Miss Congeniality 2 “Armed and Fabulous”
starring Sandra Bullock, Regina King, Enrique Murciano, Ernie Hudson, Heather Burns, Diedrich Bader, Abraham Benrubi, Nick Offerman, Eileen Brennan, Treat Williams, William
Shatner and Dolly Parton
written by Marc Lawrence
directed by John Pasquin
This is a silly but amusing sequel to Miss Congeniality (2000), a story about a tomboyish female FBI agent, Gracie Hart, entered into the Miss America beauty pageant to try to stave off an attack against the show. In the sequel, agent Hart’s public notoriety interferes with her work as an FBI field agent and she is relegated to a public relations role. As a spokesperson for the Bureau her life revolves around her personal esthetician and fashion consultants - a far cry from her career as a federal law enforcement officer. The comedy of the film revolves around the personality conflict between Gracie and her new, super tough bodyguard, played by Regina King.
Against orders and outside her role as a public relations poster girl, Bullock gets actively involved in a kidnapping investigation in Las Vegas, Nevada. Because Las Vegas is such an ugly, ridiculous city there is plenty of material there to be made fun of, which is exactly what happens: transvestites, sensitive gangsters with B.A. degrees in fine arts, Dolly Parton. Wow!
Once again, I love William Shatner playing a kind of parody of himself. (“I’ve done quite a bit of theater. I played Iago in Twelfth Night.” In his younger days he probably did, too.) I like Sandra Bullock, and it is hard to outperform her, but William Shatner and Treat Williams set a high standard because they can dominate a scene so well.