Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

 

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is a 2003 action/comedy film that is the direct sequel to the 2000 film Charlie's Angels. McG returned to direct the film, which brought back Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu to reprise their roles as the Angels Dylan, Natalie, and Alex. Crispin Glover, Luke Wilson, and Matt LeBlanc also reprised their roles from the first movie. The additions to the cast included Demi Moore, Robert Patrick, John Cleese, Shia LeBeouf, Justin Theroux, Bernie Mac, and Ja'Net Dubois. The film also features several cameo appearances, including Carrie Fisher, Pink, Robert Forester, Bruce Willis, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Jaclyn Smith, reprising her role as Kelly Garrett from the TV series. 

The plot involves a pair of rings that contain and unlock a list of people in the witness protection program. The list is stolen and set to be sold to various criminal organizations. A couple of revenge plots are intertwined within the story, and we get a bit more backstory about Crispin Glover's character. 

This is a single-disc release containing both the theatrical version of the film and an unrated version that adds a few more minutes to the runtime, mostly by adding more violence to a couple of the big fight scenes. The extras include several commentary tracks on the film. There is an audio and a telestrator commentary by McG. The audio tracks are exactly the same, but the telestrator commentary is annotated with things being circled in the background of some of the scenes while McG talks. Then, there is a commentary track by a couple of the writers. The theatrical version can also be played with a trivia track similar to the old show, Pop-Up Video, where information about the movie is displayed in pop-up boxes while it plays. Then there are several different making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, a preview for the 2019 reboot, and the music video for Pink's song Feel Good Time. 

Ultimately, the movie is a fun action-comedy. It is similar in style and tone to the first movie. It does have a lot of adult humor that skirts the bounds of what can be included in a PG-13 film. There is also a scene where the Angels are nude in shadow so you cannot really see anything except for a brief flash of sideboob from Drew Barrymore. Of course, the big draw when the movie came out was that this was Demi Moore's return to movies after a hiatus of about six years. She was phenomenal in the role and looked fantastic. It seems all the actors had fun in their respective roles and did not take themselves too seriously. The big change from the first film is that Bill Murray did not return. The writer's commentary track touched on Murray's absence, stating that they knew they would have to go in a different direction with the Bosley character when it was clear that Murray would not be back. There was no mention in any of the bonus content of the conflict between him and Lucy Liu in the first movie. They came up with a good way to have Bernie Mac be the new Bosley and did include a picture of Murray in one of the scenes. If you liked the first movie, you will probably like this one. Like the first film, this one takes a lot of suspension of disbelief and has some plot holes, but if you do not overthink it and just enjoy it for what it is, it is worth watching.   

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Charlie's Angels

 

Charlie's Angels is a 2000 action-comedy based on the 1970s TV series of the same name. It stars Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz, Bill Murray, Sam Rockwell, Kelly Lynch, and Crispin Glover in the main roles. Tim Curry, Matt LeBlanc, Luke Wilson, Melissa McCarthy, Tom Green, LL Cool J, and Alex Trebek have smaller roles (or cameos). John Forsythe reprised his role from the TV series playing the voice of Charlie, while Barrymore, Liu, and Diaz played the Angels. Murray plays Bosley, who is the go-between the Angels and Charlie. The plot involves misdirection about who the true bad guys are, but the meat of the storyline is that someone is trying to track down Charlie as a part of a revenge scheme, using the Angels and Bosley as unwitting pawns in the plan.

The 4k set is a two-disc set containing a UHD disc and a regular blu-ray disc. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is outstanding and is a massive upgrade over the DVD release and a decent upgrade over the 1080p release. Most of the extras are on the regular blu-ray, but the UHD disc has the teaser and theatrical trailers for the movie and a sneak peek at the 2019 reboot/quasi-sequel written and directed by Elizabeth Banks. The extras on the regular blu-ray were carried over from the prior physical media releases and include a commentary track by director McG and cinematographer Russell Carpenter, several behind-the-scenes featurettes featuring cast interviews, a blooper reel (which are the same bloopers shown in the end credits), deleted scenes, and two music videos.

The movie is a bit dated, but it holds up pretty well even after 25 years (as of this writing). It has a good blend of action and humor, and Barrymore, Diaz, and Liu had no qualms about looking silly. They did work their asses off to do a lot of the stunts. And, they were all hot as fire. Some of the humor is a bit cheesy, and Tom Green is annoying, as always. While Barrymore, Diaz, and Lui seemed to have great chemistry, there was no mention in any of the bonus material of the tension between Murray and Liu that would lead to the role of Bosley being recast in the direct sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Ultimately, this combines a good action movie and a silly comedy. If you can accept it for what it is and what it is not, it is worth watching. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Bad Teacher

 

Bad Teacher is a comedy starring Cameron Diaz as Elizabeth Halsey, a middle school teacher with aspirations of marrying rich. She originally quits teaching and is forced to return when her rich boyfriend dumps her. She is forced to return to teaching, which for her amounts to playing movies so she can sleep off hangovers, smoke pot, insult the students, and hit on Justin Timberlake's character. It is a pretty by the numbers comedy/reformation story with Elizabeth correcting the error of her ways by the end.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, both the theatrical version and the slightly longer unrated version are included. The extras include a gag reel, deleted scenes, outtakes, and a few behind-the-scenes featurettes. Probably about 40 minutes worth of extras total. Not a ton, but fine for a non-blockbuster comedy. Overall, the movie is good, but not as strong as some of the other comedies that came out around the same time. Diaz is funny and never shies away from making fun of herself. It has a strong supporting cast including Jason Segel, Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins, Molly Shannon, Thomas Lennon, and Eric Stonestreet. I would not call it a must-see, but it is worth checking out if you are looking for a comedy to watch to kill an hour and a half.

DVD/Movie Review: Charlie's Angels (Special Edition)

 

Charlie's Angels is an action/comedy from 2000 and a reboot of the 1970s TV Show. It starred Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu (as the titular angels), Bill Murray as Bosley, and Tim Curry, Crispin Glover, Kelly Lynch, Luke Wilson, Sam Rockwell, and John Forsythe in a small cameo role. It is a movie that very much has its tongue firmly planted in cheek. There is a lot of over-the-top action and some sexual innuendo. There is no nudity, just some tight outfits and cleavage shots (especially from Drew Barrymore). The movie is primarily an action film with a plot that is mostly there to have something to fill between the action sequences. It involves a plot to kidnap a software developer (played by Rockwell), which is really a plot to get Charlie (who, of course, is only heard, not seen). 

The DVD has a ton of extras, including several behind-the-scenes and making-of features, a commentary track on the movie with director McG, deleted scenes, bloopers, production notes, trailers, and a couple of music videos. The film has been released on blu-ray, but I am not sure if there are any new extras that were created just for the blu-ray. 

The movie is not great, but it is fun. That was really the point of it. It was never intended to be an award-winner and does not try to be. The movie's production was not without controversy because of the heat (or possible outright hatred) between Bill Murray and Lucy Liu, but that did not seem to bleed over into the movie itself. And, of course, because Barrymore was married to Tom Green at the time, you have to endure a few minutes of him, which is great if you find him funny. Not so much if he makes your ears and eyes bleed anything he is on screen. Overall, it is a good action movie with a lot of so-so comedy in it. Some of the comedy is very good, and some of it is very bad. But, I do think it is worth checking out.