Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Charlie's Angels 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 11, 2020

In this latest iteration of Charlie's Angels, there plenty of "want-to" and "can-do" but little "reason-to." The film doesn't really follow in the footsteps of its predecessors -- whether on the small screen or the big screen -- maintaining the general character makeup but ditching much of the overt sex appeal in favor of a disappointingly rote by-the-numbers storyline and unimaginative action sequences. There's little here to become excited about. It's a serviceable movie in every way but hardly memorable and certainly not at all a necessary inclusion into the growing Charlie's Angels canon.

A new clean energy harnessing technology known as "Calisto" is set to change the world and change lives. For the worse. One of the technology's developers, Elena Houghlin (Naomi Scott), is being silenced about a fatal flaw in the technology that could have fatal repercussions for anyone who uses it. Attempts to silence the whistleblower are taken when she meets with Edgar Bosley (Djimon Hounsou) who is killed and Elena is left for dead but rescued by Townsend Angels Jane Kano (Ella Balinska) and Sabina Wilson (Kristen Stewart). Now, the Angels, plus Elena, are tasked with exposing the truth behind Calisto before the technology falls into the wrong hands.

Charlie's Angels has little going for it in the arena of creativity. Beyond the recycled title and (updated) world revisit, the movie builds around a pretty standard suite of action, humor, and characterization that is barely distinguishable on its own merits. The movie has little feel for character -- character defined as personality and identity, not named individuals in the script -- and precious little feelings for purpose. It's competently put together and delivers baseline entertaining qualities, but the movie offers little more beyond limited scope and even more limited structural ingenuity. The movie works within the confines of mindless entertainment that hearkens back to yesteryear, but even compared to the style-over-substance McG films there's an almost impressive vacuousness in play with this take that literally feels like it was made from prefabricated components rather than work to introduce any organic originality, even within the prism of its roots.

Arguably worse, but also no surprise, is the completely inconsequential storyline. It’s been crafted as a framework only with little concern beyond its ability to adequately propel the movie’s forward momentum, to bring the characters together and move from action scene A to action scene B and so forth. Audiences will certainly not be on seat’s edge wondering about Calisto’s impact on the world at large. It’s a tiresome contrivance that even the assembled, talented cast cannot overcome. The girls looks great and fight hard, committing to the parts with gusto, but there’s such a loose, undemanding, unrelentingly vapid framework around them that even good looks and butt-kicking action can’t save. Shame, because the core material is ripe for a good updating. Just update it with a better story next time.

Charlie's Angels 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

The UHD picture quality is commanding and clear. It's vibrant and sturdy and both the increased resolution to 2160p (based on a 2K digital intermediate) and the HDR color spectrum bring the movie to life in a way that the Blu-ray cannot provide. The picture enjoys a substantial increased yield to color tone management, with more impressively deep and accurate colors leaping off the screen at every opportunity. The tones are healthy, intense, and a pleasure to behold. Whites in particular jump off the screen with a brightness, intensity, and luminance well beyond the SDR Blu-ray's capabilities, while on the other side of the spectrum black levels enjoy more pronounced and accurate depth while firming up shadow detail. It's an impressive display of HDR goodness that extends to the production of more naturally appearing skin tones and the many makeup accents, from facial applications to special effects blood and bruises. The level of overall pop raises this presentation significantly over the Blu-ray, not to be outdone by the textural might which is also greatly increased. Viewers will note a rather substantial boost to image clarity and cleanliness. It's very natural and organic, clear and resplendent in presenting intimate facial textures with newfound clarity above and beyond 1080p limits. The picture sparkles front to back, top to bottom, from minute one to the final shot. The picture holds sharpness to a high standard without pushing the material so hard as to give it an inorganic edge, same with glossiness; it's very attractive and stable. Noise is minimal, banding is not a concern, and encode issues are nonexistent. This is a very nice boost over the Blu-ray.

Charlie's Angels 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Charlie's Angels DTS:X Master Audio soundtrack delivers a crisp, satisfying listen, featuring large-scale stage immersion balanced out by quality intimates that each pull the viewer into the movie in different ways. Certainly the robust action scenes are the highlight, delivering endlessly impressive intensity, width, depth, and low end engagement, creating an immersive and impressive pull into car chases, shootouts, fisticuffs encounters, and all variety of action that throws numerous sound elements at the viewer, all of them in perfect clarity and in commendably accurate and layered spacial terms that fill the listening area with finely tuned and expertly engineered location detail. It's all very rich and authentic. Divergent from that is the track's ability to seamlessly shape lighter score -- including familiar Charlie's Angels musical beats -- and atmospheric details both, managing to, at the same time, command the stage with realistic presence but also fall into the background to allow dialogue and other critical components to shine above. The spoken word is firmly grounded in the center, well prioritized, and naturally detailed for the duration.

Charlie's Angels 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Charlie's Angels includes deleted and extended scenes, a music video, and a handful of featurettes on the bundled Blu-ray; no extra are included on the UHD disc. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

• Deleted & Extended Scenes (1080p, 5:15 total runtime): Included are I'll Be More Punctual; Incredible Work; This Is Why They Call You Angels; I Was Bored; and You Got Played, Man.
• Gag Reel (1080p, 2:44): humorous moments from the shoot.
• Stronger Together: The Sisterhood of Angels (1080p, 7:33): The girls discuss their experiences working together on the film. It also explores character and actor qualities and how they elevate the film.
• Elizabeth Banks: as BoSSley (1080p, 5:17): A dedicated look at Banks' character and performance. It also explores reinterpreting the characters and franchise for a new generation as well as Banks' direction.
• Warriors on Set: Angels in Action (1080p, 5:55): As the title implies, this piece explores fight choreography and other qualities that impact the film's action scenes.
• Tailored for Danger: Styling the Angels (1080p, 6:17): Exploring the wardrobe and makeup that define the characters.
• Music Video (1080p, 3:53): "Don't Call Me Angel" Featuring Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus & Lana Del Rey.
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

Charlie's Angels 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Audiences that can be satisfied with a generic smorgasbord of contemporary moviemaking ideas and constructs should find this version of Charlie's Angels a satisfying jaunt, but fans hoping for the sex appeal of its TV predecessor (the original, not the dreadful and mercifully short-lived remake) or the more muscular, but still svelte and sexy, McG films won't find it here, at least not in any quantity, that is. The movie plays well enough as cinema diversion if not a diversion that's all but indistinguishable beyond its name from so many of its peers. Sony's UHD does deliver robust video and superb audio along with a basic suite of extra content. Worth a look for anyone in search of a serviceable Saturday afternoon time waster.