Miss Congeniality 2 - Armed and Fabulous (2005)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Bethany M

  
  Not as good as the first film but still very funny!

• Matt G

  
  Just a terrible sequel starring the untalented Regina King. Grade: D

• Richard C

  
  it was okay. C

• Anthony L

  
  I like Sandra Bullock but she does herself no favours by starring in this. What's worse is that she produced it! Not great.

• Dean M

  
  I was excited to watch Sandra Bullock's return as FBI agent Gracie Hart in this sequel comedy movie, but I thought it was OK. Not as clever and original as the first, but still very entertaining. The second had a lot more laughs, slapstick, and funny bits...however I'd say… More
  I was excited to watch Sandra Bullock's return as FBI agent Gracie Hart in this sequel comedy movie, but I thought it was OK. Not as clever and original as the first, but still very entertaining. The second had a lot more laughs, slapstick, and funny bits...however I'd say it lacked in plot. I was a bit disappointed with the cast (especially Benjamin Bratt not returning), but Bullock was the best. Bullock dressed as the old woman is hilarious and there are many other great costumes as well as how beautiful she looked.

• Dean !

  
  The story is not quite as good as the first but it was funnier than I was expecting. Quite similar to the first, more of the same really.

• Rachel F

  
  Not nearly as good as the first(which wasn't that great to begin with)

• Lanning :

  
  I don't know. I think this one is actually better than the first. What about you?

• danny d

  
  bullocks character got out of hand, too different from the first one

• Sophie B

  
  I just love sandra bullock! she is great!

• Jose Z

  
  if the first one was not good at all, this one is worse, the story is foolish and the plot is kinda predictable, and I say it again these kind of movies doesnt fit at all to Sandra Bullock's style

• Leigh R

  
  Great film.

• James A

  
  This is what I get when I'm home sick and have HBO. This movie has less of an entertainment value than the Police Acadamy sequals post Steve Guttenberg.

• Fernando Rafael Q

  
  not as good as the first one, but you'll have some laughs

• Stuart B

  
  CRAP!

• Nate Z

  
  [center][font=Arial][color=darkred][img]http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/5125/photo022li.jpg[/img][/color][/font][/center] [font=Arial][color=darkred][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Sandra Bullock is the nation’s most famous tomboy. She began in action flicks but soon… More
  [center][font=Arial][color=darkred][img]http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/5125/photo022li.jpg[/img][/color][/font][/center] [font=Arial][color=darkred][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Sandra Bullock is the nation’s most famous tomboy. She began in action flicks but soon settled under the familiar road traveled by so many winsome, likeable young actresses: romantic comedies. She even [i]turned down[/i] the role in [i]Million Dollar Baby[/i] that Hilary Swank would later ride to Oscar gold. Bullock has now publicly stated that she wants to step away from romantic comedies and challenge herself as an actress. She of course must have felt this way before agreeing to the tired dreck that is [i]Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous[/i].[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Just weeks after foiling a beauty pageant tragedy, Gracie Hart (Bullock) is returning back to the FBI undercover field. Her newfound celebrity makes her stick out in a crowd of autograph-seekers. She cannot work undercover anymore so the FBI, in a stroke of public relations, wants Gracie to be the new face of the bureau. She gets a makeover (again) and a hot-tempered bodyguard (Regina King) to shadow her on talk show circuits, book signings, and other public appearances. Just when things are looking rosy, the reigning Miss United States, Cheryl, and the pageant host (William Shatner, gleefully hammy) are kidnapped. The kidnappers want millions or else they’ll kill them both. Gracie regroups from her makeover madness and jumps on the case to save her friend.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Bullock is a very likeable actress but seems prone to more pratfalls than Buster Keaton combined with two of the Three Stooges. The physical comedy comes off being tired this go-round. Watching Bullock be clumsy can be funny, but the comedy of [i]Miss Congeniality 2[/i] is too forced to crack a smile. The friction between Gracie and her bodyguard is one conversation away from evaporating. The girls have to pose as Vegas entertainers to get backstage, when they just could have used their –oh I don’t know– FBI status. When Gracie goes undercover Bullock becomes unhinged and flounders around in rubbery ethnic stereotypes. [i]Miss Congeniality 2[/i] isn’t funny because the film doesn’t know what to do.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]The finer moments of [i]Miss Congeniality[/i] involved the dry wit of Michael Caine, and he is sorely missed in this sequel. The strangely necessary role of gay makeover artist is passed to Deidrech Bader ([i]The Drew Carey Show[/i]). He amps up the sass but can’t really replace Caine. King is a greatly underrated actress ([i]Jerry Maguire[/i] should have made her a star), but she suffers from the constraints of a rough-around-the-edges loner character. She mainly scowls and grumbles.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]What made [i]Miss Congeniality[/i] appealing was the fish-out-of-water conceit of an ugly ducking in a world of swans. Even though I didn’t like the film, it could at least muster up broad humor from its comic premise. [i]Miss Congeniality 2[/i] is a lot like [i]Austin Powers 2[/i], in that the sequel puts the fish back into the water. As a result the film loses whatever comic firepower it might have had. [i]Miss Congeniality 2[/i] attempts to be a female-buddy-cop caper, but the butting heads rarely produce any comedy. This film didn’t make me laugh until after 20 minutes in, and the ratio of screentime to laughs didn’t improve much afterwards (and that includes jokes about bad breath and tampons!).[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred][i]Miss Congeniality 2[/i] has some of the dumbest policework ever. Characters go to extreme lengths for basic information, make wild assessments on little to go with, and key clues are tripped over with the subtlety of a jackhammer. The idiotic policework syncs up with the preposterous nature of the crooks’ scheme. They are ex-employees of the Treasure Island casino, so to take revenge they’re going to trap their prey inside the pirate ship display, which is set to sink as part of the attraction’s script. Yes, death by casino attraction.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]There are also some wildly brainless moments. Gracie is about to flee the sinking pirate ship, when her elaborate showgirl costume gets trapped under a heavy canon. Now, with time and air running out, any normal person would quickly strip out of the costume and swim away. Instead, Gracie tugs at her costume trying to yank it out, and she does this until she nearly drowns. I don’t care who you are, if you’re about to drown then modesty isn’t going to get in the way. Better to be alive and naked than dead and soggy.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]For that matter, when Gracie discovers that the pirate ship has her friends she runs to get inside. Wouldn’t it be infinitely easier to find someone at the casino that could stop the animatronic attraction? I’m sure something that organized doesn’t just run without safety controls.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred][i]Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous[/i] is clumsy and riddled with contrivances and inanities. The jokes are forced and dead on arrival, and Bullock falls into what she does best, which is falling down. There is no reason for this film to exist other than that the original made money. Die-hard fans of [i]Miss Congeniality[/i] may be the only ones to get some enjoyment out of this tepid sequel. Even casual fans of Bullock’s romantic comedies will likely be disappointed. You know you’re watching a tired comedy when they make Dolly Parton boob jokes in the year 2005. [i]Miss Congeniality 2[/i] is a film that doesn’t make the cut.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Nate's Grade: C-[/color][/font]

• Mike N

  
  This entry was supposed to be posted last week. I did not post it last week because I have an excuse. A most grand excuse. One that would surely incite the reaction, "Oh, that explains it," and then you would understand completely. Fortunately, I did not miss the power… More
  This entry was supposed to be posted last week. I did not post it last week because I have an excuse. A most grand excuse. One that would surely incite the reaction, "Oh, that explains it," and then you would understand completely. Fortunately, I did not miss the power outage last week. Nay, [i]three[/i] power outages here in Denver. These California imitations are courtesy of the boiling sky of last week...breaking records from the 1800's. I think it was 5 consecutive 100-106 degree days (in the midst of 20 straight 90+ degree days), thus melting the mountains and leaving the city with a sticky view of Utah. Ah, well. The nighttime neighborhood never looked better in such blackness. Electricity is an obnoxious guest sometimes. With every passing vehicle (when I was 'cooling down' in the night heat) I did my most subtle zombie, hoping to inspire mass zombie invasion panic. I've got to work on it a smidge. PS.- I was off on another undisclosed adventure this past weekend. That sort of tied me up. Okay...a few long overdue NYC pics: (drag...I saved the images as bitmaps...they're much smaller than I anticipated) [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/whenbillboardsattack.bmp[/img] What if all the billboards were paintings? Or, at least, separate scenes in a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip. No no, simply too good of offerings for garish Times Square. (though some pictured here were tolerable) [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/pointingbuilding.bmp[/img] Does it look like its pointing at something to you, too? [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/bigshotkermie.bmp[/img] Have you ever seen a frog so big? [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/sistercitybanner2.bmp[/img] Ground Zero had a banner signing for London two days after the bombing. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/sistercitybanner.bmp[/img] I signed it. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/danger.bmp[/img] 1. A small, blurry molecule floating near One New York Plaza 2. Gum 3. The man who owns my camera [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/shoebird.bmp[/img] Lovely wildlife in NYC. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/somepeopleImet.bmp[/img] The people are nice, too. A little strange, but it might just be my imagination. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/buildingsinthepond.bmp[/img] Even more reflectier in person. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/palemale.bmp[/img] So I happened to plop on a bench with a couple of Central Park birdwatchers. The circled area is the nest of Pale Male, a resident red tail hawk since 1994, with a vast white belly. 23 offspring now occupy the park. Hey, buddy, I only asked for the time, not for an extensive local avian history. Some people. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/crossingguards.bmp[/img] Instead of surveillance cameras, NYC employs vicious, flesh-eating pygmy attack pigeons for the red light runners. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/Spamalot.bmp[/img] It's just a flesh wound. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/AlanTudyk.bmp[/img] Alan Tudyk (was awesome) [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/DavidHydePierce.bmp[/img] David Hyde Pierce (is totally short) [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/PickleBrothers.bmp[/img] My friends at the Stage Deli that night. I left the dark green "pickle" as an unspoken sign to the waitress...that dark green "pickles" taste like heck and back. His pickle buddy was effing scrumptious, however. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/ThatOneGuy.bmp[/img] R.I.P. temporary beard [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/coneyisland.bmp[/img] "Goodbyyyye my Coney Island baaaaabe!" [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/ahoymateys.bmp[/img] Yarrr! 'Tis the finest pirate ship kite I laid me salt-pricked peepers 'pon. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/cyclone.bmp[/img] No coaster is safe with the Daddy in town. (this one was pretty darn good, too) [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/ghastly.bmp[/img] Much of the rest of the amusement parks (yes, they had a couple), however, were creepy husks of extinct fun. It was kind of cool, actually. LATER THAT DAY... I proceeded to miss my flight. Yay airport stress!

• Dannielle A

  
  Wasn't that great of a sequel. I think they stole the idea from Connie and Carla.

• Yinalí R

  
  Loved it as well as the first.

• William G

  
  To quote the film: 'Usually, they give an epidural for agony like this.'

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