Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)

5/10

Starring

Sandra Bullock

Regina King

Enrique Murciano

William Shatner

Ernie Hudson

Heather Burns

Directed by John Pasquin

Once again, Sandra Bullock was ahead of everyone in this movie and made the jokes work. It was funny, I have to say, but the script shifted from a pageant tale to a buddy cop movie. I think the movie might have done better with a different name, instead of being a sequel to Miss Congeniality. You can feel it—the whole attempt to tie the present kidnapping case to her role from the first film felt forced. The moment the movie stopped trying to make her the face of the bureau, connecting it to the first film, it became somewhat more bearable.

Keep in mind that making a second Miss Congeniality was totally unnecessary. Bullock is also a producer on this film, which, like the first one, is way too long. At almost two hours, you can see the movie lose its appeal as the case drags on. Instead of making the best of some interesting moments, the movie opted to introduce secondary plots that were either left unresolved or had nothing to do with the main story.

The plot kicks off with Gracie (Bullock) getting dumped by her love interest from the first film. Trust me, based on his performance in the first film, I was happy he wasn’t in this one. Then we meet Fuller (Regina King), an over-hyped character who’s always angry and thinks with her fists first. I’ve seen Regina King perform in many movies, but this is not one of her best performances. The blame for that falls squarely on the weak script and stereotypical characterization of her character. The writers and director seemed intent on playing out the typical buddy cop movie pairing, where one partner is calm and the other is a loose cannon.

Gracie’s friend and winner of the pageant from the first film gets kidnapped, and Gracie is sent with Fuller to Las Vegas to be the calm face of the press while the FBI tries to reassure everyone that they’ve got the situation under control. While there, Gracie realizes the case isn’t going as well as planned, so she starts getting involved, much to the annoyance of the FBI in Vegas. Eventually, Gracie and Fuller work through their differences and decide to team up, despite their boss’s orders, to solve the case.

The movie wasn’t much of a commercial or critical success, and it’s safe to say that there won’t be a third one.