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Miss Congeniality
2: Armed and Fabulous
Release Date: March 24, 2005
Studio: Warner. Bros. Pictures
Director: John Pasquin
Screenwriter: Marc Lawrence
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Regina King, Enrique Murciano, Diedrich
Bader, Heather Burns, William Shatner, Nick Offerman, Abraham Benrubi, Treat
Williams, Elisabeth Rohm, Ernie Hudson, Lusia Strus, Leslie Erin Grossman, Susan
Chuang, William O'Leary, John DiResta
Genre: Action, Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for sex-related humor)
Official Website:
ArmedandFabulous.com
Plot Summary:
The story catches up with FBI agent Gracie Hart
shortly after she successfully disarmed a threat against the Miss United States
Pageant while working undercover as a contestant in "Miss Congeniality". Having
become a media celebrity following her heroic pageant exploits, Gracie has been
spending more time lately at the salon than the shooting range, working the talk
show circuit and promoting her book. When her friends, pageant winner Cheryl and
emcee Stan, are kidnapped in Las Vegas, Gracie's all-out efforts to jump back
into action to save them puts her at loggerheads with the FBI top brass who
don't want to risk losing their mascot and fear she might not be up to the job
anymore.
Review By Peter
Veugelaers
©2005
- Don't be deceived -- get out of cinema quick!
Miss Congeniality 2 is the
latest star vehicle for Sandra Bullock, who performs in this movie without
another comparable star like Hugh Grant (Two Weeks Notice) or Nichole
Kidman (Practical Magic). The assertive young woman characterisations
Bullock plays, such as her recovering alcoholic in 28 Days, is tenderised
by a sweet saccharine playfulness and winsome caring, not overdone but
convincing. In this sequel to box office hit Miss Congeniality, Bullock
appears to play role model for the young girls who make up the movie’s
demographic, yet in this outing as an FBI agent she is going through the
motions, hardly armed and fabulous.
In the first movie Bullock enlivened the screen with Gracie
Hart, a young and dedicated agent better at flipping new recruits in training
and eating donuts than elocution. Think The Princess Diaries with an
older ugly duckling. She has moved on since working under cover in a beauty
pageant and in movie two Hart has been assigned the front person for the FBI
because of her newly found celebrity status. But old habits die hard and when
Miss USA is kidnapped Hart goes against orders from the boss (Treat Williams)
and intervenes in line with her strong willed trait.
Bullock looks disinterested in this sequel, the energy is
gone and the first movie’s effervescence is found at the end of Act two in Las
Vegas cabaret musical numbers featuring, probably not by chance, strong women
icons, costume make-up renditions of Tina Turner and Liza Minnelli. That is not
a good sign when the music is more entertaining then the action.
Bullock’s flatness might be partly the fault of the movie’s
lack of inspiration, a story which does not execute the premise, ending tritely.
A disjointed movie, the developments in the plot are awkwardly explained through
dialogue, and mixes an uneasy blend of comedy and sentimentality and mostly
misfire jokes (a couple of running gags including one about celebrity don’t have
enough steam to last).
The highlight is the chemistry between Bullock and her butch
Afro-American chick bodyguard with attitude, played by Regina King, and other
supporting players, including Hart’s gay dresser, who otherwise only seems to
decorate most scenes he is in. The movie suffers the same fate as Bullock’s
follow-up to Speed, a series worse for ware.
We would love to know what you think, sound off on the
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International Trailer:
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9 Clips:
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Game - 'Armed and Balanced':
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