Product Description
-------------------
A double-helping of Sandra Bullock comedies. In 'Miss
Congeniality' (2000), when the Miss United States beauty pageant
receives a threat from a notorious criminal, hardnosed FBI agent
Gracie Hart (Bullock) is assigned to go undercover as a
contestant in the competition and track him down. Gracie is none
too happy about this, and when top expert Victor Melling (Michael
Caine) arrives to help transform her from a tomboy into a
convincingly elegant Miss New Jersey, she proves to be a most
difficult student. Nevertheless, after Gracie enters the pageant,
she soon forms a strong bond with her fellow contestants, and
begins to worry for their safety as the killer continues to elude
arrest. In the sequel, 'Miss Congeniality 2' (2005), things
haven't been going so well for Gracie lately. Reeling from a
broken romance and frustrated to find her newfound fame is
jeopardizing the undercover work she loves, Gracie reluctantly
agrees to serve the Bureau in the only way possible: coifed and
styled for the talk show circuit as 'the face of the FBI'. Though
resistant at first, she soon warms to the attention and it's not
long before she's getting into her new role a little too much.
Her new partner Sam Fuller (Regina King), a tough, ambitious
agent who is clearly not her biggest fan, is the first to point
out that the pampered Bureau star is turning into FBI Barbie. But
when Gracie's best friend, pageant winner Cheryl Frazier (Heather
Burns), and emcee Stan Fields (William Shatner), are kipped in
Las Ve, Gracie's crime-fighting instincts kick back in. Not
wanting to risk losing their greatest PR asset, the FBI top brass
forbid her to get involved and charge Sam with keeping her in
line. But when it comes to breaking a difficult case and helping
her friends, there's nothing Gracie won't do.
From .co.uk
-----------
The Miss Congeniality movies are custom-made for Sandra
Bullock's screen career persona. She plays clumsy, nerdy FBI
agent Gracie Hart, who is given the horrific pseudonym Gracie Lou
Freebush (one example of the movie's juvenile tendencies) when
assigned to infiltrate a beauty pageant to investigate threats of
a terrorist attack. Transforming Bullock from frumpy geek to
stunning contestant was always going to be a piece of cake so the
premise for the first Miss Congeniality tale is tenuous at best.
More enjoyable is her character's uncouth disdain for pageant
contestants and her mistaken perception that they're all a bunch
of bimbos. The film nicely charts Gracie's realisation that her
own pageant makeover provides a much-needed ego boost, although
she gives pageant coach Victor, played by Michael Caine, a run
for his money. In addition to Caine's effortless scene-stealing,
William Shatner as pageant host and Candice Bergen as the event
organiser are smart choices for comedic support, but the movie
desperately needs a credible foundation for its comedy to really
pay off. Bullock's bureau boss (Benjamin Bratt) is an
unconvincing dimwit, and none of the plotting is as smart as, for
example, Beverly Hills Cop in combining procedure with laughs.
That leaves Bullock to carry the burden of a comedy that barely
works in her favour. Only Bullock's fans will appreciate the
sequel, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Dumped by her
boyfriend (whom Benjamin Bratt wisely decided not to portray this
time around), a gloomy Gracie goes along with the promo biz until
her friend, Miss United States (Heather Burns), is kipped
along with Stan Fields (William Shatner) in Las Ve. Bullock
still has enough perk to please her fans, but neither she nor her
awkward alter-ego make a success of this sequel to a film
released five years earlier. --Jeff Shannon