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 Miss CongenialityRated: Rated PG-13 for sexual references and a scene of violence. Runtime: 109 mins. Director: Donald Petrie Writer: Marc Lawrence, Katie Ford Tagline: Unpolished. Unkempt. Unleashed. Undercover. Cast: Sandra Bullock, Michael Caine....complete cast Genre: Action/Comedy Most memorable quote: "Of couse he had a gun. This is Texas! Everybody has a gun. My florist has a gun!"
Let's look at the plot of this stinker. The FBI receives another riddle from "The Citizen", a serial terrorist who sends typewritten clues about the crime he is about to commit. The FBI cracks the code and realizes that the terrorist will strike next at the Miss United States Pageant being held in San Antonio in eight days. Instead of performing stringent background checks on all involved, they decide to infiltrate the ranks of the contestants with one of their own. OK...prepare an FBI agent to be a pageant contestant in eight days and no other contestants becomes suspicious...come on! Not only that, but she must be one of the five finalists! Back to the cast...Sandra Bullock is great in her role as the slovenly, argumentative, foible-prone FBI agent/pageant contestant. She drinks beer, eats with her fork upside-down, talks with her mouth full, and spills food on herself. But then again...who among us doesn't do that? Enter Vic Melling, the award-winning, now alienated beauty pageant consultant whose job it is to clean up this pig and have her top-five ready in eight days. The interaction between the two is often quite entertaining and I even occasionally found myself laughing. They sometimes reminded me of a Felix and Oscar-Odd Couple routine. But then that pesky ridiculous plot keeps cropping back up. We are then systematically taken through a litany of possible suspects whose motives are all too obvious. There's the bitter pageant host played by William Shatner who has been asked to retire after this year. There's the high-brow pageant organizer, played by Candice Bergen who was insulted by the network when asked to spice up the pageant this year or lose the network money. There's also the aforementioned consultant played by Michael Caine, ostracized by pageant organizers over a scandal several years ago. The bomber is discovered shortly before the climax and the viewer is subjected to a ridiculous string of fights, explosions, and gunshots in an attempt to stop the crime, all on live television! I suppose if you are a Sandra Bullock fan you could endure this movie. One great scene shows her emerging from the industrial-size makeover in a very tight, short skirt to the tune of Mustang Sally. She handles her character well, with her pratfalls and her physical humor. It might also work for a family-oriented bit of light-hearted laughs but I sometimes found myself wondering if it was the intent of this movie to make fun of itself or was it just that ridiculous. Additional notes - We were also treated to the following display of typical Texas stereotypes: Many of the audience members at the pageant were wearing ten-gallon cowboy hats; one audience member had a gun in a holster prompting the comment by the organizers, "Of course he had a gun. This is Texas! Everybody has a gun. My florist has a gun!"; the Miss Texas contestant has three names Mary Jo Wright and spoke with a ridiculous heart-of-dixie accent; the pageant host, played by Shatner, reads Miss Texas' bio stating that "...and when not competing, she eats as much Mexican food as possible". Frank Wilkins Screen formats: Widescreen anamorphic Subtitles: English, French Sound: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo). Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access; trailer; deleted scenes; audio commentary by Sandra Bollock and co-screenwriter Marc Lawrence; additional audio commentary by director Donald Petrie; making-of featurettes; cast and crew information.
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