| The television show Charlie’s Angels has been amusing audiences from 1976, with film versions released in 2000 and 2003, so why not a satire? D.E.B.S., directed by Angela Robinson, does just that. In the movie’s prologue, a voiceover says that a secret part of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) measures dishonesty, thereby enabling those with high scores to be recruited to a special university of crimefighting. (Who says, after all, that all cops are honest?) The only one ever to have achieved a perfect score on the dishonesty measure is Amy (played by Sara Foster), now a corporal, who has no idea until late in the film what her perfect score means; she would have preferred to study art in Barcelona. Her closest friends at the university are squad leader Max (played by Meagan Good), phony French-speaking Dominique (played by Devon Aoki), and recent recruit Janet (played by Jill Ritchie), all wearing plaid miniskirts (of the McQueen tartan?). When the action begins, D.E.B.S.’s President Phipps (played by Michael Clarke Duncan) summons the four crimefighters from their dorm to a headquarters meeting at 8 a.m. sharp, when they are assigned the task of surveillance on Lucy Diamond (played by Jordana Brewster), a master criminal who has just arrived in town and is to meet Ninotchka (played by Jessica Cauffiel), a phony-accented Russian professional assassin. Lucy, the daughter of a crime kingpin, also has a perfect record: No crimefighter has ever encountered her face to face and lived. However, the assignation is a blind date at a fancy but discrete restaurant, as arranged by Lucy’s partner in crime, Scud (played by Jimmi Simpson), who wants Lucy to meet the Lesbian love of her life. During their meeting across the dinner table, Lucy concludes that there is a mismatch with Ninotchka, but the four D.E.B.S. clumsily reveal themselves to Lucy, shots ring out, and Lucy fights her way to safety. As Lucy flees out an exit passage, Amy pursues her from a different direction, and the two unexpectedly meet; while a Mexican standoff ensues, the two experience love at first sight. The rest of the film plays out campily, with Lucy eventually trying to go straight while D.E.B.S. personnel try to bring lovestruck Amy into line. The humor is so raucous that the optimum screening time is a Friday night, when in a packed theater laughter can cascade up and down the rows. Although D.E.B.S. might be the beginning of a series, satirizing each new Charlie’s Angels film release, the ending unfortunately suggests otherwise. MH |