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| Charlie's
Angels Full Throttle DVD Review |
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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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Charlie's
Angels Full Throttle
(Widescreen Special Edition)
(Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment)
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| DVD
Release Date:
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October
21, 2003
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Length:
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107 mins.
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| Rated:
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NR
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| Format:
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Widescreen (2.40:1) Enhanced for 16x9 Televisions
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Audio:
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English
Dolby Digital 5.1 French Dolby 2.0
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| Subtitles:
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English, French, Korean, Closed-Captioned
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| Extras:
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Telestrator
Commentary with Director McG, Audio Commentary with Writers John
August, Cormac Wibberley and Marianne Wibberley, "Angel-Vision"
Trivia Track, "Turning Angels Into Pussycat Dolls" Featurette, "Rolling
With the Punches" Featurette, "XXX-Treme Angels" Featurette, "Full
Throttle: The Cars of Charlie's Angels Featurette, "Dream Duds:
Costuming an Angel" Featurette, "Angels Makeover: Hansen Dam"
Featurette, "Designing Angels: The Look of Charlie's Angels:
Full Throttle" Featurette, "Learn Why: There's No Such Thing As
a 'Short Shot', Only an Overworked Producer" Featurette, Music
Video, Full Throttle Jukebox, Cameo-Graphy, Filmographies,
Trailers, DVD-ROM Materials
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Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is the
follow-up to the highly successful Angels movie from three years
earlier. The three sexy Angels from the first movie are all back -
Natalie (Cameron Diaz), Dylan (Drew Barrymore) and Alex (Lucy Liu).
Bosley is played by the black brother (Bernie Mac) of the Bosley from
the first movie (Bill Murray). This time around the Angels have
accepted an assignment where they must retrieve two rings that have
been stolen that, when used together, can access a database of people
in witness protection program. The new identities and locations of
these people are going to be sold to various crime organizations such
as the Italian mafia, the Irish mafia, the Japanese mafia and the
South American mafia. The movie also features the return of Demi Moore
to the big screen as ex-Angel Madison Lee, the return of "Thin
Man" (Crispin Glover) and the introduction of Justin Theroux as
Irish badboy Seamus O'Grady.
Full Throttle is a movie that did poorly at the box office, was ripped
by the critics, and was not received very positively by the general
public. I have to admit, I saw the movie last night for the first time
on the DVD that is now available and I was thoroughly entertained.
Sure, the movie has a ridiculous story, a paper thin plot and
unrealistic stunts. Sure it exploits women, exploits men and is filled
with bad puns and weak dialogue. Sure Drew Barrymore can look
absolutely stunning in one scene and in another scene looks like her
face is from the Cro-Magnon ages. But the movie moves at a fast pace,
has some pretty original and crazy stunts (loved the motorcycle
scene), has a few funny moments (loved the little black dude at the
crosswalk with Bernie Mac), has a great soundtrack and has four
beautiful women baring their bosoms as much as they can without
getting an "R" rating. There are a handful of cameos that
are quite interesting (I won't go through the list because I don't
want to ruin it for anyone) and Justin Theroux is simply outstanding
as the evil Shamus O'Grady. I really enjoyed his performance and see
good things in the future for this guy. In the end, I will say that
Full Throttle is a lot better movie than it has ever been given
credit. It is fast-paced, it is not too long (it was nice to finally
see a movie that is not even close to two hours long) and it doesn't
take itself too seriously. It is pure fun and if you can't enjoy a
movie like this you should stick a piece of coal up you ass because
I'm sure it will come out as a diamond.
As for the extras on the DVD, first we have the director's commentary.
Director McG (pronounced Mick Gee, but also known as Joseph McGinty
Nichol) does a telestrator commentary. In other words, he gets to draw
on the screen a handful of times throughout the commentary. Though the
drawing didn't do much for me, his commentary was actually quite
interesting for a lone person sitting there chatting away. He is
pretty informative, doesn't complain as much as other directors I have
heard (at least he doesn't complain about money but he does mention
the weather a few times). McG talks about the cast, the stunts, the
cameos, some behind-the-scenes happenings and things that we may not
notice going on in the film (the orphanage was actually the Playboy
mansion - good work!). He seems like a fairly energetic, intelligent
and positive guy and his commentary is a pretty good listen.
The second commentary is a writers' commentary. Three of the film's
writers (John August, Cormac Wibberley and Marianne Wibberley) talk
about the movie in this fairly standard commentary. If you're only
going listen to one commentary, listen to McG's.
Next up is the "Angel-Vision Trivia Track" in which you
basically get to watch the movie with a bunch of pop-ups that include
facts and trivia about the movie and things associated with the movie.
I found this feature fairly annoying and pretty much had to stop
watching after a while because all you are doing is reading these
useless facts so that you cannot pay attention to the actual movie.
There is also an icon that appears during this special feature that
allows you to watch a few short featurettes.
The next special feature is the "Featurettes". There are
eight in total - "Pussycat Dolls" (almost 5 minutes on the
the famous L.A. dancing group of sexy women called by the same name
that appears in the movie), "Rolling with the Punches" (a
six minute feature on the fighting stunts in the movie where the women
surprisingly performed many of their own stunts, including interviews
with the director, cast and stunt co-coordinators), "XXX-Treme
Angels" (nine minutes on the big motorcycle scene in the movie -
some pretty good stunts here), "Full Throttle" (seventeen
minutes on the cars, motorcycles and car stunts in the movie hosted by
McG, again - the ladies really put themselves on the line with these
stunts, but what a waste of money - they flew an $800,000 Ferrari in
from Italy for the movie for a thirty second scene!), "Designing
Angels" (7 1/2 minutes on McG's unique style of filmmaking,
locations and the costumes of the Angels with lots of ass-kissing to
go around), "There's No Such Thing As A Short Shot, Only An
Overworked Producer" (eight minutes showing us what a huge
production this movie was and how much work went into making it - lots
of time and money on shots that lasted ten seconds in the movie),
"Angels Makeover: Hansen Dam" (four minutes on the very
expensive opening scene of the movie) and finally "Dream
Duds" (another four minutes on the costume design). Overall, the
featurettes are short and fairly interesting. I really got a few
things out of them, for example how big a production this movie was,
how much money was foolishly spent on the movie (they had a monster
truck built for the movie and it was used for 10 seconds) and what a
fun time everyone seemed to have while making this movie. The sets
certainly had a different feel when compared to other DVDs I have
watched. (For example, Michael Bay's yelling on the set of Bad Boys II
and Ang Lee's seriousness on the set of Hulk). McG seemed to have a
real fun time with Full Throttle and it seemed to rub off on everyone
around him.
The next special feature is the "Cameo-Graphy". This is
basically a very short biography of most of the famous people who had
a short cameo in the movie as well as a clip from the scene in which
they appeared. Do not look at this until you have watched the movie
because some of the surprise cameos will be ruined.
"Full Throttle Jukebox" has McG and music supervisor John
Houlihan explaining the choice of 11 songs that appeared in the movie.
The clip from the movie with the song is then played. There actually
seems to be a certain tension between McG and Houlihan although I
could be wrong there. Be sure to watch the "Jukebox Credits"
- there's a few funny outtakes there.
The DVD also includes the music video for Pink's "Feel Good
Time", access to a Charlie's Angels online game, filmographies
and trailers.
As an extra bonus, there are quite a number of "Easter
Eggs". Here are some of the eggs I came across:
1. Go to "Audio Set Up" and move the Angels icon to
"Main Menu". Using your remote control, click the cursor
right, right and down and it will highlight the arm band on Cameron
Diaz's arm. Press enter and you get a short film on a couple of the
hot stunt doubles who appeared in the film.
2. Go to "Subtitles", move the Angels icon to "Main
Menu" and click left, down right. This will highlight a car tire
in the picture on the screen. Press enter and there is a short film
with the person in charge of moving the equipment for the film.
3. Go to "Special Features", then go to "Featurettes".
Move the Angels icon to "Special Features" then press left,
left, down, down. The credit card in Cameron Diaz's hand is highlighted
and you can watch McG interviewing the script supervisor.
4. Go to "Special Features", then go to "Featurettes".
Go to the second page and move the Angels icon to "Special
Features", then press right, right, down. Bosley's tie is highlighted
and you can watch McG doing another short interview.
5. Go to "Special Features", go to the second page, move the
icon to "Main Menu" and press down, down, up, right, right.
The flame thrower in Lucy Liu's hand is highlighted for you to watch
McG interviewing the stunt coordinator.
6. Go to "Special Features", go to "Angel-Vision Trivia
Track", move the icon to "Special Features" and click
down, left, left. This will highlight the champagne bottle and you can
watch McG talking with the visual effect supervisor (I think at this
point he has interrupted everyone he has talked to at least once).
7. Finally, go to "Special Features", go to "Angel X
Online Game", go to "Special Features", press up, up,
down, down, left to see McG talking to the Assistant Director.
Overall, I will say that Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" is not
nearly the terrible movie that you may have heard. If you don't take
it too seriously, it is actually a fun movie that moves at a decent
pace. Maybe it's because I had the advantage of watching the movie for
the first time from the comforts of my own home but I thought it was a
fairly decent flick. The extras on the DVD are nothing out of the
ordinary but really do show the huge effort that was put into the
making of Full Throttle and really show director McG in a positive
light. I went into this movie not knowing a lot about McG but came out
of the movie with a newfound respect for him, his work and his overall
attitude. It's worth a rental at least.
| The Movie: |
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7.5/10 |
| The
Extras: |
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7/10 |
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Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
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