Sequel Baiting #6 - Charlie's Angels vs Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

Time for something for little less serious. There have been hundreds of takes on the spy genre, but none scream girl power quite like Charlie’s Angels. Based on the 80s TV show, Charlie’s Angels followed 3 sexy spies doing missions for their faceless man known as Charlie. I’ve not seen the show, but I’ve seen the movies… Oh, have I seen the movies. Although the show was ultimately cancelled due to low ratings, Charlie’s Angels has gained a bit of a cult following, can’t imagine why *cough*boobs*cough* spawning the creation of Charlie’s Angels in 2000 and Full Throttle in 2003. (Also a 2011 revival series and a 2019 remake *sigh*) critically and commercially, the first comes out on top, but we’re not here to look at what other people think.

Plot

After a brief introduction of our heroes, Alex (Lucy Liu), Natalie (Cameron Diaz) and Dylan (Drew Barrymore) as they stop a plane bombing by a shaggy haired man who is never mentioned again. Charlie’s Angels begins with Charlie (reprised from the original series by John Forsythe) making contact through Bosley (Bill Murray) and we’re introduced to their latest client, Vivian Wood (Kelly Lynch), she’s hiring them to rescue the kidnapped CEO Eric Knox (Sam Rockwell), believed to have been kidnapped by Roger Corwin (Tim Curry). But not all is as it seems and soon the Angels end up with more questions than answers.

Full throttle opens with the daring rescue of US Marshall Ray Carter (Robert Patrick) the rescue is successful but a ring is lost in the process and it turns out to be one of 2 decoder rings for a list of people in witness protection and their undercover identities, the second one is quickly taken from the Department of Justice official William Rose Bailey (Bruce Willis in a 5 second cameo). When several of them end up murdered, and rumours the list is up for sale, the Angels must move quickly in order to stop this with the ‘help’ of their new Bosley (Bernie Mac)

Look, I’m not gonna tell you that either plot is high art, they’re both pretty dumb with moments that I don’t want to spoil just yet. But the second one just doesn’t flow very well, it moves from scene to scene, from disposal villain to disposable villain with little feeling much accomplished until we get the big villain reveal about 20 minutes before the end of the movie. The first has pointless scenes too but the threads are better connected and the story feels more flowing. On this basis, I have to give the point to Charlie’s Angels

Charlie’s Angels – 1

Charlies Angels: Full Throttle – 0

Character arcs

I want to first express some of my problems with Charlies Angels characters as a whole. The team dynamic in both movies is flawed, whilst the intro gives us some insight to their skills, it doesn’t always translate well. Elements like Natalie being able to identify a location based from a unique bird call felt more out of left field than a natural part of her character. And despite them being friends, they don’t have an interesting dynamic. They’re all relentlessly cheerful during missions, making it impossible to get much in terms of funny dialogue, something which really hurts the comedy, which I’ll get back to.

In terms of character arcs, it pains me to say that in the first movie, they all revolve around love interests. Alex’s boyfriend is aloof film star Jason (Matt LeBlanc) and that’s all I have to say about them. Dylan has a forgettable boyfriend named Chad (Tom Green) he has a boat, and that comes into play later. Then we have Nat’s new boyfriend, Peter (Luke Wilson), he and Nat share some chemistry but the double-life always seems to get in the way. None of this character stuff does much when it comes to the main narrative. The villain’s motivation might’ve provided some ground for character work for Charlie if it didn’t turn out to be a bunch of lies.

Full Throttle has some more half-baked ideas for character arcs, but few of them make it to fruition. The most important one is the fact that Dylan was actually part of the witness protection programme, her ex-boyfriend, Seamus, was part of the irish mob and after seeing him kill, she helped take him down. One of the villains arranges Seamus’ release and things start coming to light, Dylan quits the team, thinking her past has put the others in danger, despite the fact he’s an active threat and will still target the Angels. Unfortunately, all it takes for her to reconsider is a motivational speech from a former angel who’s possibly a hallucination who (at least in these movies) we’ve never seen before. So basically, this entire arc was an excuse to get a cameo from an original angel, but at least this one is better crafted into the main plot. There are other bits like Alex’s father arriving, her and Jason being on a time-out which ends at the end of the movie. Peter maybe proposing to Nat, and the prospect of her leaving the angels. Dylan mentions she’s rather low on money which begs the question of them being paid to be Charlie’s Angels?

Despite most of the ideas not really coming to fruition, there’s more to Full Throttle than there is to Charlie’s Angels, point to Full Throttle

Charlie’s Angels – 1

Charlies Angels: Full Throttle – 1

Villains

I’ve been backing and forth-ing on this one

In both movies, there’s a twist villain (kinda), and in both movies, it’s still obvious from the outset. Eric Knox was rescued far too soon in the movie for the twist not to be obvious. He’s certainly an interesting personality, his motivation is interesting also, he believes Charlie was responsible for the death of his father in Vietnam, turns out his father was a double-agent killed by the other side but Knox died before hearing that so it’s not that interesting a development. Vivian wood seems to be the smarter half of the duo, and the better fighter, but she had less personality.

In Full Throttle, the former Angel Madison being the villain was also entirely predictable, her motivation is… is… what was her motivation again? I think they wanted to set her up as a dark side of Nat, given their fight seemed like it was supposed to be personal but if that was the intention, they missed the mark quite badly. Seamus was slightly more memorable, if only because of the Irish accent. But his connection to Dylan made his threat feel bigger.

But there’s one villain who did made it across both movies. The Creepy Thin Man (Crispin Glover). The unnamed thin dude was in the employ of Knox in the first movie, leading them to rescuing Knox and providing some muscle. In the second movie they give him a sort of redemption arc, but it’s still quite an odd one. He’s somewhat of an obsessed stalker of Dylan, pulling out and sniffing her hair in every scene, he seems to be wherever the plot needs him to be in Full Throttle, until he’s ultimately killed by Seamus. He’s given some backstory, with a cameo from Carrie Fisher (god rest her soul)

Ultimately, neither film shines when it comes to a memorable villain. Seamus is in my eyes in most memorable, with the Creepy Thin Man coming in second, but he comes with a weird redemption arc that feels kinda forced. In the end, though, I have to give it to the original, because their villains had a more identifiable motivation. 

Charlie’s Angels – 2

Charlies Angels: Full Throttle – 1

Music

I’ll be relatively quick on this one, both movies use relatively generic pop music, but that’s at least fitting with the spy-action-comedy theme the movie was going for (unlike the first Percy Jackson movie) whilst both have a song I actively cringe when I hear, the context behind hearing Big Butts at least works better than Hammer Time, which is really only there for a pointless dance sequence, point to the original

Charlie’s Angels – 3

Charlies Angels: Full Throttle – 1

Action

Both the Charlie’s Angels movies use a mix of wire-work, stunts and lots of slo-mo and ludicrous effects and CG. None of the CG holds up that well, the skydive in the original and the Helicopter scene in the sequel spring to mind immediately. That said, this is not a movie that needs too take itself to seriously so having surfing down a rope and the aforementioned ludicrous helicopter escape scene make me smile, and is not topped by the original. Point to Full Throttle

Charlie’s Angels – 3

Charlies Angels: Full Throttle – 2

Comedy

Being labelled as action comedies, they should make you laugh, right? Like I said before, the lack of dynamic between the girls hurts its comedic potential during the main plot, so comedy generally has to come from sub-plots and comic relief. In the original, there’s a few funny moments, helped by the presence of Bill Murray. Some of the jokes don’t land with me, like some of the awkward dancing, but it ultimately didn’t make me groan and I’m willing to accept it.

Oh my god, the comedy in Full Throttle is awful. Multiple groan-inducing moments, not helped by new Bosley, Bernie Mac, he ups the annoying 10-fold, not helped by his extended family showing up in the episode, joined by Shia LeBeouf, before his mental breakdown or whatever happened to him. It’s not just that, there’s no real drama in Alex’s father coming along, it’s all played for laughs, particularly his interactions with Jason, and how they think very different things about her work life…

The original clinches this category, and gains the bonus point, not for being good, but because Full Throttle is that bad

Charlie’s Angels – 5

Charlies Angels: Full Throttle – 2

For me, neither of the Charlie’s Angels movies hold the quality of Kingsman as an action comedy, but with some strong performances and fan service aplenty, I can see why this has appeal, and it was a fun enough distraction for a few hours to watch them. The original movie comes out on top of its sequel, boasting a better plot, villains with more reasoned motivation and much better comedy, whilst the other does have better character arcs and fun dumb action set-pieces.