Jul 27, 2003 07:27 PM
1961 Views
(Updated Jul 27, 2003 07:30 PM)
Feel good time?
This year is set to go through the greatest number of sequels ever released at once. With X-2 hitting the silver screens in May, 2 Fast 2 Furious next, T3 will be arriving within the next fortnight and with other trilogy/sequels being released into the movie-world like the Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle half-heartedly tagged along.
Unlike the other movies of Sequel Summer, Full Throttle did not follow in the trend of having a teaser trailer and then a full minute long trailer, instead the first I heard of Full Throttle was only two weeks before the initial release.
Full Throttle was undoubtedly an extremely expensive film to make. Stunts were professional, Matrix-style slow-montioned (particularly over-clichéd now, but they’re still easy on the eye) bullet-time photography. This however, must be its best point. Oh, maybe the girls getting soapy washing a sports car in skimpy bikinis flashing oh-dear-God the most amount of BE-HIND you could fit onto a cinema screen. (I’m done, phew).
Plot
Here’s the low-down on Full Throttle’s “plot”. Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu reprise their roles as Natalie, Dylan and Alex, three bodacious babes who kick serious butt. All looking perfect, feminine and downright hubbadahubbada; all backed by an anonymous millionaire who funds the Angels in their fight against crime for a division in an intelligence agency. This is all quickly recapped in FT for those who haven’t seen it’s predecessor.
This year there’s another story, another big bad and more guises in which the Angels get to look completely ridiculous and yet gorgeous. Its opening scene wasn’t as explosive or magic, as I’d hoped for it to set the scene for the whole film. In a bar in Mongolia the Angels in disguise (Ms Diaz as a faux fur goddess… A Swedish goddess. This is HOSTEL JA?!) seemingly hinder the plan of a bunch of rotten-teethed scallywags who are holding an intelligence agent hostage. Leather-clad Alex saves his a*s while ditsy Natalie straddles a bucking bronco and rather dare-I-say butch Dylan has a drinking contest with an ugly non-event. The Angels win the round escaping death by mounting spinning chairs, kicking the behinds of 50 or more men, falling down a dam in a truck and miss death by an inch when oh-so-lucky the helicopter from nowhere falls down with them and kick starts into action just before watery doom. Angel style!
The rescued agent bears a titanium ring sought after by an evil weevil (an unseen evil weevil – now now, I wonder who that could be) as there are two rings in existence that when brought together unlock the secrets of the Witness Protection Programme in the aptly named project Halo (the working progress title for the movie BY THE WAY!); with the names and identity’s of those under the programme. It comes to surface that our very own Angel Dylan once had to go under the programme, her real identity being Helen Zaas. Cue jokes. Laugh, laugh, chortle, chortle. When Helen witnesses the murder of a somebody (It is never really explained, well that’s Charlie’s Angels for ya’!) by her boyfriend (the head of the Irish mafia) she becomes Dylan; in future to be recruited to be an Angel.
There is a lesser mention of Natalie’s other half in this movie, but she does get to revive her dancing shoes and strut her stuff in an uncannily co-ordinated dance with random people as in the first film.
Demi Moore takes on the role of the fallen Angel; Madison Lee, driving the new 400 grand Ferrari might I add and looking stunning for her age. Creepy Thin Man returns and scares the bejesus outta’ me with his hair-sniffing fetish (there is a little light shone on this and we find out [slightly] the reason behind this – though it doesn’t explain his general creepiness).
There are many disappointing factors to Full Throttle which really detract from the original. Bosley as Bill Murray is taken over by his brother Bosley (played by comedian Bernie Mac) who takes the touches of comedy to the extreme, but doesn’t really play a big enough part in the film to be able to get away with it. His character could’ve been happily written out and the film’s rating wouldn’t have lowered.
The greatest comedy brought to the film is the general innuendo from the Angels, a particular incident involving cocks and beavers. John Cleese (the master of comedy) is a healthy addition to the film as Alex’s clueless father under the impression (by no fault of Matt Le Blanc) that Alex is some sort of swinger “we double teamed her”
“I’ve found a whole new way to help people that makes me feel alive. We’re a team. We just took on 12 sailors. I’m going to take a shower because I’m covered with you can only imagine.” Classic, just classic. So naughty and yet 12A.
There were a few true cringe worthy moments, mostly involving the outrageous stunts; the flips and turns of the Angels mid-air were too rigid and the special effects team may as well have kept the strings on; it didn’t make as much of an effort to look realistic as films like the Matrix did.
Charlie’s Angels, the original established itself a good reputation as a complete farce with unbelievable action and could lack in storyline for what it made up in comedy and saintly Angels. The sequel however, it seems, has gotten a little too cocky and let itself think it can get away with it’s lacking storyline; and those moments that aren’t generally explained in the film should just be smudged and forgotten by the hard-hitting action that follows. Charlie’s Angels would basically be a hit if Diaz, Barrymore and Liu got nekked-ish and paraded about on screen; which is practically Full Throttle condensed into one scene.
The film pays homage to a number of classics, including a scene where the Angels are welding in a rendition of Flashdance with “What a feeling” blasting from the speakers and The Sound of Music when they are disguised as nuns. It’s an un-spoofy spoof.
Full Throttle is not meant to be something that you’ll love; it’s not arty farty in the slightest, it’s completely clichéd and revels in this too. It’s sequences in which the Angels superhumanly so flip from one motorbike to another or escape an explosion and slide down a three inch thick rope on two-by-fours are just meant to be accepted.
Full Throttle is simply a 100 minute plus suspended disbelief.
I am not sure what lured me into watching this movie - perhaps after strangely enjoying the first I thought the sequel could out-do thw original; In that respect I was wrong.
The cast did a superb job in training and stunts. It was obvious the majority of action from the Angels was done by the real cast instead of stunt people lookalikes.
Absurdly, I immensely enjoyed Full Throttle, throughout the farce, the no-brain-action, the spider-man undies worn by Diaz and the over-the-top comedy from Bernie Mac. Put the aforementioned together and you gots yourself a good clean-ish fun movie. Uncannily, I recommend this.
