Just when you thought it was safe to come back in my blog...
Return of the Movie Review! Tonight, "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle".

The Setup: My girlfriend is a huge Drew Barrymore fan. There was no question whether we were going to see "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" or not. It was a given. I'd been surprised by how fun the first one was and found myself looking forward to it, albeit a tad trepidatious.

The Back Story: When I saw the first movie, I wasn't expecting a lot and was a little wary of the director, McG, as he had zero feature length experience and this was not an art film or documentary, it was a multi-million dollar T&A adventure with explosions. All in all he did OK and I was sure he'd get the nod to do the sequel (as there was no question that one was forthcoming). Short version: I liked the first movie and thought McG did OK.

Back to the Future: So here we are 3 years, and millions in post-production, later and the new film is eating up tons of the people's disposable income. after a quick dinner and some smooching and talking we settled in to the show and here's the play by play.

The opening sequence knocked me down and asked me to stay still while it blew some shit up, pulled some gags and did some general ass kicking. When the smoke had cleared I picked up my jaw and stopped giggling like a fan girl long enough to say to Teq, "...McG has grown up... I mean really grown up..."

Now, before anyone gets their panties in a knot I want to remind everyone that this is comedy. It's allowed to have some un-believable aspects and take some liberties with reality and common occurrence. It's farce, It's not James Freaking Bond or Trainspotting. It's meant to be cute and thrilling and funny. Anyway, I'm happy to say I found it to be all three of those. McG has really come into his own and, while he draws obvious inspiration from the master, Ang Lee is gonna have to watch his back. This kid got really savvy really fast (OK, 3 years is a long time... but still, this is his second film). This is your new action guy. Action comedy? Even better suited.

Russell Carpenter returns as the cinematographer, but this time brings along a shitload of tricks learned from The Matrix and its spawn. And then some. I'm still trying to work out how the aerials in the Coal Bowl were done. This is some serious shit, y'all. I don't know who's idea it was, but all those fast zoom pulls really hit you right in the face. Heavy heavy stuff. The man deserves a pizza or a trophy for the opening sequence, that's for sure. And he knew when to reel it in [no pun intended] for the lighter stuff. There was even some bleached work that fit really well. OK, I'm gushing and I should move on before this turns into a gushfest for Mr. Titanic.

The Bottom Line:
"Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" - Worth the price of admission and well worth the wait. I am not really hoping or expecting a 3rd, but I am looking forward to McG's next outing to see where he goes from here.

Good fun. Go see it in a theatre. Don't wait and watch it in your living room. It's not that kind of movie.