In the Angels' new adventure, the captivating trio once again demonstrate their expertise as masters of espionage, martial arts, and disguise. [TRAILER]

STEVEN SNYDER'S REVIEW

“Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” is the kind of film that leaves one wondering whether it was worth the effort and money.

Based on the popular 1970’s television series and building off the 2000 summer blockbuster, everything in “Full Throttle” seems designed solely with the summer’s booming box office in mind. In other words, the special effects sequences, silly jokes, tantalizing outfits and overbearing soundtrack seem painfully forced and fake. Or maybe a better word is shallow. This film, for whatever it achieves, is painfully shallow.

This fact has not diminished other summer movies of the past, because there was still the sensation of something new and fresh. “Independence Day,” in retrospect, was also painfully shallow, but it had new sights and, of course, the threat of the apocalypse to keep it chugging along.

What director McG, and the film’s powerhouse heroic quartet of Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Demi Moore seem to forget is that this particular cinematic ride has been experienced before. Only three years ago, “Charlie’s Angels” introduced the same exact heroes, the same exact attitude and the same slow motion, dizzying special effects that run rampant in “Full Throttle”

In fact, it gets so bad that describing the plot this time around feels futile. There really is no story worth reciting here. Bad guys from each woman’s past, save Moore who is an evil woman herself, emerge from the woodwork to provide the Angels with opportunities to blow some stuff up, barely escape death and look beautiful and graceful while doing it.

Is there excitement in this action film? At times. But this superficial adrenaline rush fades quickly as the movie’s opening chapter soon becomes its repetitive mantra. One slow-motion action sequence is repeated again and again, in different locales and with different props, the story serving as little but a broad outline to facilitate more chases and explosions.

If the story and the special effects are the film’s nauseating factors, then the reprieve is the on-screen chemistry of its four lovely ladies. Each and every one of them knows how to work the camera, and all seem to legitimately be having the time of their lives. They also accomplish the daunting task of walking the tightrope between female exploitation and empowerment with grace and pizzazz.

Yet while “Full Throttle” is successful, in some measure, at making the audience smile, it also wipes the viewer’s minds clear by the time the credits, and an extra music video, hit the screen. Ask anyone who has seen it what they liked best, and you are more likely to hear about a particular special effects sequence or one of the women’s outfits than about the story or the characters.

For many, this is all beside the point. They want a fun summer action extravaganza, and they got it. Last weekend’s $38 million take at the box office proved that many Americans were in the “Full Throttle” state of mind. But likely none of these fans, who forked over five to ten dollars to see this mediocre Hollywood spectacle, are thinking, much less talking about it today.

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