GIRL POWER FAILURE

A Film Review of "Charlie's Angels Full Throttle"

Copyright 2003 Glenn Walker

The first movie was fun. From start to finish it was a fun roller coaster slam-packed with inside jokes and wink winks. It was an action flick that celebrated female empowerment but never took itself seriously while simultaneously making fun of everything from The Matrix and Godzilla to the "Charlie's Angels" TV show that the movie itself was based on. With the same people involved in the sequel I have to wonder what happened?

First of all I have a real problem with the title. What the hell does "Full Throttle" have to do with this film? The original title was "Charlie's Angels: Halo." The term "Halo" at least references a crucial plot point in the story (what little there is).

Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and the always sexy Drew Barrymore seamlessly resume their roles from the first movie. There are lots of bizarre dress up scenes and flawless action scenes but this time they just seem to go on too long. The motocross episode is excruciatingly long. We all know Demi Moore is the villainess of the piece but the one thing Full Throttle does well is present enough other bad guys we forget about Demi Moore. If only we could.

Before attending this film my companion brought up what a good actress he thought Demi Moore was. I wanted desperately to refute but couldn't think of any bad Demi Moore performances. She had been in bad movies, it's true but always gave it her best. Ironically enough I had yet to see Charlie's Angels Full Throttle. She is terrible. I hope she got paid well.

I understand wanting a viable money name to replace Bill Murray when he was unavailable to play Bosley. Bernie Mac is a wonderful choice but they don't even give him so much as one funny line. He is so wasted here. I hope he got paid well too. Creepy Crispin Glover returns as the even creepier tall man from the first movie in a subplot that goes nowhere. Why? Even cameos from Bruce Willis and Jaclyn Smith couldn't save this mess.

Speaking of being paid well I think they might have run out of money. There are a lot of bad CGI and blue screen shots. It's almost as if all the scenes were shot in someone's garage and then the locations were put in later, and badly I might add.

If there is a third Charlie's Angels movie I hope it won't be just because director McG and the girls need a quick check. I certainly won't be looking forward to it. As far as Charlie's Angels Full Throttle is concerned use your money to rent or buy the original movie. It's a hundred times better.