People who know me have no doubt been looking forward to this review considering that my almost obsessive anticipation for this movie has been growing ever since I first saw the trailer. This is without a doubt one of the most unlikely movies for me to be excited about considering my tastes and considering what this movie is all about. It’s idiotic, childish, testosterone-injected, brainless, teenage, pop music fun. These are things I usually can’t stand and they are the reasons why I hated the first Charlie’s Angels movie. But for someone reason, when I saw the trailer for Full Throttle I immediately became excited and intrigued. There are a couple of reasons for this. First off, it was probably one of the most masterfully cut trailers ever made. I’m a sucker for a great movie trailer and I’ve come to appreciate movie trailers almost as an art form in their own right. But more on that some other time. Anyways, this trailer had everything you could want; four gorgeous women, kick-ass action shots, and a couple of good one-liners from Bernie Mac all set to the Prodigy song “Firestarter” which by the way is one of the coolest songs of the ‘90s. Needless to say I became interested by the impressive trailer and my interest grew as I began to read about the project and its director who goes by the inexcusably ridiculous name of McG. The story behind McG was that he had never done a movie before he was hired for the first Charlie’s Angels film, which I’ll admit he did a decent job on in terms of visuals. After the first Angels film, McG signed on to the ambitious new Superman project which if you’ve been keeping up with it has become one of the biggest fiascos in recent film history (what kind of world do we live in where no one wants to play Superman?). Anyway, the Superman debacle didn’t seem to get our vowel-free friend down. He was re-hired to do the sequel to Charlie’s Angels this time with a bigger budget and the addition of two big name stars, Bernie Mac as the new Bosley and a revamped Demi Moore as a fallen Angel named Madison Lee. I have to say, as gorgeous as the three main actresses are, and they all look amazing in this film, I’d take the 40-year-old Moore any day of the week. No, I’m not some kind of Mrs. Robinson chasing freak- it’s just that Moore is as great looking as any of her three younger co-stars but also has that dark, mature, sexy attitude that is missing from the other three. She clearly shines in this movie but she’s not the only good thing about Full Throttle. Before we get into what I like let me just go ahead and clear this up right now; the plot is utterly ridiculous. And the entire screenplay for that matter. Mind you it’s not so utterly ridiculous that it’s unwatchable. In fact, the good attributes of the film are designed in such a way that we overlook the absurdity of what’s actually going on and instead focus on the eye candy in front of us. This could be the most unapologetically stupid screenplay I’ve ever seen. McG has often said that he’s not interested in making films for artistic purposes. He just wants to make movies for Middle America, the common man, the man who wants to pay 8 dollars and see scantily clad women running away from explosions, slow-motion gun fights, and even the occasional dance sequence. And let’s not tap-dance around the fact that Bernie Mac, probably the hottest black comedian in American, was hired to replace Bill Murray. I don’t know about you but that sounds like CYA filmmaking if I’ve ever seen it. Eventually studios will learn that going into Cover Your Ass mode will never work since you end up giving everyone a little of what they want instead of giving some people everything they want. Now that I’ve admitted that the movie is utterly ridiculous, I can tell you how much fun it is. As base and unsophisticated as it is, sometimes you just feel like watching great looking women and insane action sequences. Is there anything so wrong with that? McG has a perfect understanding of the phrase “eye candy” and he knows how to make the women look beautiful, the action sequences exciting and the funny lines even sillier. McG also has the unique ability to make cameos actually work. Unlike a film like, say, Anger Management where the cameos are extremely forced and seem to have actually been worked into the movie at the last second, McG uses cameos at the exact perfect moment so that they actually contribute to the movie as a working gag. The cameos are also very carefully chosen, never random appearances like someone saying “Hey, look! It’s TV’s Dr. Phil!” (don’t worry, he’s not in this one). I can’t explain why any of the cameos are significant because it will ruin the gag but suffice it to say that McG never abuses the cameo like a lesser director would but rather shows us the way to properly use it. Bringing back the character of the Thin Man played by the terrifically creepy Crispin Glover was also a brilliant move and it makes me wish that Glover had better roles than he seems to be getting nowadays. McG also has a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of the action sequence. He seems to have a keen sense of what is exciting on film and what might fall flat. A perfect example is the scene where the Angels have a shoot out while riding in a motocross race. It’s almost ridiculous that someone would base a scene on this but it’s just so fun to watch that you almost force yourself to ignore the absurdity to allow yourself to enjoy it more. I am reminded as I watch this movie of one of my favorite rock artists, Andrew WK. In case you’re not familiar with him, Andrew WK writes songs which have incredibly fun guitar riffs and exciting music but completely idiotic lyrics. Among his songs are “Party Hard”, “It’s Time to Party”, “Party Till You Puke” and of course, the song from those new Kit-Kat commercials with the dancing workers. The first time you hear him you think “God, this is the stupidest music I have ever heard.” But as you listen more and more and realize how fun it is once you ignore how absurdly stupid it is, it becomes some of your favorite music. McG is the Andrew WK of the film world. Will he eventually use his talents to take on a more intelligent script? Probably not since his next project is described as “High Noon but with F-18s dog-fighting in downtown Chicago.” Oh yeah, artistic brilliance at work my friends. McG may not be the director I’ve been waiting for, the guy who can make the ultimate amalgamation of American culture into one giant action orgy with a message but he’ll do for a Saturday night at the Cineplex. My recommendation is to buy some popcorn and Raisinets, sink down in your chair, forget everything you learned in physics class and enjoy Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.