Charlie's Angels 4K (2000/Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003/Sony Blu-ray)/10 Minutes Gone (2019/Lionsgate Blu-ray)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/B/B- Sound: B+ & B/B/B Extras: B-/D/C Films: B-/D/C-

Action films without being brain surgery can be fun, but such films more often go wrong than well, as these films show...

After a TV revival stalled, Drew Barrymore decided to take on producing a big screen revival of the hit TV series Charlie's Angels, whose early seasons were iconic and scripts were minimal, but had the appeal of great stars who could act, the audience liked and appealed to a big audience by originally becoming a huge hit. It sounded like a bad idea that might not work, but she hired then top box office actress, the comically gifted Cameron Diaz with up and coming Lucy Liu as her partners, no less than Bill Murray to play the new Bosley and with original producer Leonard Goldberg in tow and original unseen voice of Charlie, John Forsythe (known known and seen all over the place thanks to the nighttime soap opera hit Dynasty) reprising his other popular role.

The result was a surprise hit that was fun and seemed like it could be the surprise beginning of a hit franchise. I reviewed the film years ago when it became an early Blu-ray release here:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10172/Charlie%E2%80%99s+Angels+(2000/Sony+Blu-ra

The convoluted plot involving technology, murder, revenge, stealing and invading people's privacy long before too many surrendered to social media is amusing and the technology that looked so good and new then is already dated, as are the many digital visual effects, but the film remains fun and the new upgrade Charlie's Angels 4K (2000) disc is an impressive upgrade all serious movie and home theater fans will want to try out. It includes the previously reviewed Blu-ray as well and all of its extras, of course. More on that in a moment.

Three years later, McG, Barrymore, Columbia and Sony released Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) and very sadly, it turned out to be the horrible movie and then some everyone expected the first one to be. Murray already exited, replaced in a convoluted way by an out of pl;ace Bernie Mac. The script was awful, made no sense, had a 'throw anything in there and no one will notice' attitude and even contradicted the first film. Good scenes from the trailer were missing from the final cut of the film (there are two awful ones offered here) and everyone but the audience seemed to be having a good time.

Demi Moore shows up as the villainess looking as good as the three leads and maybe better, but she is just a boo-hiss villain in a poorly underwritten role, but then the whole mess of a screenplay is that and worse. Why all involved trashed what they built up so well in the first film is a still big mystery, but Sony (who needs all the hits they can get like any other studio) killed what could and should have been a huge series of hits. Justin Theroux and Robert Patrick are also wasted here and Crispin Glover returns for no good reason except to be a stereotypical psycho/weirdo.

Especially with a lack of great roles for women, I found this to be one of the worst sequels of all time, it deserved to bomb, hurt almost all involved in the long run and most involved saw their careers go into decline with few exceptions. Looking at it again reminded me of how painfully bad it was and still is, then has actually aged and become worse since its release and looks older and more worn out than the first film, though that one is three years older. What were they thinking?

The obnoxious, pointless amount of extras plastered on this disc also seems to be trying to make up for how bad the film is, but just makes it worse, including Digital Copy (oh, the irony), a 'Telestrator' Commentary with Director McG, Writer's Commentary, Angel-Vision Trivia Track, Full Throttle: The Cars of Charlie's Angels, Dream Duds: Costuming an Angel, Angels Makeover: Hansen Dam, Designing Angels: The Look of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Learn Why: There's No Such Thing As a "Short Shot", Only an Overworked Producer, Music Video: Pink Featuring William Orbit "Feel Good Time", Cameo-Graphy, Turning Angels into Pussycats Dolls, Rolling with the Punches, XXX-Treme Angels, Full Throttle Jukebox, Angel Scouts: A Look Into the Gorgeous Locations and (little did we know the terror that was to follow) an Original Theatrical Trailer. A preview of the new 2019 Angles feature film is here and it looks interesting, but just from the nearly 3 minutes we get, it already looks like Downton Abbey meets Skyfall versus Full Throttle, so we'll see.

The result is the worst kind of time capsule of commercial filmmaking and yes, for Barrymore, ti is actually worse than Batman and Robin!

Continuing the bad action theme, part of which tends to be tied with TV tendencies, Michael Chiklis (The Shield, The Commish, The Thing in the older Fantastic Four movies) and now straight-to-video Bruce Willis (once of the likes of Die Hard and Moonlighting) show up in Brian A. Miller's 10 Minutes Gone (2019) will be 88 minutes of your life gone in this lifeless dud of a crime boss (a bored-looking Willis) hiring a team headed by Chiklis to do a jewelry heist. It is dull, poor, badly edited, flatly acted and is everything you have already seen to death.

The low budget is obvious, gadgets silly and they run out of cliches early, yet still keep going on. This is just a paycheck for all involved, but it could have been more if anyone concentrated to make more than obvious product. The unknown supporting cast never registers and it could not end soon enough.

Extras include Digital Copy, trailer gallery, interview clips with every one by Willis and a Making Of featurette.

So how about playback quality? The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1 HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Charlie's Angels offered a mix of good and bad digital video work upon its original release and the bad has aged really poorly, while the good just shows its age (opening credit graphics), so it is in the majority of filmed live action that the disc is not only an improvement over the old Blu-ray, which was remarkably able to hold its own no matter what size HDTV you watched it on.

Detail, depth and color are great improved in the best scenes, including many action sequences and the work of Russell Carpenter, A.S.C., really shines here. This is the best the film has looked since I saw it in a brand new 35mm print, but color is particularly interesting and rich. Expect demo shots for 4K systems. It makes the older Blu-ray now look less colorful and even strained in shots, plus detail looks poorer by comparison often.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Full Throttle had Carpenter return as Director of Photography, but the film looks more rushed and I cannot image in a 4K edition would improve things much, especially when we get a bit more of a blown-out look versus the first film. The lack of imagination is also obvious as the makers abandon the look they achieved fore the first film. Reportedly, this is the first film ever remastered for the original Blu-ray format many years ago.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the HD-shot Gone is not too good either, with more motion blur than it should have, detail issues and flat shooting throughout that makes it visually unmemorable. With all the excitement of a surveillance camera, it look like most bad TV movies of late.

As for sound, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on Throttle and Gone are their default highlights, just holding a soundstage throughout and just recorded well enough to qualify as competent and professional. Throttle has an awful choice of classic hits that pale as compared tot he first Angels film and its sound design is often more throwaway than you might expect.

Fortunately, the 2000 Angels film on 4K has been upgraded to a very impressive Dolby Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 for older systems) mix that finally allows us to enjoy how good the original Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) 8-track mix was and then some. The 4K disc also repeats the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix form the older Blu-ray, but it sounds better here, clearer and with m ore impact, so you have two great choices to see the film with. The Atmos shows smart mixing ideas and articulation Sony wanted to show off the SDDS system that I still liked more than older, compressed Dolby Digital. For most people, this will be the first time they get to hear the SDDS 8-track because only so many theaters in 2000 could screen it with that superior soundmix.

Add the excellent picture upgrade and the 2000 Charlie's Angels is a fun 4K title to get and is highly recommended. Skip the others.

- Nicholas Sheffo