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Movie Review - Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
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(What this rating means)
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| Director: |
John Pasquin |
| Starring: |
Sandra Bullock, Regina King, and William Shatner |
| Rated: |
PG-13 (for sex-related humor) |
| Length: |
115 minutes |
| Genre: |
Comedy |
| Tagline: |
None |
| Studio: |
Warner Bros. |
| Website: |
Miss Congeniality 2 |
| Release: |
March 25, 2005 |
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PLOT
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Three weeks after saving the Miss America Pageant, Gracie (Bullock) is a household name and an inspiration
to females of all ages (and most likely poster material for males of all ages). She even has a ghostwritten
autobiography, From Misdemeanors to Miss Congeniality, that is more than slightly inaccurate but
popular all the same. Unfortunately, her newfound fame compromises her undercover work and botches the FBI's
attempt to foil a bank robbery. No longer able to go out in public without being recognized, she agrees to be
the "face of the FBI" and hit the talk show circuit to help soften its public persona.
That's fine and dandy until 10 months later when Miss America and William Shatner are kidnapped and held
for ransom. She feels the urge to get involved in the investigation, but she's told she will only be
needed for PR. It doesn't take a web developer with a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MBA to
figure out what happens. Sandra Bullock's charm ensues.
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JOHNNY'S TAKE
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"The reason for a sequel," says Bullock, "is that Marc (Lawrence, writer and producer) and I found
ourselves on numerous occasions imagining what Gracie would have gone on to do after her big triumph at
the pageant and how all the media attention would have affected her." Yeah. I'm gonna take a wild one
and say the fact that the original made over $300 million (including domestic AND worldwide gross,
rentals, and DVD sales) probably had a little something to do with it as well.
Let's be honest here, do you really need a review to convince you of whether or not you want
to see this? Seriously, if you watch the trailer and read this review and STILL see the movie, then I
don't want to hear any complaints. Walk out of the theater with a smile on your face or I'll put one
there, OK? Otherwise, don't see it. Come on, you're not really expecting something fresh and original
are you?
Have you read the plot line? Miss Congeniality 2 obviously runs a predictable path. Gracie is
originally reluctant to become Ms. FBI Barbie, but then she embraces the role and becomes a wee bit too
wrapped up in it. But wait! William Shatner and Miss America are kidnapped! So it's off to Las Vegas
to run a little PR. Enter Treat Williams as the Las Vegas FBI supervisor (Collins) who has ambitions of
writing his own book and doesn't care for Gracie coming in and stealing his thunder. You might as well
have cued the sinister music and given him a Cheshire cat to pet and a handlebar mustache to twirl.
It'll come as a shock to approximately three sub-70 IQ viewers that Collins disregards Gracie's attempts
at helping and begins to steer the investigation in the wrong direction. You know what that means, right?
Time for Gracie to shed the FBI Barbie image and go back to her old ways! Somebody call up Memento,
and let it know that a new master of unpredictability is here and its name is Miss Congeniality 2:
Armed and Fabulous!
OK, so not really. But who cares? The movie ramps up the cheese, the stupidity, the silliness, and the
camp, and it revels in it. The best thing I can say about this sequel is it knows exactly what it is, it
knows exactly what its audience wants, it knows exactly how ridiculously over-the-top everything is, and
it doesn't care one whit what the critics think. There's no shame to be found here, and for that, I tip
my hat.
I'll be honest, if you try to put a movie like this on the shoulders of Julia Stiles or Kirsten Dunst then
I'm running screaming for the exit like I'm Haley Joel Osment at Neverland Ranch. But I love Sandra Bullock,
and she has the charm and the personality to make me smile at the stupidest stuff. She trips about 24 times,
dances at a drag club in a ridiculous outfit, lays a beatin' on a 6'7" behemoth to the tune of Spiderbait's
Black Betty, and she forces me to be entertained by it. Admit it, she has a knack for making
insanity absolutely adorable.
Oh, and who can forget the addition of a partner! Regina King (the girl from 227) is an FBI transfer with
anger management issues. She's assigned as Gracie's bodyguard, and she has a bad habit of overextending
herself physically. Yep, you guessed it, they don't initially get along. Can you see hijinks and
shenanigans ensuing? I think you can!
Is this a great movie? Not by any means. It's not even as good as the original, a big reason being
that William Shatner is regretfully underutilized (although he does have a great line about his friend
being run over by a milk truck). Oh, and go ahead and make sure you bring your little yellow bucket
to puke in during the final scene. A producer somewhere obviously spoke up and said, "Hey, we're one
aww-inducing scene short of our quota," and thus the final scene was born.
But you just have to accept that and the fact that this is a comedy that'll have you shaking your head
and rolling your eyes more than once. In fact, I should be ashamed to admit that I let myself enjoy it
as much as I did. But if you go into the movie expecting to have a good time then you should walk out
satisfied. The screening audience absolutely loved it. Granted, proclamations such as, "That is the
best movie I've seen this year!" are a bit much, but this is indeed a movie that knows its audience and
plays to it effectively.
Are you expecting high art? If so, then you really need to learn how to better analyze movie
trailers. You also need to learn how to better analyze movie titles. Armed and Fabulous? One of the
great absolutes in life is any time a movie tries to be cute and makes a play on words with a common
phrase (in this case, "armed and dangerous") in its movie title, then you better have a tent with you
because mama, it's time to set up camp! The only thing missing here is a cameo by Adam West.
I think I'm gonna follow the trend. I'm gonna write a script about baseball called America's Pastime
where the home team loses the championship. However, they will get their revenge in the sequel -
America's Pastime 2: Payback's a Pitch. It's gonna rule. You know it, and I know it.
Bottom line, America - how often in life will you get the chance to see Sandra Bullock in boxers and a
t-shirt, all while sportin' some long, shiny, straight hair? At the very least there is entertainment
value in THAT! *sighs wistfully*
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ODDS & ENDS
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- This is the fourth collaboration between Bullock and Lawrence (Forces of Nature, Miss
Congeniality, and Two Weeks Notice being the others).
- Sandra's pet name for William Shatner was Bubba.
- Johnny has had a crush on Sandra Bullock since 1993's Demolition Man, which he actually paid
to see twice at the theater just because of her.
- You may remember Gracie's stylist (Diedrich Bader) as Oswald on The Drew Carey Show.
- Diedrich admits to playing the part so over-the-top that it'd be "hard to believe a person like Joel
would really exist."
- Benjamin Bratt's character (from the original) is mentioned but never seen. He calls Gracie and
breaks up with her over the phone. Jerk. I haven't found out why Bratt didn't do the sequel. We all
know it had nothing to do with him being selective about roles. Catwoman,
anyone?
- Stay for the bloopers during the closing credits.
- Sandra Bullock was in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood with Ashley Judd who was in
Eye of the Beholder with Ewan McGregor who was in Nightwatch with Josh Brolin who was in
Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.
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MAMA'S APPROVAL
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This really isn't that offensive. There's some mild "you can hear it on primetime" profanity, and there
are a few sexually-fueled jokes, but for the most part this is safe stuff.
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TRAILER COMPARISON
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My first impression of the trailer was, "Wow, that doesn't look very good." The trailer made the movie look
like it was just ramping up the stupidity factor. And you know what? It did. But I enjoyed the movie
more than I expected thanks to Ms. Bullock. If you absolutely love the trailer then you'll probably enjoy
the movie even more than I.
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THE GIST
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Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous is not a great movie. But there's no reason you shouldn't
know what to expect going in. Did you hate the original? If so, and you still go see this sequel, then
you deserve to be upset at having wasted your money. However, if you're a fan of Sandra Bullock and
stupid, over-the-top antics, then you'll find this to be a fun, harmless little movie that'll put a smile
on your face and make no apologies at not attempting to achieve world peace.
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