While CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE ($28) may be an example of moviemaking style over substance, the film has one crucial thing going for it- it’s a whole lot of fun. CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE finds Natalie Cook (Cameron Diaz), Dylan Sanders (Drew Barrymore) and Alex Munday (Lucy Liu) back in action, with "action" being the key word for this high-octane sequel. As with the first film adaptation of the jiggly seventies television series, CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE follows the adventures of the current Angels in residence at the private investigations company run by the mysterious Charles Townsend (voiced again by John Forsythe).

This time out, the angels are assisting the government in retrieving two high tech rings that contain coded information for individuals in the witness protection program. Aided by a new Bosley (Bernie Mac), the Angels find their efforts to track down the stolen rings complicated by the appearance of former angel Madison Lee (Demi Moore), as well as Dylan’s bad boy ex-boyfriend Seamus O'Grady (Justin Theroux), not to mention the mysterious Thin Man (Crispin Glover), who perplexed the Angels in their first cinematic outing. As I stated above, CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE offers fans a heavy-duty dose of action, with director McG mixing MTV styled visuals with the natural assets of his lovely leading ladies. The cast of CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE also includes Robert Patrick, Matt LeBlanc, Luke Wilson, John Cleese and Ja'net DuBois.

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has made CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE available on DVD in a 2.40:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for playback on 16:9 displays. This is a pretty terrific looking transfer of a very visually stylized movie. At times, colors tend to shoot off the scale, plus there is a penchant for highly contrasted images throughout the course of the film. Fortunately whenever color saturation is taken to the extreme, the DVD has no problems replicating the hues without noise or smearing. Flesh tones are always very appealing, even when the color scheme keeps them from appearing wholly natural. Blacks are generally on the money and the whites are pure. The image itself usually appears crisp and nicely defined, except for the moments when the visual styling gets in the way of the detail. Digital compression artifacts are occasionally noticeable, but usually well contained.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack is guaranteed to kick butt during the film’s bigger action oriented moments, but is a little less eager to please during the quieter passages. For some reason the forward soundstage seems a bit more dominant than it should be, with the rears not being as aggressively implemented as the material would seem to call for. Still, the track has a lot of heavy-duty sound effects certain to make action movie fans happy, as well as a lot of very cool incidental music that throbs nicely to the film’s visuals. Speaking of throbbing, the bass channel is strong enough to rock the movie into orbit. Dialogue is completely understandable and never gets buried under the loudest effects and music. A French surround track is also provided on the DVD, along with English, French and Korean subtitles.

Full motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD's interactive menus. Through the menus, one has access to standard scene selection and set up features, as well as a nice array of supplemental material. There are two separate running audio commentaries included on the DVD, one with the film’s director and the other with the writers. Both are fairly interesting, although director McG’s comments have been augmented with a "telestrator" capacity, allowing him to draw on the screen and highlight whatever he is talking about. The Angel-Vision Fact Track offers popups containing trivia and other information about the movie and things related to the production.

Next up are the featurettes. Pussycat Dolls is a five-minute look at the risqué burlesque dance sequence. Rolling With The Punches runs six minutes and focuses on the fight sequences. XXX-treme Angels clocks in at nine minutes and looks at the film’s motocross sequence. Full Throttle features McG, who discusses the film’s hot and cool vehicles. Designing Angels is a seven-minute glimpse at how the look of the film was achieved. There’s No Such Thing As A Short Shot, Only An Overworked Producer spends eight minutes looking at the difficulty of bringing all the production elements together. Angels Makeover: Hansen Dam is a four-minute examination of the film’s opening effects sequence. Dream Duds runs four minutes and revisits the film’s costumes and design sketches. Other supplements include a Cameo-Graphy, quick rundown of the film’s cameos, as well as the Full Throttle Jukebox, which looks at the film’s choice of pop songs. Pink’s Music Video for the song Feel Good Time, plus filmographies, a theatrical trailer and bonus trailers close out the supplements. DVD-ROM features include an online game.

CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE is a fun and action packed sequel. Columbia has done a fine job with the DVD, offering a good looking and sounding disc that includes some solid extras. If you like hot babes that kick butt, then you’ll want to check out CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE.