CinemaNow - Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

Many critics who didn't have a positive word to say about the first Charlie's Angels movie appear to have had second thoughts about the sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. I think it has more to do with mood than with what's on the screen, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert writes about his own change of attitude, while conceding that the new film is more or less the same movie as the original. He continues a personal debate with himself over the movie this way: Maybe I was indignant because people were going to spend their money on this instead of going to better movies that were undoubtedly more edifying for them. But if people wanted to be edified every time they went to the movies, Hollywood would be out of business. Ebert says that after leaving the movie he realized that I did not hate or despise and eventually decided that I sort of like it because of the high spirits of the women involved. The same sort of dual-mindedness about the film is expressed by several of Ebert's colleagues. Across town, at the Chicago Tribune, critic Mark Caro writes: There wasn't much story in the first installment, even less this time, and what's here doesn't make a lick of sense. But no matter--this movie isn't actually about being about anything. Its purpose is simply to allow you to soak up the happy grrrrl-power vibes of this easy-on-the-eyes trio amid unevenly executed computer-enhanced action scenes Lou Lumenick in the New York Post calls the movie: proudly airheaded, incoherent, endlessly pandering -- yet fitfully entertaining. Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times puts it this way: This sequel to 2000's remake of the 1970s TV series about feminine crime-fighters is one of the most exhausting good-time movies ever made. As insistent as it is skillful -- and it is very skillful -- it does all it can to pound you into enjoying yourself. To be sure, some critics couldn't be pounded into enjoyment. Eric Harrison in the Houston Chronicle writes, There's nothing pleasurable about the noise, aggressive cutting and assaultive, comic-book action. Mike Clark in USA Today grumbles: The second Angels outing may be full throttle, but it's running on an empty tank. There are even a few all-out raves for the movie: Jami Bernard in the New York Daily News writes: This heavenly sequel ... is infused with an irresistibly joyous spirit that simply cannot be faked. And John Anderson in Newsday sums up the movie as virtually nonstop goofy fun with three lethal ladies.