Running time: 115 minutes
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Regina King, Diedrich Bader, William Shatner, Ernie Hudson
Rating 3 out of 10
For a dumb film, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed And Fabulous is unnecessarily complicated. Fortunately, not being able to make sense of the mayhem won't spoil the fun, primarily because there isn't any to spoil. This follow up to the occasionally amusing Miss Congeniality is anything but fabulous. Sandra Bullock took a two-year break from acting while she considered her next move. Judging by this pitiful comeback, she would have been better served taking a longer hiatus.
It's perhaps no coincidence that Bullock has decided to turn to more weighty material, appearing next in the dark drama Crash, written and directed by Million Dollar Baby scribe Paul Haggis. But before the world gets to see another side of Bullock, they first get to revisit the more familiar screwball Gracie Hart version. Hart is the bumbling FBI agent who last time out was entrusted with the task of protecting beauty pageant contestants from a serial killer. This time round the plot has her rescuing a beauty pageant contestant from a kidnapper. That it took four years to come up with that brilliantly original premise should give some indication of the level of inspiration behind Armed And Fabulous.
There's no doubt Bullock has a goofy charm. Her willingness to make a fool of herself is endearing in an industry where woman are generally more concerned with looking sexy than stupid. That said, idiocy can become annoying pretty quickly. In this case, long before the film ends.
When we rejoin Gracie, her private and professional life is a mess. Dumped by her boyfriend, she is reluctantly groomed by the Bureau to be the public face of the FBI, a role that quashes her tomboy tendencies and instead turns her into an FBI Barbie, replete with her own camp stylist (Diedrich Bader). To protect her from an adoring public, she is assigned a female bodyguard with anger management issues, Sam Fuller (Regina King). Gracie's role in the Bureau is more decorative than functional, so when her best friend, beauty queen Cheryl (Heather Burns), is kidnapped along with pageant organizer Stan Fields (William Shatner), she is ordered by her boss (Ernie Hudson) not to get involved.
Naturally Gracie ignores orders and so begins her convoluted and chaotic pursuit of her friend. It's a chase that involves a procession of outlandish adventures and mishaps including rugby tackling an apparent Dolly Parton look-alike in a Las Vegas Casino and visiting a retirement home disguised as a potential resident.
It's good that having turned 40, Bullock is deciding to stretch herself artistically. But as a gifted comedienne, hopefully she won't abandon comedies altogether, just bad ones like this.
Kevin Murphy
It's perhaps no coincidence that Bullock has decided to turn to more weighty material, appearing next in the dark drama Crash, written and directed by Million Dollar Baby scribe Paul Haggis. But before the world gets to see another side of Bullock, they first get to revisit the more familiar screwball Gracie Hart version. Hart is the bumbling FBI agent who last time out was entrusted with the task of protecting beauty pageant contestants from a serial killer. This time round the plot has her rescuing a beauty pageant contestant from a kidnapper. That it took four years to come up with that brilliantly original premise should give some indication of the level of inspiration behind Armed And Fabulous.
There's no doubt Bullock has a goofy charm. Her willingness to make a fool of herself is endearing in an industry where woman are generally more concerned with looking sexy than stupid. That said, idiocy can become annoying pretty quickly. In this case, long before the film ends.
When we rejoin Gracie, her private and professional life is a mess. Dumped by her boyfriend, she is reluctantly groomed by the Bureau to be the public face of the FBI, a role that quashes her tomboy tendencies and instead turns her into an FBI Barbie, replete with her own camp stylist (Diedrich Bader). To protect her from an adoring public, she is assigned a female bodyguard with anger management issues, Sam Fuller (Regina King). Gracie's role in the Bureau is more decorative than functional, so when her best friend, beauty queen Cheryl (Heather Burns), is kidnapped along with pageant organizer Stan Fields (William Shatner), she is ordered by her boss (Ernie Hudson) not to get involved.
Naturally Gracie ignores orders and so begins her convoluted and chaotic pursuit of her friend. It's a chase that involves a procession of outlandish adventures and mishaps including rugby tackling an apparent Dolly Parton look-alike in a Las Vegas Casino and visiting a retirement home disguised as a potential resident.
It's good that having turned 40, Bullock is deciding to stretch herself artistically. But as a gifted comedienne, hopefully she won't abandon comedies altogether, just bad ones like this.
Kevin Murphy
