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Dorky St Clair takes a peak under the skirt of MISS CONGENIALITY
SPOILER ALERT !!
While scouting sites here in Austin for next year's AICN TV show a few months back we happened upon the beginning of the MISS CONGENIALITY shoot out at the "old" Austin airport which has been converted into a city managed Motion Picture Studio. They were recreating the Atlantic City beauty pageant in one of the old hangers. Across the runway in the old Texas Air National Guard Hangers Robert Rodriguez was shooting his SPY KIDS.
A month later Harry needed to get his Head cast for his scene in John Carpenter's GHOSTS OF MARS, the makeup crew was setup out at the airport in a trailer on the runway. When we stepped out of the trailer the area was flooded with NY taxi cabs from MISS CONGENIALITY, very surreal, pieces of the pageant set were leaning against the outside of the hangers, really really weird. For months all over town Bullock and crew would pop up out of nowhere, film scenes, then disappear only to appear again the next day somewhere else.
Harry's old assistant Scout Master Sam Schott landed a walkon in a few scenes with Sandra, his Junior High computer prof got in some others. There were bizarre chases on the city's streets, and constant sightings of Michael Caine, Candice Bergen, and William Shatner at Harry's and my favorite eateries and haunts. So all that said Ol' Father Geek is pretty damn curious about this flick. Here's what one self-named dork thinks...
Harry's old assistant Scout Master Sam Schott landed a walkon in a few scenes with Sandra, his Junior High computer prof got in some others. There were bizarre chases on the city's streets, and constant sightings of Michael Caine, Candice Bergen, and William Shatner at Harry's and my favorite eateries and haunts. So all that said Ol' Father Geek is pretty damn curious about this flick. Here's what one self-named dork thinks...
I know the land of AICN has been waiting with baited breath for word on the latest effort from the always diverse (sarcasm) and ever-changing (more sarcasm) Sandra Bullock. I still haven't forgiven her for Hope Floats, 28 Days and Gun Shy, but her new one MISS CONGENIALITY makes up in some small way for those.
Sandra does one thing and does it very well. She is the ultimate perky brunette. A real man's woman. The kinda girl you wanna sit in a sports bar with and share a pitcher and an order of cheese fries. She's actually a gifted comic actress with great comic intuition (see Demolition Man), and when the script and co-casting are right, the results are....well, more entertaining than Speed 2, Hope Floats, Practical Magic, Forces of Nature, 28 Days and Gun Shy all put together.
MISS CONGENIALITY is her new one (which she also produced) and it reunites her with her Demolition Man co-star Benjamin Bratt. They are FBI agents on the trail of a serial bomber/killer/mischief-maker who they discover is out to spoil the Miss Unites States pageant.
Yes, thats the Miss UNITED STATES pageant.
(I wonder if they ever actually approached the Miss USA or Miss America pageants about the film? "Oh we are doing a movie about a terrorist threat to a major American beauty pageant. You wanna help?")
Bullock's "Gracie Hart" a no-make-up-wearing tomboy is in reprimand for a botching an arrest during which another agent was shot. But Gracie turns out to be the only agent who fits the bill to go undercover as a contestant in the aforementioned pageant. Gracie and Eric (Bratt) meet with the pageant coordinator Kathy Morningside (TV's Candice Bergen, looking quite lost in a feature film) who then passes the unrefined Bullock off to pageant expert Victor Melling (Oscar-winner Michael Caine, having great fun here) so she can undergo an Eliza Doolittle transformation, which of course catches fellow agent Bratt's eye.
Its all very formulatic yes, but between Bullock's charm and Caine's entertaining one-liners, the film works in a very sugary-safe, unobjectionable, cutesy chick-flick with lotsa comedy for the guys way, and its a hell of a lot more successful in making fun of pagents than Drop Dead Gorgeous was.
***SPOILERS BELOW***
William Shatner turns up as the pageant's version of Bert Parks, and is hysterically funny at times, always smiling in the face of unexpected pageant tragedies (from Bullock leaping off the stage onto an audience member who has a gun...to the losing contestant who steps forward and announces that she is a lesbian and that she loves her girlfriend who is in the audience.)
Candice Bergen really does look lost onscreen. Her pageant director character is cold and bitter throughout, a real nasty lady. When her character turns out to be the film's villain I couldn't help but wonder why the role wasn't contrastingly nice and sweet for the first 90 minutes so that she could turn and be evil for the film's ending sequence.
The relationship between the Caine and Bullock is what really makes the film worth attention. There is a scene where Victor busts Gracie for stealing donuts. She pulls donuts out of each cup of her bra, and walks away only to have a bomb-sniffing dog go straight for the powdered donut she hid under her dress. (Was she really going to eat a donut that was stuffed into her panties? I mean, I know I would, but would SHE?)
So I give Miss Congeniality a B. Its a no-brainer. "The perfect date movie" as I am sure some no-name radio critic will be quoted as calling it in the TV commercials.
Oh and for anyone who doesnt know: When you pay to see a sneak preview, you are allowed to stay and watch the same-studio film after it? Does no one know this? Of course the free movie after in this case was Proof of Life, so I snuck into Dude, Where's My Car? instead.
Call me...
Dorky St Clair
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is it me or is it just that these new sandra bullock looks just like the last one.........damn gunshy sucked, so did 28 days, now this
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Dec 18, 2000 6:50:50 PM CST
Panty Donuts and the questions they raise...(News at 11)
by roger u. roundly
To Munch or not to Munch.. that is the conundrum. Personally, if it were me ....I BE DUNKIN!!!
Now, Panties *made* of donuts, *That* is your answer right there. I know Marge Simpson would go for it (tee-hee!) -
...and so would you. but would i pay good money to see 'miss congeniality'? jury's still out on that one. don't sell 'gun shy' so short, however - it's one of the more original and offbeat comedies of the year.
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Didn't Liam Neeson announce a few years back that he was retiring from acting because of the lack of merrit films carry these days. And then didn't he come out with "TPM" "Gun Shy" and "The Haunting"? Huh? Didn't he?
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If The Grinch and Helen Hunt can make money of middle to low grade movies, then why not Sandra Bullock. She's a very likeable actor and deserves a hit if for no other reason than tenacity. I mean, look around, she's not out of her league or anything. Let the audiences flood to Miss Congeniality this weekend. Who cares, really. We should all wish Bullock the best for never being other than she is, for better or worse.
fanks. -
I think so. Sandra Bullock movies should have her name bigger than the title. And more sexual situations, but that's a pipe dream.. So did Harry see Sandra ?
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She might make a good Wonder Woman, what do you guys think?
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Dec 18, 2000 8:58:37 PM CST
See Demolition Man?...Not if you tied my tongue to a tail pipe a
by batutta
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i saw this abortion about two weeks ago and it took "crouching tiger" and "finding forrester" to begin to eradicate the evil feelings i got after watching this disaster and i still shudder and cringe whenever i see a commercial for this film. sandra bullock is an awful actress. she was far from the reason speed was good and has NEVER made a good movie. (Go to imdb and check out the list of 30+ stinkers she has made. her biggest problem is that she has no timing. her delivery of lines is awful. sure, she looks good in a dress, but so do many women. while i don't believe the original script was awful (consider the fine performance by Michael Caine and the decent performance by William Shatner). i just think that bullock took this bull by the horns and gored it. i would poke my eyes out before i saw this film again. of the 60+ films i've seen this year, this is easily one of the 5 worst. and the reviewer in the new york post who claimed that bullock might get an Oscar nomination for her performance should have his lighted pen taken away from him. this is great date movie if you want your date to never speak to you again.
STAY AWAY FROM THIS MOVIE. IT IS ABSOLUTE CRAP. -
Dec 19, 2000 1:09:58 AM CST
Another Sandra Bullock Movie? I Don't Know If I Should Trust Thi
by the founder
Even though most of her movies are little to completly non entertaining...I must say that I enjoy her as an actress. I do feel that she is underated, and she's put quite a few turkeys latley, so she better start choosing her scripts more carefully.At any rate this Miss Congeniality looks like it may turn out to be entertaining so I'm there.
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Shit you dumbasses if you dont like the movie say so and be done with it. All you name calling children (queef) go find something better to do than not talk about the movie. Personally I am sure the movie will be at least somewhat funny, not like we were expecting a real winner here anyways. Anyways, the actually good comments that people make here are getting few and far between...
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The premise! Let's take the *oh so unatractive* Miss Bullock, and cast her as an FBI agent who's TUFF and MANLY, see, cause her hair is up, she can pretend to wrestle, and she does that snort thing when she laughs. Eeeew! How manly. But wait!! We let her hair down, put her in high heels and a designer dress, and shoot her in slow-mo, and she's HOT, SEXY, and FEMININE again!!! What a transformation!!!!
Kill me. -
I thought the movie was hilarious. I was laughing so much that I missed some of the dialogue. Sandy is a comic genius. She has a knack for physical comedy like Lucille Ball. This was definitely funnier than Drop Dead Gorgeous. I still can't believe I once was in a beauty pageant.
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I happen to agree that there have been more than a few movies starring sandra that suck..but on the other hand, I've seen more than a few that I were really great, and I think she was a major factor in that.
She DOES have great comic timing..Unico is right...there is a lucille ball vibe at work here...
so to throw my two cents in...
28 days was a good movie...
Hope Floats was good too....
I think from what I've read here that this movie will be enjoyable as well...
other than the rants some of you post...it amazes me that you even bother writing some of the things you do...completely juvenile...don't get me wrong...I'm a film geek too, but jesus fuckin christ, "a queef"....that is without a doubt the stupidest thing I've seen here yet...if that was all you have to add to the conversation, you may as well not bother...
"mork.....is that YOU?"
exador -
what's the deal with beauty pagent movies? Seriously, Drop Dead Gorgeous = shit, Beautiful = dreadful dreadful shit, Miss Congeniality = obviously shit.
I wish hollywood would get the hint and realized that people don't want to see beauty pagent movies... or Sandra Bullock movies for that matter. -
Some film set in 50s New York with Sandra Bullock as a teenage Jewish princess who fell in love with an Italian-American kid but it broke up. She was good in that. And, um, that's it. She fills a specific role in the market that would better be filled by Janeane Garofalo (actually funny). She is neither Hollywood idea of leading lady beauty, nor 'carry the film' comedienne. Everything since 'Speed' has been a variation on the ditsy/serious double act she does in every movie, a series of bad ideas for films that she has singularly failed to enliven. I mean, I am I the only one who left '28 Days' really wanting a drink because she was just so damn BORING as an alcoholic?
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Dec 19, 2000 3:09:54 PM CST
Why are we talking about this film? It has nothing geeky about i
by iamlegolas
No cool character actors (well...besides Bill Shatner), no one remotely cool working behind the scenes... it's obviously made for the Oprah Winfrey crowd who want a little daring in their lives! Why would anyone want to watch this besides having a hard-on for Bullock???? ;P
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you are right, she and this movie are strictly for oprah fans. also, think about 28 days from an addict's or even a recovering addict's pov and it becomes seriously fucking insulting.
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Dec 19, 2000 8:39:00 PM CST
At last I can contribute to this TB under the auspices of pedant
by valles marineris
(sorry, couldn't remember your exact name dude) Where was I? Oh, yeah, Hey Regigiigi, Sandra*Sigh*Bullock wuzzen in ITLOF, it was Rene*Sigh*Russo. when "Sandy" stars in a clunker, I *try* to be cooler-than-thou and mean about her, but I can't quite manage it cuz she's just *so* darn Cutie-licious! It's easier to be dismissive of ugly birds cuz your not fighting your genetic programming.
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I like her, but I think she's made a HUGE mistake with this!!!!!!!!
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Hell, I'll go see it just for Michael Caine and especially William Shatner alone. It's nice to see the Shat in a commercial movie. Nice supporting cast including Candice Bergen. That's all one can ask for really in a Sandra Bullock flick.
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Ok, she may be lost in this one, but back in the day she was Academy-Award nominated for Starting Over and also appeared in a modest little flick about a mild-mannered philosopher and activist. Maybe you've heard of it-Gandhi? Murphy Brown may have sucked the life out of her but she's not just a "TV Star".
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Sandra Bullock's latest film was everything it should have been... It was supposed to be light comedy, and it was... Kudos to Caine, Bullock and of course, Billy Shatner :-)
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