Miss Simpatia 2: Armada e Poderosa

Having looked forward for a long time to see this film finally released, my wife and I were not disappointed. Not only did Gracie pick up from the last story and run, there was a great enhancement with the addition of Regina King as "Sam" in the story. Gracie and Sam were incredibly different, but remarkably alike.

Of course, bringing back the majority of the original supporting roles & characters was excellent - as well as the tie-in to Eric with the tearful telephone break-up.

Do not hesitate to see this film, for you will be pleased with some great lines and equally-great physical humor. I believe that Sandra Bullock is developing a physical humor persona in the style of Lucille Ball.

Great job, Sandra. Now, if only you can get your personal life in some sense of order?!

"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* Rating: 3 (out of 5)

Sandra Bullock returns as Gracie Hart, the federal agent who went undercover at the Miss United States pageant four years ago. When the pageant emcee Stan Fields (William Shatner) and Miss USA (Heather Burns) are kidnapped in Las Vegas, Gracie needs to put aside her cushy lifestyle on the talk show circuit to go back into action, taking on a very unhappy new partner in Sam Fuller (Regina King).

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous isn't as good as the original but it still manages to deliver some funny scenes. The original was a fun, harmless movie though nothing memorable. The sequel falls under the same category but it's not nearly as much fun as the first film. Actually, the fun factor is only seen in Bullock and King everything else was poorly handled. Sure there were some fun moments but certainly not enough to sustain the really long running time. Also, Michael Caine and Benjamin Bratt don't appear in the movie. I miss Caine since he was pretty funny in the first one. I don't really miss Bratt because he's not that good of an actor.

The acting is pretty good and it's the best thing the movie has to offer. Sandra Bullock gives a funny and enjoyable performance as Gracie Hart. Her charm is what carries this sequel and she proves to be a delight on screen. Regina King also gives a funny performance and she's a nice addition to the series. The chemistry between Bullock and King is great and their scenes together is what drives the movie. William Shatner and Heather Burns don't really do anything special. Diedrich Bader gives an annoying performance as Joel. Treat Williams and Enrique Murciano just play their roles as much as the screenplay allows it and they don't really do anything special.

I think the main reason why this sequel isn't as good as the original is because the premise is nearly the same. They could have been a little more creative with the story. Also, the original movie wrapped up nicely and it didn't demand a sequel. So, this movie seems like a cash in on a popular film and little time was actually spent on the script. The running time is 115 minutes and this could have been edited. There were a bunch of pointless scenes and the movie just doesn't contain enough fresh material to keep the film funny or interesting. Also, the film is very predictable and sitting through a long, predictable movie wasn't that much fun. I need to question the point of making a sequel. It seemed like a lazy attempt and the film was only average because of Bullock and King. In the end, this unnecessary sequel isn't really worth watching unless you're a fan of Bullock or King. Rating 5/10

This movie was not bad. This movie was not stupid. It was not a travesty. It was not a black mark. It was a sequel. And it filled that role quite well.

Sandra Bullock returned in Miss Congeniality 2, thankfully, and really completely saved it. There was a rumor going around that they weren't going to use her in the sequel, but luckily they realized their mistake. Ms. Bullock makes the show worth watching all by herself. Though she did have an OK ensemble to work with (particularly Heather Burns and Regina King), this is her show, and hers alone. Without her, it could easily have become all of the above listed things.

But it's not! It's really not bad, and has some genuine laughs along the way, with an especially funny drag queen scene. So, if you're a fan of the original, go see it. It won't compare to the first, and never could have, but it is still worth seeing. 5/10 stars for me.

Jay Addison

You were all over town in bus ads for a long time, and I didn't care to go and see you in Miss Congeniality... I assumed it was just one more pretty face in a silly Hollywood comedy, and the same old scripts with funny gags about a Miss Something Contest! Now - I was so desperate for a comedy that I went to see Miss Congeniality 2, and after laughing all along as everybody else, I got it. You're a clever woman, and you produced the right film for me, possibly to a few million men and women more, too. I went to read reviews of both films, and good critics are right to point that the scripts are not outstanding, or particularly innovative; I'll add that a number of funny lines are not so funny, either. The way you say them, your acting, your personality, do the trick: you impose your inner sense of comedy on us, and we keep giggling. I'm sorry I missed your first venture as a producer, but to make amends I promise I'll buy the DVD set of the two films when they are out. I want to revive a number of excellent scenes, and keep it for my down moments...