Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)

The Angels investigate a series of murders which occur after the theft of a witness protection profile database.What this film did right: the soundtrack. With bands like Electric Six, White Zombie, Prodigy and more, this kicks more butt than just about any other soundtrack. Also, the inclusion of actual cannibal Shia Labeouf is nice touch.What they did wrong: just about everything else. First of all, the addition of Bernie Mac to replace Bill Murray. You cannot replace Bill Murray. And then, just the weakness of it all. The whole point seems to be to make a movie even fluffier than the first, and try to make Cameron Diaz even more unlikable.

Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle (2003): Dir: McG / Cast: Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Demi Moore, Bernie Mac: Sequel that should be throttled with a baseball bat. Opening scene would fit perfectly in a James Bond film but here it looks plain stupid. It involves the theft and retrieval of two rings that contain secret information. Then the narrow escape follows as a truck goes over a bridge and the Angels land in a helicopter. Then there is the escape criminal connected with Drew Barrymore's past. Cameron Diaz is waiting for her dipstick boyfriend to propose. Lucy Liu's father visits unaware of her real job. The only good performance comes from Demi Moore as an evil Angel who states, "I'm tired of taking orders from a speaker box." She is ideal casting and pulls off a surprise victory until it is diminished when she shoots all three Angels only to discover that they had on bulletproof vests. That is conveniently pathetic and perhaps the single worst element in a long list of bad issues that is wrong with this garbage. Bernie Mac replaces Bill Murray who wisely avoided a second helping of this bullshit. Filmed like a music video by McG going fully high tech in production with little evidence of a screenwriter. He made the first film, which isn't much better. Both films should be throttled with a tire iron and buried somewhere where they will never surface again. Score: 1 ½ / 10

The Angels (Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz) rescue US Marshall Ray Carter (Robert Patrick). This sets off the theft of two titanium rings with valuable encrypted info on the Federal Witness Protection Program. Bernie Mac is the new Bosley. Now the Angels have to recover the rings.The girls are taking what was marginally fun and surprising to a ridiculous level. Director McG is pushing it so hard at every second of the movie that I never get a chance to take a breath. If it doesn't tire you out by the end, then you may have had a good time. Chances are that your brain will be hurting long before then. There was a joy in Cameron Diaz shaking her butt in the original. This one feels so much more staged. The joy is lost and the new Bosley is way too silly. The movie is just one comedic setup after another. Most of the time, I can't follow the story anyways. It needs to take some breaks to relax.

For the longest time I had remembered this movie being a big step down from the first movie. But after just watching it again, I'd say they're more or less equal.Surprisingly, this one actually has more of a plot than the first movie. It isn't exactly complex, but there is more interaction between the characters and a few examples of setup and payoff. Some of the jokes are pretty bad, particularly the ones centering around Dylan's former name, "Helen Zaas". Bill Murray is definitely missed, and the villains this time around aren't as good as Sam Rockwell was. Both movies are silly, but they're self aware. The filmmakers knew what they were doing with these movies, just wanting to make popcorn entertainment consisting of action sequences and attractive women. And for what these movies are, they aren't bad.