented in 5.1 and anamorphic picture). Also included the packaging is a free ticket for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Yes!

With the audio commentary from the original release now gone (really, would it have taken up that much disc space?) the rest of the stuff is the same as before. Getting G'd Up is 6 minutes on director McG and the infectious enthusiasm that permeated the set of the film. It's sort of a praise piece, but I found it entertaining nonetheless. The Master and the Angels examines the incredible work that the actresses did in creating the film's memorable fight scenes. The Master in this case is the previously mentioned Cheung-Yan Yuen and the training methods that he used to get the Angels into ass whoopin' shape. I have a new respect for these three women and the effort they invested after seeing this 7-minute piece. Last on the first of the three special feature pages (yes, three) is Welcome to Angel World. The 5- minute featurette covers the look and feel of the film with production designer J. Michael Riva and art director David F. Klassen being the principal participants. Another interesting way to spend five minutes.

The next 3 minutes are spent on Angelic Attire: Dressing Cameron, Drew and Lucy. Here the spotlight is on costume designer Joseph Aulisi and the dynamic work he did for Charlie's Angels. The title's slightly misleading, though, as they actually go into a bit more detail with Bill Murray's Bosley costuming. Another of the more interesting featurettes is the 7-minute Angelic Effects, which obviously takes a close look at the effects work that brought the Angels seamlessly to the screen. Through interviews with effects supervisors and coordinators, the film's editors and director, several of Charlie's Angels biggest setpieces are broken down in detail. Particularly interesting was the explanation of the film's opening shot, which tracks characters throughout an airplane in what appears as a solid 3-minute sequence with no cuts and McG's desire for an explosion so big that it would hopefully get them banned off the Universal backlot. Finally, Wired Angels is not really a featurette, but actually a presentation of the Angel's first fight with Creepy Thin Man, but in rough form without any of the final wire removal. It's very interesting to see how these shots looked before the effects team worked their magic on them.

Onto the third page of special features we have deleted and extended scenes. All of the scenes are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen with a short introduction from the director explaining the reasons for their removal, despite some being solid scenes. One scene even goes so far as to completely recreate the red bathroom from The Shining. It's worth noting that even though these three scenes were cut, they exist in the film's closing credits as random bits of footage and outtakes. And speaking of outtakes, the next feature is the film's outtakes and bloopers. Given how funny the ones they included in the end credits were, I was really excited to see these. Unfortunately, I already had, as this is nothing more than that closing montage but without the credits. There's got to be more stuff, but I guess we'll never see it...

Music videos have been included for the Destiny's Child signature hit "Independent Women Part 1" and Apollo Four Forty's "Charlie's Angels 2000." Both are non-anamorphic widescreen and 2.0 stereo. Talent Files are included for McG, the Angels and Bill Murray, which make a decent companion for the brief production notes that are included in the insert.

While I liked the extras here, for a Superbit Deluxe release, it is pretty lame that they didn't include something more than just the new Full Throttle teaser. With a whole extra disc, why not create some more new stuff? All of the featurettes included on the disc total just about thirty minutes combined, and gone are all the extra trailers on the previous release. . Columbia has decided to go with a slightly more interactive experience, but I wished that there had been a way to just play all of these one after the other, or as one long documentary. There is just too much fiddling with the remote for my taste, and I really didn't buy a DVD player to play Dragon's Lair. (Although I can. Isn't that weird?)

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

Shop the Scene is a cool if expensive-as-hell opportunity to look around the sets and clothes of different sections of Charlie's Angels and buy what you see. It's a fascinating and well-produced interface, but you'd better have some room on that credit card of yours if you actually plan on buying anything. Also included here is a chance to check out the Charlie's Angels game which you can download from the Sony website. Cute.

Parting Thoughts