If my church had these Angels, I'd be there every day! (Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (DVD))

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (DVD)
Date:	22/07/03 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The cast, Skimpy outfits!, The soundtrack.

Disadvantages: What plot?, Some of the stunts.

Yes, I was bored. I admit it, and it was a choice of this or "Bruce Almighty". However, I watched the first Charlie's Angels movie and I liked it! The first movie was an enjoyable no brain popcorn romp featuring three beautiful women kicking ass in skimpy outfits while performing Matrix-lite kung fu. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is like that, but there's more. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (CAFT from now on) suffers from sequelitis. Sometimes, this is a good thing (Aliens, Terminator 2, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey) and sometimes it's a bad thing (Matrix: Reloaded, Beverley Hills Cop 2, Predator 2).

Returning for a second time are the three Angels ? Dylan, Natalie and Alex who, in the opening sequence that sets the scene for the rest of the movie (not only in plot, but in style and content), rescue Agent Ray Carter by infiltrating a Mongolian mountain retreat which is full to the brim with evil looking gentlemen. Alex is inserted into the underground lair part by hiding in a package, Dylan is already there undercover doing some ground work, and Natalie arrives when the other two are looking for a diversion in her "cunning" disguise of a skimpy Scandinavian tourist's outfit (don't ask). Of course, the Angels get Carter (no pun intended) and with the help of a groovy James Bond moment, make good their escape. (Don't worry, no spoilers here, we haven't even reached the opening credits yet!)

* The plot *

Well, the thing is this, there are two rings which are worn by Carter and another man, and together they provide the alibis of all the people currently on the Witness Protection Programme. The other man (some Senator or other, but he's not important enough for me to remember his name) gets killed, and Carter's ring was taken despite the Angel's rescue so someone has the two rings and wants to know the identity of people on the list.

It seems that whoever has
the list has already started to act upon it, and some protected witnesses are turning up dead. With the help from the new Bosley, the Angels spring into action to protect not only the innocent people on the list who may be inadvertently killed, but Dylan who herself is on the Witness Protection list. It seems that whoever is behind these dastardly deeds is working for an ex-boyfriend of Dylan's, and that he'll stop at nothing to exact some revenge.

Along the way they'll meet some faces from their past like the Thin Man (Crispin Glover) and ex-Angel Madison Lee (Demi Moore) which could be even more surprising than seeing Bill Murray change into Bernie Mac overnight.

* My thoughts *

I can sum the film up in one sentence, I think. If you liked the original, you'll like the sequel. That's it. I mentioned above about sequel-itis, and it's true. It's bigger stunts, more laughs, more shots of the three girls in skimpy (possibly skimpier!) outfits and more innuendo.

All three of the main stars look as if they had a good time making the movie, and it's easy to see the work they've put into the film when the stunts pop up. The wire work is impressive, as it was in the first movie. Most of the main cast return, including Matt LeBlanc as Alex's love interest Jason and Luke Wilson as Natalie's boyfriend Pete and everyone provides a good enough performance for this type of film.

Bill Murray's role as Bosley has gone to Bernie Mac (previously seen in Ocean's 11) due to a suspected personality clash with Lucy Liu, and I liked his wet behind the ears character. He's not meant to be the same character as Bill Murray, despite the similar name, but that's all explained within the movie. Whereas Bill Murray played his role fairly straight in the original, this time around Bosley a larger than life character who suddenly finds himself out of his depth and this does provide some humou
r.

I can't say that it's a perfect movie however. There were bits that really annoyed me, and I'm probably going to sound quite daft for saying so especially in a movie such as this, but I'll explain (at the risk of sounding like a pedant). CAFT is an action movie in the same vein as the "James Bond" movies, or maybe even the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies of old. To me, what this means is that the stuff you see is all exaggerated and might be possible. For example, feats of strength, taking a beating and then coming back stronger than ever, unfeasibly large falls which don't do as much damage as they should. These are all acceptable. Cartwheeling through the air from one motorbike to another as one of the bikes explodes, all while 20 metres in the air is not the sort of thing which fits in here, and would be more suited to a superhero movie or one of The Matrix movies. There are one or two set pieces like this which I felt just tried too hard and failed as a result.

For me, the movie (and stunt work) worked best during the fight scenes which were excellent and during the genuinely funny moments with Bernie Mac and the sub "plot" with John Cleese finding out what his daughter does for a living as well as the nods towards other films and TV series. The bigger stunts failed because I thought they were trying to get the audience to believe too much and were flashy for the sake of being flashy.

The film zips along quickly enough, and there's little enough plot to have to worry about missing any key pieces of information which is all explained to you anyway. McG's direction shows his pop video roots, and in CAFT his style hasn't changed from the original CA or the Sky One TV show, Fastlane. It's all frantic, but fun and colourful.

I'd give CAFT 3.5 out of 5, but I can't give half a star, so I'll round it up to 4 stars because I liked Bernie Mac, the soundtrack is excelle
nt and any film which has Cameron Diaz and Demi Moore in bikinis and other skimpy outfits is always worth it. You don't even need to have seen the first Charlie's Angels movie to enjoy this one.

* Cast *

Cameron Diaz - Natalie
Drew Barrymore - Dylan
Lucy Liu - Alex
Bernie Mac - Jimmy Bosley
Crispin Glover - Thin Man
Justin Theroux - Seamus O'Grady
Robert Patrick - Ray Carter
Demi Moore - Madison Lee
Matt LeBlanc - Jason
Luke Wilson - Pete
John Cleese - Mr. Munday

Directed by: Joseph McGinty Nichol (or McG for short)
Running Time: 106 min
Certificate: 12A

Summary: