Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003): ***

Directed by McG

I hadn't quite prepared myself adequately for watching this film. See, Charlie's Angels films don't give you a chance to get acclimated to their atmosphere. They throw you in and it's either sink or swim. So the first ten or fifteen minutes of this movie were incredibly jarring to me, because it's not like any other movie out there. It moves with it's own rhythm, but once I caught onto that rhythm, I'll be damned if it wasn't a fun flick.

What other film will have a two-minute choreographed dance sequence to MC Hammer's "You Can't Touch This" for absolutely no reason? You think I'm joking? Well, so did the people who made this film. It's absolutely ridiculous and it embraces that fact so absolutely thoroughly that it sweeps along and drags you helplessly in its frenetic wake. Actually come to think of it, there are at least three choreographed dance nubmers in this movie.

Reviewers alwasy complain about the plot of this movie (about both movies actually), but I don't know why. The plots themselves actually make sense per se. What often doesn't make sense is the almost supernatural abilities the girls posess that help them find clues and lead from plot point to plot point. Oh, well, these are the same people who couldn't understand the plot of the orignial Mission: Impossible movie. In this outing the plot is a little bit more involved than the last one, but as alwasy the plot is simply a background for these three girls (and Bernie Mac and, well, everyone actually) to throw back and have a screaming good time.

The only reason why this movie really works is because it is so clearly evident that everyone involved in the making of this film was having the time of his/her life. The giddy enthusiasm is absolutely infectious.

This film even more than the last has celebrity cameos up the yin-yang. There's Bruce Willis (weird to see him in a film with Demi—even weirder to see him get murdered by her), the Olsen twins, Eric Bogosian (as a corpse), Robert Forster, Jeremy McGrath (the biker guy), Bela Karolyi (the "you can do it" gymnastics coach) as himself, Eve, Pink, Carrie Fisher (as a nun). There are also larger supporting roles for John Cleese (as Lucy Liu's dad), Ja'net Dubois (as the matriarch of the Bosley clan), and Shia LeBeouf (as a witness relocation kid who gets adopted into the Bosley family). Matt LeBlanc and Luke Wilson are back as loyal boyfriends. And an original Angel, Jaclyn Smith, has a freakin' hilarious cameo as her original character, Kelly Garrett.

Speaking of Bosleys, Bernie Mac takes over the role from Bill Murray, and although Mac is really very funny, the movie really missed the absolute insane energy that Murray brought to the first. Apparently Murray's Bosley was adopted by the Bosley clan a long time ago (and was given Mac's room as he comstantly complains), which explains how Murray and Mac could possibly ever be brothers. It was really nice to see LeBeouf get such a large role, and when he's adopted by the Bosleys in the end of the film it (hopefully) sets him up to be in more.

And also Crispin Glover is inexplicably back as the creepy Thin Man. For some reason he's helping the Angels this time. I think it's because he likes Drew Barrymore's hair. Although I must confess that I had forgotten that the Thin Man character was in the original Charlie's Angels until the car ride home. Then that character made a little bit more sense.

The action is up a notch (actually it's up to full throttle) from the last film, with my fav sequence being an assasination attempt during an extremely dangerous motocross rally.

Anyway. Yeah, I liked this movie, but it's just so much not a real movie. It's like watching a whole bunch of people goof off for a couple hours and have a really great time. It made me feel like I was having a good time, too.

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