The ever likable Sandra Bullock stars in Miss Congeniality, a comedy about an FBI agent who goes undercover as a beauty contestant to thwart the efforts of a terrorist threatening to blow up the Miss USA Pageant.
Donald Petrie directs this fluffy and messy comedy, based on the formulaic and rather silly script by Marc Lawrence, Caryn Lucas and Katie Ford.
Neither funny as comedy nor exciting as an action adventure, this retro hybrid–a throwback to comedies of the 1980s–became one of Bullock’s most commercially successful pictures (it grossed over $100 million domestically), leading to a sequel five years later, which is even weaker.
There is no particularly strong chemistry between Bullock, whose specialty is romantic comedy and gentle farce, and Benjamin as her lead man.
Supporting cast of Michael Caine, Candice Bergen, and William Shatner lend some prestige to the proceedings, but alas the film is overall silly, relying on such clichéd shticks as Bullock falling all over herself repeatedly in high heels, or talking with full mouth.
Credits:
MPAA: PG-13
Release: December 22, 2000
