November (Web-only) 2000

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Dark and light spirituality filled movie screens this week, from the occultism in Book of Shadows and the undead in Little Vampire, to the spiritual metaphors of The Legend of Bagger Vance and the message of Christian forgiveness in Mercy Streets. Christian critics rarely agreed, though, on what response believers should have to such elements.

What's HotCharlie's Angels: goofy fun or brainless sexploitation? Christian critics argued passionately for one or the other, splitting pretty evenly in their reactions to this update of the '70s TV series. Phil Boatwright, the Movie Reporter, says "it may be the best time I've had in at the movies this entire year. ... This feminine and witty answer to 007, with a bit of Modesty Blaise thrown in for good measure, is loads of fun. The spoof never takes itself seriously, yet never belittles its characters." But Christian Spotlight guest reviewer Curtis D. Smith says it's all too eager to belittle: "A precariously demoralizing view of young women prevails in Charlie's Angels. It repeatedly says women are little more than sexual playthings—with few brains and even fewer inhibitions—who must prance around half naked in order to get what they want." Michael Elliott of Crosswalk.com also takes shots at the film's acting and script. "The three female leads offer little in the way of characterization, other than to play off each other in a giggling schoolgirl kind of camaraderie. ... Logic takes a long, long vacation as the 'angels' miraculously solve each piece of the puzzle without the benefit of clues, confessions or traces of any evidence." Other critics just settled in for the ride, treating the film as nothing more than the brain candy it aspires to be. The U.S. Catholic Conference calls ...