The Angels investigate a series of murders that occur after the theft of a witness protection profile database.
“Charlie’s Angels” (2000) was a big-screen attempt to cash in on the success of the 1970s TV show of the same name. While it failed to live up to the show’s expectations, it did have an occasional moment or two that was entertaining but overall, it was a huge disappointment (you can read my review here). Three years later, director McG and his three leading ladies returned for what was promised to be an even bigger and louder adventure and while it most certainly lived up to those specifications, so did its failings and transgressions.
Having already established our titular trio in its previous outing, this movie wastes no time in setting up the angels having to rescue U.S. Marshal Ray Carter (Robert Patrick) from Mongolia, and in doing so, losing his H.A.L.O. titanium ring (Hidden Alias List Operation) which contains a directory of all the people listed in the witness protection program. They save Ray and return him safely to the U.S. and after recovering his H.A.L.O. ring, as well as two other rings that were owned by a DOJ official and a protected witness, Ray returns to the angels’ office to reclaim the rings. He leaves and shortly thereafter, the girls are attacked by Seamus O’Grady (Justin Theroux), an Irish terrorist who Dylan used to date before she sent him to prison for murder whereby she went into the witness protection program.
Hellbent on retaliation, Seamus will stop at nothing to exact his revenge on Dylan and it soon comes to light that he and Ray have teamed up with a former angel, Madison Lee (Demi Moore), to sell all three H.A.L.O. rings to the highest bidder, including various mob families who would like nothing more than to track down former accomplices who turned state’s evidence on them. When Dylan disappears to Mexico by herself, in the hopes that her departure will help protect her fellow angels and best friends Natalie and Alex, she is given words of wisdom by an unlikely source, who then prompts her to return to the U.S. as her angels and Bosley need her more than ever. Now they must team up and take down Madison and Seamus before their malevolent plan takes the lives of innocent people.
I hadn’t watched either “Charlie’s Angels” or “Full Throttle” since their initial release back in the early 2000s and for some reason, before sitting down to review “Full Throttle,” I thought I remembered it as being the more mature of the two, that director McG had learned from the mistakes he made on the first film but lo and behold, it was even more of a travesty than its predecessor. The action is overly preposterous and exaggerated, the friendship between our angelic trio is increasingly contrived with each actress trying to convince us that they genuinely care and love for each other utilizing inept laughter and stilted camaraderie instead of, you know, acting like the relationship is authentic, and a bevy of famous names appear, just for the sake of appearances, Bruce Willis and John Cleese to name but a few. In all action films, you have to suspend a certain amount of disbelief but here, there is no amount of disbelief to be suspended that will allow you to enjoy what is happening onscreen. It is so nauseatingly irritating, you hope that the Men in Black will appear and use their mind-erasing Neuralyzer on you so you will forget that “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” ever existed.
Now available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD
