Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle

Directed by McG, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle follows Cameron Diaz’s Natalie, Drew Barrymore’s Dylan, and Lucy Liu’s Alex as they’re tasked with retrieving titanium rings containing the names of everyone in the witness protection program. There’s little doubt, ultimately, that Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle feels like a natural extension of its equally middling predecessor, as the movie boasts (or suffers from) precisely the same sort of relentlessly over-the-top and action-packed sensibility that defined (or plagued) the original film – with McG’s frenetic approach to John August, Cormac Wibberley, and Marianne Wibberley’s plot-heavy screenplay paving the way for a hit-and-miss narrative that generally fares best in its smaller, quieter moments. (There is, for example, a fun recurring bit detailing Alex’s father’s, John Cleese’s Mr. Munday, discovery of what his daughter actually does for a living.) And although the three stars breathe as much life as they can into their sketchily-drawn protagonists, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle benefits most substantially from the efforts of its exceedingly (and pleasantly) off-kilter roster of periphery players – with Justin Theroux’s gleefully larger-than-life turn as a mysterious, evil figure from Dylan’s past standing as an obvious (and continuing) highlight within the picture. (And this is to say nothing of Crispin Glover’s scene-stealing reprisal of his Thin Man character from the first movie.) The end result is, generally speaking, an almost watchable piece of work that’s certainly never boring, exactly, though it’s difficult not to wish that McG had included just a hint of substance within the propulsive, overstuffed proceedings.

** out of ****