Talk about "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous" here:
Review by: Breanne Derby
Plot Summary
This sequel to the 2000 film "Miss Congeniality" begins just three weeks after its predecessor ends. Finding that her face has become well-known after a setup gone bad, FBI Agent Gracie Hart is no longer fit for undercover field work. After a devastating breakup, she transforms into "the face of the FBI" with the goal of boosting the image of the bureau. When her one friend in the world, Cheryl, who won Miss United States in the first film, is kidnapped, Hart goes to
Las Vegas, where the kidnapping took place. The bureau sent her there to handle the publicity, but much to the dismay of the local branch Hart, accompanied by her flamboyant team of stylists, her tough female bodyguard, and a Las Vegas agent stuck in the middle, takes matters into her own hands when the bureau won't listen to her contributions on the case.
Review
This film runs very much in the same vein as the first film. While the original was teaching Gracie how to be poised and look the part of a supermodel, Armed and Fabulous has the reverse effect. This film teaches Gracie how to alter her conceited ways and care about other people. While the first film showed her developing relationship with Agent Eric Matthews, and this second film shows the repercussions of her breakup.
This film is about as good as the first one was. If you enjoyed the first film, this will probably seem like a sequel of equal value (which is surprising, since sequels that are just as good as the original are hard to come by). If you did not like the first film, this will be yet another film that you don't like, though I can't imagine why you would consider seeing this film if you didn't like the first one.
There were several scenes which didn't particularly have any purpose to the plot, and which were, in general, a waste of time. The scenes that were cut and left in the Deleted Scenes section on the DVD were just as good as those that were left in, which isn't really saying much.
One must bear in mind that this is meant to be a comedy (though I would think that a comedy by definition is supposed to be funny), not a realistic and dramatic film. An accurate portrayal of how the FBI would deal with a kidnapping situation is not what this film aims for. This film aims for "Gracie saves the day" and "Gracie becomes a better person," and I'll let you guess what happens in the end.
There were a couple of scenes that made me laugh (though I can't specifically remember what they were now, so apparently they weren't that funny) but I'm not sure that they were put there for humorous purposes. I think there was one joke that I really did laugh at, but again, I don't remember it, I just remember laughing.
Really, the only way to describe this film is "very much like the first" because that's all it was. Fans of the first film should be quite satisfied with this sequel, and if they really liked it, might even expect to see a third (which could happen if someone gets strapped for cash). The basic gist of it is that if you didn't like the first film, you're not going to like this one, so don't see it. It's not any better, it's not any worse.
Conclusion
I didn't particularly enjoy the first film, and I found that this sequel was equally a disappointment. The whole film seemed pointless and the plot transparent. The end was obvious from the beginning, and it wasn't really engaging at all. I didn't sympathize with the characters; the characters weren't even all that likable. There were one or two parts that made me laugh, but most of it was extraordinarily unfunny.
There was a whole sub-plot involving the Las Vegas FBI agent and his breakup with his girlfriend that had utterly no relevance to the main plot, and could have been easily left on the cutting-room floor. The whole movie was composed of scenes that were filling the space between the beginning and the end, and nothing really happened in the beginning, and nothing really happened in the end. At the end of the film, Gracie was basically in the same place she'd been at the beginning of the film, and at the end of the last film. I have found that movies these days are utterly disappointing. This is yet another sequel to a film that wasn't really all that great in the first place.
