Music videos have the power to suck you in.
The unrealistic is acceptable and the quick editing to musicmakes even the most mundane thing entertaining.
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle feels like one really long musicvideo.
Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore, fast classic cars,helicopters, bad guys with bad accents, guns, fire, great cameosand Bernie Mac -- what more could you need for a short attentionspan summer movie?
Director McG (no, that is not the new McDonald's griddle cake,it is Joseph McGinty Nichol who goes by the single name McG, likeCher is just Cher) is a music video director who crossed over tothe big screen.
I am guessing it is for this reason the movie becomes dull thesecond the music stops -- fortunately it doesn't do that veryoften.
The basic plot doesn't deviate much from the first movie, basedon the 70's TV series. Three girls -- beautiful, forensic geniusesand skilled in martial arts -- work for their boss Charlie, whoonly appears as a voice from a speaker box. They are brought in tohelp government organizations bring down criminals in highfashion.
In the sequel, Bernie Mac replaced Bill Murray as Bosley, thego-between for Charlie and the Angels.
This time the list of the true identities of everyone in thewitness protection program has been stolen. Their chase leads themto discover the past of one of their own angels and that the badguy is really a bad girl -- fallen ex-Angel Madison Lee (DemiMoore).
Moore, who spends a lot of time slinking around in undies and aCruela DeVille-esque fur coat, is some of the movie's only realacting -- acting which seems out of place in a movie that is makingno effort to get you emotionally involved in the characters.
Instead, most of the action seems to be centered around havingthe girls change into various outfits -- surfing swimwear,motorcrossing suits, dancewear, nun uniforms, you name it -- withplenty of close-up butt shots to boot.
Look for cameos from Pink, the Olsen twins and Bruce Willis --famous faces seem to pop up everywhere.
Unabashedly fun, the movie is best when it is self-ridiculing,as when Diaz finds a suspect by analyzing the content of bird poopwith her bare hands. It may be cheesy, but it is too full ofgood-natured girly joy and too commercially viable to ignore.
If you go, stay for the outtakes. They are so like the movie youmight not be sure the movie actually ended, but one thing is forsure -- you'll wish you were paid a lot of money for having as muchfun as the trio seemed to have making it.
