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.   

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Indecent Proposal

 

Indecent Proposal is a 1993 drama starring Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, and Robert Redford. Moore and Harrelson were probably at the height of their respective careers, Moore coming off her 80s "brat pack" popularity and Harrelson from his run on Cheers. Redford was definitely on the other side of the height of his career but still had the leading man gravitas.

Moore and Harrelson play David and Diana Murphy, a young couple in financial trouble because of the recession. Of course, they decide the best way to remedy this is to use the last of their savings to go to Vegas to win the money. Per the Vegas stereotype, they win big initially, and instead of learning when to stop, they lose all their money. Enter Redford, a billionaire named John Gage who spots Diana looking at dresses. He offers the couple a million dollars to have sex with Diana. That is really all the setup that is needed. The story is pretty predictable, but it plays out well.

For those who get the blu-ray, the A/V quality is good, but the movie did not get an extensive restoration by any means. Even so, it was shot very well initially, and that definitely comes through. The only extra is a commentary track on the movie by the director, Adrian Lyne. It is an okay commentary, but not anything spectacular.

Overall, the movie is good but not great. It is a pretty standard love triangle story, and it was somewhat famous for being one of the first (if not the first) movies in which Demi Moore (who to this day is in phenomenal shape) did any nudity. It amounted to a quick topless shot at the beginning of the movie (but they were spectacular), and then she was in lingerie in a couple of scenes. The acting is very good and probably saved what was pretty mediocre writing in parts of the movie. It is not what I would call a must-see movie, but it is worth checking out. I am not sure if the movie is available on any of the streaming services for free or not, so if you want it, the disc is probably the best way to get it, even if there are not a ton of extras.