Chai-Lai Angels, as the name implies, is Thailand's version of Charlie's Angels, no doubt about that. They work as undercover secret agents, they have various disguises, they fight criminal organizations, they look good while delivering those high kicks, report to a "Bosley", the list just goes on.
Opening this year's Sawadee Film Festival, this is one action comedy that doesn't take itself too seriously. Filled with plenty of camp, jokes, implausible situations and crazy antics, you'd half expect the Angels to be slick, efficient, and the likes. Not! I actually found it quite amusing that they turned out more bumbling than effective!
In a 3 beauties and 2 erm, more mature looking ladies fronting the team (no guesses who came over to Singapore for the press conference), Chai-Lai Angels doesn't have too deep a storyline to boast, suffice to know that there's a Japanese household who holds the secret to the location of the Queen of Andaman pearl, which could fetch the bad guys billions of dollars in some black market auction. So it's up to the Angels to thwart this dastardly attempt so that the oceans, nature and the entire ecological system of the world will not be thrown into disarray (don't ask).
While they are not too busy fighting criminals, plenty of whom are generic foot soldiers commandeered by a gender-bender working for a characteristically bland villainous chief, they too have time to ponder on love, or the lack thereof. Taking a chip off Charlie's Angels and even Kill Bill (!), we see familiar wedding scenes, and that gyrating hips sequence ala Cameron Diaz in the former movie mentioned. But bottom line is, it's never easy being in this line, and keeping love interests (move away guys, we're here to see the girls in action!)
Some of the set action pieces are quite weakly done, so cheesy that it's laughable, but you'll probably never dismiss them as the girls get to do battle in various garbs0 like wet towels, bikinis and even wet nightgowns. The feminists might go up in arms with this, but hey, this movie's not for them anyway.
The pacing of the movie leaves much to be desired, and it's particularly violent for a PG rating, not that I'm complaining though, as almost everyone, ranging from a young girl to a cock-eyed villain, take turns to execute kicks, punches, stabs with plenty of gushing blood, and those bullets in the heads. As mentioned, don't take this movie too seriously, as it almost always threads on fantasy. The male one that is.
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