Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)

Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is too famous for her job as undercover FBI agent. Agent Eric Matthews ends their relationship, and she doesn't do well. She decides to take the FBI media relations job.Ten months later, Gracie is a cold hearted media darling of the FBI. Angry agent Sam Fuller (Regina King) is assigned as Gracie's protection. When pageant winner Cheryl Frasier (Heather Burns) and pageant host Stan Fields (William Shatner) are kidnapped, Gracie is call in to be media spokesperson on the case.This starts off badly in the wake of Gracie's relationship's demise. And she turns into a bitch. In one fell swoop, the movie destroys what made the original watchable. They make the dorky adorable Bullock and turn her into a mean sparkly drama queen. It is the worst move they could possibly try. It never fully recovers from it.

Well, at least, there's a real effort to write a sequel. This Miss 2 isn't a copy of Miss 1 but rather a "negative" follow-up: this time, Sandra is more a model that tries to investigate than an agent that tries to model. There are some funny moments, it's filled with good values (i like, as in X-Files, how the agents address their chief with "sir") and the interaction between the girls is interesting (and i think that Regina King steals the show...). But the story of kidnapping isn't really gripping, the investigation looks like a simple brainstorm, the choice for Vegas isn't lucky (it's maybe the only one movie that doesn't show girls or games) and the cast isn't worth of Michael Caine or Benjamin Bratt (who is constantly spoken about). I'm really fed up with the effeminate gay (frankly, Americans really understand nothing to homosexuality) and at last, Sandra, even she has talent for comedy, really lacks of kindness...

Talk about a lackluster sequel. Sandra Bullock is back as Gracie, a klutzy but shrewd FBI agent, this time on the trail of two friends who have been kidnapped. The trail leads to Vegas, which was a big mistake. Vegas is a poor choice for making a movie, with very rare exception. It's not a real city, and you can feel it. And the plot is all over the place, including having Bullock dress up as a Vegas showgirl for reasons I have mercifully, already forgotten. Benjamin Bratt is not in the sequel, which leaves Bullock with no one worth playing off here. And Bill Shatner as one of the kidnap victims has virtually no screen time, another huge mistake. Whoopi Goldberg made her Vegas-set comedy work with SISTER ACT. But Bullock, who I usually enjoy, cannot save this turkey. And a host of familiar faces, including Regina King, Eileen Brennan, Ernie Hudson, Liz Rohm and Treat Williams, are in all truth simply wasted here. MISS CONGENIALITY 2 is not quite as bad as Bullock's other big-name sequel, SPEED 2, but it's close.

SpoilersThe guy Gracie fancied in the first story has dumped her - perhaps he couldn't cope with the enormous fame that came to her from winning the title of Miss Congeniality?!He does it in the most spiteful and offensive way, standing her up when she'd prepared a nice cosy evening, and when she asks why she's being dumped, he insults her. What a shame she didn't seize the opportunity, the moment she worked out what he was going to say, and tell him to get lost - throwing him bodily out of the flat - like straight through the window (without it having been opened first of course) would have been Gracie's style. But it's very much Bullock's style to be put down somehow, unfairly so, after being humiliated by some b.... veryone else can see is a complete jerk, and then drag herself up again and finally win out.Some of the aim of this second story is to bolster her confidence again, but the script doesn't quite succeed in that objective which left me feeling a little sad, even though things are "better than they were". I know second sequels tend to be even less effective than first sequels but I feel this story still hasn't finished yet and needs a third movie to round it off. But will the studio (or Bullock) agree and give it to us?Other than this, the movie is almost as hilarious as the original. It flags a little at times because Gracie has become too famous and too easily recognisable by all and sundry she might encounter to carry on just now as an ordinary FBI agent, so her boss makes her become an ambassador for the FBI's image. One splendid aspect of this change though is that it "is" different - not a repeat of the earlier story.She spends rather less time knocking down anyone who insults her - which had been such an hilarious feature of Movie 1! On the other hand, she now has a perfect foil in another female rogue agent who's assigned as her bodyguard but hates her. You can imagine the fun that ensues from this.There isn't a man for Gracie this time. An agent she might have fancied is like her lost beau preferring someone else. Come on, Studio, give her a guy who really values her, she deserves it. Don't leave her yearning and wondering why "no-one ever likes her" because frankly, can anyone believe no-one would like Gracie? She's wonderful and should have men falling over themselves to get near her even if she then knocks them down!