Movie Review: Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)

While the first episode of the unfortunate Charlie's Angels brand revival was almost tolerable, this truly unnecessary sequel is not. Full Throttle is one tiresome stuntfest, and at 106 minutes, it's about 101 minutes too long.

There is no plot, just a couple of bullet points on a greasy napkin: the Angels need to retrieve two titanium rings that together reveal the identity of every person ever placed in the witness relocation program. Cue contrived action sequences in Mongolia, on the motocross track, at the harbour, and at a Hollywood premiere of a fake movie called Maximum Extreme that sounds awful but still promises to be much better than Full Throttle. There is a minor complication related to one of the Angels revealing herself to be a protected witness originally named Helen Zaas, this being about the beginning and end of the wit on display.

Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore are back as the Angels, already going through the motions of wiggling their well-toned derrières in between the CGI sequences. Demi Moore is the main villainess, a former Angel gone bad, mainly because she believed herself too good to require teammates, although Moore's main motivation to appear in the film must have been to display her bikini body at age 41.

A parade of supporting performers including John Cleese (wasted), Shia LaBeouf (lost), Matt LeBlanc (clueless), Luke Wilson (ignored), Crispin Glover (underused), Justin Theroux (taking his role way too seriously), and Bernie Mac (as Bosley) get limited screen time in amongst all the computer processing power busy whirling away to create impossible leaps, jumps and somersaults.

The stunts are so over the top that they are much more laughable than thrilling, director McG losing control of the distinction between inspired and insipid, and going all out to prove that more is less.

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle has the pedal on the floor, but the gear is firmly stuck in reverse.

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