Movie Review: Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

Cameron got bruises fighting Demi Moore, Drew was nearly thrown off the hood of a car speeding over a bridge and Lucy caught on fire!!! I'd say that's "full throttle" enough for anyone. The Girls are back in town in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and Heaven help any little male devil who gets in their way.

This time out, Angels Dylan (Drew Barrymore), Natalie (Cameron Diaz), and Alex (Lucy Liu), plus a new Bosley (Bernie Mac), must recover a pair of titanium rings that contain the names of everyone in the witness protection program and their new identities. In a wild action opening in Mongolia, they rescue a high-up government dude but lose one of the rings.

Looking for these rings sends the girls, not to Middle Earth but on a lot of wild adventures that involve Dylan's angry ex-boyfriend and Angel-gone-bad, Madison (Demi Moore) who wants to sell the rings to the highest criminal bidder. The Angels change costumes and identities constantly as they hit the beach, a dockside sleazy bar, a dirt bike race, a convent, and a Hollywood premiere before a final knock down fight with Demi. Oh yeah, and somewhere in there, Alex's dad (John Cleese) gets the impression that she's working as a hooker!

This movie never takes itself seriously. Check the action opening.... The girls fall off a bridge, get into a helicopter while falling, Cameron flies it and they take off.... Right. James Bond, eat your heart out. This is "The Powerpuff Girls", live action.. with fishnets and a hundred costume changes. As Lucy Liu admits, it's "eye candy". The plot makes no sense as does Crispin Glover's sudden appearance on a rooftop to right with Drew, sniff her hair, kiss her and get killed.

There are tons of fun cameo appearances; everybody from Bruce Willis and rocker Pink to the Olsen Twins and original t.v. angel Jacqueline Smith pops in and out. Demi Moore is the hottest babe in the film by far but doesn't appear until halfway through. Shia LeBoeuf, star of Holes, pops in as a kid in the witness protection program but we never know where he came from or how the angels know him. Stunts are both unbelievable and awesomely cool. It's just fun to watch the girls (or their stunt doubles) race around on a moto-cross track or flip around in a car sailing above Hollywood Blvd. There are fun parody scenes as well as the girls show up undercover as CSI crime scene investigators.

Although the film presents women as empowered, savvy, in charge and kick-butt, and men as losers (except for Bosley), it also presents women as using sexy outfits and lap dances to accomplish their mission. I'm not sure this is as appropriate as the first Angels film for the young tween girls who flock to these flicks en masse. McG, the director, seems enamored with Cameron Diaz's fanny....she sticks it into the camera enough.

Overall, if you go to the film ready to throw plot questions to the wind and just watch women do their thing with abandon, then rush down "full throttle" to your local theater!.