What kind of weird cinematic year are we having when something like "Charlie's Angels" seriously kicks butt over the latest installments in both the "Mission: Impossible" and James Bond franchises?

Not that we should frown on all straight-from-the-small-screen-to-the-big-screen adaptations before they're even released, but conventional wisdom had it that this action-comedy, based on the hit '70s television show, would join such similar-minded movies as "Mod Squad" and "The Avengers" on the celluloid scrap heap.

However, as it turns out, "Charlie's Angels" may be the year's most pleasant surprise. While this silly but entertaining movie is not great art by any stretch, it's certainly an improvement on the now painfully dated source material.

It also has more than enough action to please fans of the genre, and they haven't had a lot to cheer about lately. And, occasionally at least, "Charlie's Angels" is much smarter and funnier than you'd ever expect.

As far as the plot is concerned, it's strictly low-concept camp. The title characters — bad-girl Dylan (Drew Barrymore), ditsy Natalie (Cameron Diaz) and brainy Alex (Lucy Liu) — are once again assigned a task by their mysterious benefactor Charlie (voiced by John Forsythe, the sole holdover from the TV series).

Their mission is to rescue Eric Knox (Sam Rockwell), a genius multimillionaire who's just invented voice-identification software that could be more useful than current fingerprinting techniques.

The sexy P.I.s quickly narrow their list of suspects down to one man — Knox's chief rival, Roger Corwin (Tim Curry), who owns a telecommunications satellite network that could use the new software to track and target people simply by their voice signature.

While they are able to rescue Knox, they're faced with an even-bigger dilemma when their intermediary Bosley (Bill Murray) is also kidnapped, and they discover that Charlie has also been targeted by an unsuspected villain who may be using the voice-technology to find him.

In his feature filmmaking debut, McG (best known for his music video work and Gap television ads) directs with style and manages to both parody and pay homage to "The Matrix," as well as the movies of John Woo (including "M:I-2") with a series of clever (and in some cases, subtle) sight gags.

Some of that can also be attributed to the surprisingly coherent script, credited to screenwriters Ryan Rowe, Ed Solomon and John August, though as many as a dozen other writers were involved to some extent.

Still, it might not have turned out so well without these lead actresses, who seem to be having a ball. All three get opportunities to be goofy (especially Diaz), and their fight scenes (well-choreographed by Hong Kong veteran Yuen Cheung-Yan) are surprisingly convincing.

However, as good as they are, the three are very nearly upstaged by two of their male co-stars. Murray steals every scene he's in, while oddball character actor Crispin Glover turns out to be much more menacing as a steely-eyed villain than you'd ever be led to believe.

"Charlie's Angels" is rated PG-13 for wall-to-wall violence (martial arts, as well as explosions and brief gunplay), crude sexual humor (mostly double-entendres), partial female nudity (the Angels' skimpy outfits) and scattered profanity. Running time: 92 minutes.

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