Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003)

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003)

6/10

Starring

Reese Witherspoon

Sally Field

Regina King

Jennifer Coolidge

Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld

I recall back when I was in university and Legally Blonde 2 came out. The excitement to see Elle (Reese Witherspoon) again was the only thing that mattered. The first movie had already made me a fan of her kind of justice, and I was rooting for her even before I saw this film.

To be honest, the film isn’t as good as the first one, but it’s a worthy sequel nonetheless. Like the first film, this one had a main plot and a secondary one. Even though I watched with a smile on my face, I have to agree that the two plots weren’t as good as either of the plots in the first film.

I liked that in the first film, Elle grew to be more mature. In this film, I expected to see more of that maturity, especially since she now has the best man, Emmett (Luke Wilson), by her side. Instead, the writers wanted her to act a little too childish. The movie had me lost as I tried to navigate which plot was the main one and which was the secondary, because the movie starts with Elle having one of the weirdest obsessions: she wanted her dog’s mother to be at her wedding to Emmett.

Now, I can guess this is already a turn-off, but this led to her going up against companies doing lab tests on animals. I can guarantee that this wasn’t the best part of the film. She got into the legal side of things when the congresswoman she was working with (Victoria) turned out to be shady. If Victoria succeeded, Elle’s career would be ruined.

For me, the law side—which made the first film awesome—was placed on the backseat in favor of other things happening. I understand that the plan was to make this movie about more than just the law, but it didn’t work effectively.

Going through this movie now, I was wondering if we’d get to see the “bend and snap,” a routine from the first film that became legendary. Funny enough, that whole “bend and snap” routine almost didn’t make it into the first film. That aside, this second Legally Blonde hit the nail on all the right places, and it continued to solidify Reese as an actress to admire.

The movie’s production budget was much higher, costing $45 million compared to the $18 million of the first film, and it brought in over $124 million at the box office, which was below what the first film did. The movie also wasn’t a critical success like the first film. You may still want to watch it, but don’t expect much.