Posted: 03/28/2005

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous

(2005)

by Clint Fletcher

She’s baaack!

I must start off by revealing something to all of you Fletch fans out there - I believe that a good crowd is essential to having a fun time watching a comedy. With that being said, its also safe to assume that it takes a lot to make me laugh at a comedy while watching it in an empty theater. As my shit-list continues, I was once again proven wrong (as with The Pacifier and Guess Who) and heaven forbid…

Miss Congeniality 2 was a great watch.

I know. I’m almost as ashamed of myself as you are. Part 2 falls into that rare breed of what I like to call “Post-Gigli films.” This is when the trailer looks so damn bad that evil word of mouth starts early, and by the time the film opens everyone already knows they’re going to hate it, which affects their movie-watching process thus causing them to HATE IT. I’m the first to admit, the trailer looked like dog shit. But I kept the faith alive, in hopes that the trailer just showed all of the stupid parts as to not spoil the real comedy of the flick. Thank God I was right. Part 2 is just as fun of a watch as the original. The trailer featured the traditional black/white contrast between Sandra Bullock and Regina King. This is actually kept to an extreme minimum in the picture, thankfully deciding to deal with more humorous situations. The trailer featured Bullock in disguise as an old lady that just seemed downright goofy and utterly ridiculous. To my surprise, this was one of the funniest scenes in the movie. The trailer featured a cliché gay man portrayed by Diedrich Bader (The Drew Carey Show) that came off as fucking annoying instead of funny. The truth is, this dude steals the show with the best one-liners of the year thus far. And you just can’t get enough of The Shatner, who once again shines in playing off of himself every chance he gets. Someone should put this dude in an action movie with Clint Howard as his partner.

Quick summary - the chick that won the pageant in the first film gets kidnapped along with Shatner, due to a gambling debt that Shatner had avoided paying off. Once Gracie Hart discovers this, her boss sends her to Las Vegas to handle the press surrounding the case, for she is now the “official spokesperson” for the F.B.I. Due to her pageant fame from the first film. Gracie has changed a lot since we last saw her. She’s now as conceded as Sandra Bullock in real life. But with the help of her new partner (Regina King), Gracie eventually drops back down to reality and gets down in the dirt with what she does best- stumbles upon clues to a case. While Congeniality 2 is advertised as a goofy, slap-stickish comedy, it successfully stuck to a concrete level of sophistication that will not only shock you, but make you want to add this baby to your DVD collection right next to the original. There were a couple of problems I had with the third act though. There is a set-up (you’ve all seen it on TV) where Gracie and Fuller (King) must do a Tina Turner routine, which may look cool but didn’t provide with any laughs, or a continuation of the story. And that costume sticks with Bullock for the remainder of the film, leading up to a somewhat idiotic climax, mostly due to its location. But thank God everything before that had me rolling out of my chair, or else it could’ve ruined the entire package. I must give credit to the writer for not disregarding Benjamin Bratt’s character, although he was mentioned so many damn times I kept waiting for him to pop up around a corner. What the hell was he working on that would forbid him to shoot this anyway? You figured after Catwoman the dude could use the work (and money).

In the end, Part 2 did exactly what the first did for me- gave me some great laughs. So do me a favor - and this is going to be tough - block out the “Armed and Fabulous” from the title, ignore all trailers and TV spots, and just close your eyes to picture the classiness of the first picture. Only then will you be in the proper mental state to have some fun with Sandie and the gang!

Clint Fletcher is a film critic living in beautiful Chicago.

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