Miss Congeniality was one of those films that I just did not want to see at the cinema. The trailers looked like fun and the star (Sandra Bullock) could be seen looking at both her best and her worst. But it smelt of cheap laughs and a weak story line. So this of course meant that it would have to go on my list "to be watched on video". However, I have a DVD player on my computer and it is rarely used. To add to this, DVD's are actually cheaper to rent than videos in my local store. So after spending a day actually getting my DVD player to work properly (love computers when they go wrong!) I placed the DVD in the drive and flicked through the options. There were many and I will come to the extra features later. I finally ran the film, was it as I had imagined? Read on to find out more!

Cast list
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Sandra Bullock – F.B.I. Agent Gracie Hart
Michael Caine – Victor Melling
Benjamine Bratt – F.B.I. Agent Eric Mathews
William Shatner – Stan Fields
Candice Bergen – Kathy Morningside
Ernie Hudson – F.B.I. Head Agent Harry McDonald

The Story
*********

One of America's most infamous villains "The Citizen" is going around the country causing chaos in his wake. The FBI receive information that this evil criminal plans to sabotage the "Miss United States pageant" and action needs to be taken, in order to avoid a catastrophe. This sets a plan in motion to catch the vile beast and save the day. What the FBI need in order to put this plan in to action is an undercover agent to pose as a contestant. But there is a problem. Not known for an abundance of attractive female agents, the FBI has no alternative but to choose the best of a bad lot. This comes in the form of FBI Agent Gracie Hart, tough, intelligent, unkempt and born with the table manners of a pig. Having always been a bit of a tomboy, Gracie is horrified at the thought of prancing around as a beauty contestant, but being in the Head Agents bad books for rash and unruly behaviour, she has no choice.

The next stage of the plan involves transforming this diamond in the rough in to a sparkling jewel. There is only one man capable of taking on this mammoth task, Victor Melling. Victor Melling is the best at what he does (or so he says), that is transforming the average in to the exceptional. With Gracie though, he really has his work cut out, especially as he has just two days to change a lifetime of bad habits and poor grooming. Coached intensively, cleansed and thoroughly manicured from top to toe, Gracie transforms form an ugly duckling in to a beautiful swan. Although still rough around the edges, the tough agent manages to pass herself off as one of the contestants, "miss New Jersey".

Watched by the operation controller FBI Agent Eric Mathews, Gracie integrates herself in to the rest of the contestants and waits to see what happens. In doing so, she finds herself becoming friends with some of her fellow contestants, much to her own amazement as Gracie has always been too busy for friends in the past. Agent Mathews also starts to see her in a newer and brighter light, having seen her more as one of the boys originally, he now starts to see her previously hidden attributes. Want to know more? Then you better go out and hire yourself a copy, as I will say no more on the plot to avoid spoiling it for those who have yet to see it!

Characters/Actors
*****************

Sandra Bullock plays Gracie Hart the masculine, bullish agent transformed into a dainty flower by Victor Melling. She starts off so being so rough and rude that you can't help but laugh out loud, watching her belch her way through the early scenes. Given bushy eyebrows and a bad wig to wear, she certainly looks the part. As the story progresses you start to see the character become far more feminine and socially acceptable. Her appearance changes from very dowdy to incredible beautiful supposedly overnight, and she does convince you that she could possible pass as a beauty queen. However, every now and then she slips back into her old ways, showing she is still the same old Gracie deep down and I liked this nice little touch from the writers. Previously, Bullock has played mainly girl next door types and hapless heroines. In this film you start to see just how good she can be at comedy and is a delight to watch. Probably best know for her appearances in those awful action movies "Speed" (1994) and "speed2" (1997). However, if you are looking for some other films to see her in I would forget those two and check out "While you were sleeping" and "The Net", both filmed in 1995 and which were much better films as far as I am concerned.

Michael Caine plays Victor Melling, the somewhat stuck up and slightly feminine king of etiquette and style. Slightly disgraced, he is having trouble finding work, despite being very good at his job. Being chosen for the new task is more due to his availability than his actual talents. Taking on the challenge to transform Gracie gives him the chance to redeem himself and this also provides him with the toughest makeover of his entire life. Despite some resistance from Gracie, Melling rises to the challenge and finds he can't help admiring her for all her effort. Michael Caine gets to say some of the best lines in the film as the character Victor Melling. It is obvious from his performance that he thoroughly enjoyed working with Bullock. There seems little point going through Caines film career, which has been long and full of interesting films, over a hundred actually! However, I must list a few of my favourites:

"Zulu" (1964) – Caine finally got full recognition for his acting talent by playing Lieutenant Gonville Bromville in this epic war film.

"Alfie" (1996)– Michael Caine plays the title role as "Alfie Atkins", a male chauvinist womaniser in this low budget British classic.

"The Cider house rules" (1999) – Caine plays Doctor "Wilbur Larch" from Maine in America, with one of the worst fake accents you will ever come across! He is not the star of the film and it is not his best performance by any means but it is a great film nevertheless!

Benjamine Bratt plays FBI agent Eric Mathews. Mathews is put in charge of his first major undercover operation. As Gracie transforms into a beautiful contestant, you can see him suddenly realise just how gorgeous his fellow agent really is. Bratt gives a good performance, if a bit unnoticeable!

William Shatner plays Stan Fields, the shows compare. Fields has been comparing the Pageants for years and has seen it all, at least that's what he thought until Gracie turns up! Shatner has taken some stick for some of his less than successful career choices, in particular for his awful attempts at a singing. He is great in Miss Congeniality, somehow I feel he has really found calling in playing comedy characters. He doesn't mind sending himself up and his cheeky grin is used with perfect timing to add to the overall humour of the film.

The rest of the Co-stars are pretty average, Candice Bergen gives her usual hammed up performance and Ernie Hudson appears to copy the style of the police chief out of "Starsky and Hutch" with with his perfomance as the FBI head of operations. Incidently, you might recognise him as the fourth spook hunter in that 1984 classic "Ghostbusters" The pageant contestants all show that they were chosen more for looking the part than their actual acting ability, but you can forgive them for that as they all look particularly fine!

Comedy
******

This is a funny film, although not especially so. Most of the humour stems from Gracie Harts transition from "cave woman" to fairy princess. Caine and Shatner provide some great one liners and perform them with comic timing that is hard to beat.

Romance
*******

Well having Sandra Bullock in a film normally means there is going to be a bit of romance. Fortunately this is only a small part of the story and allows you to get on with enjoying the humour, without being distracted. There is no on screen chemistry between the two supposedly smitten on-screen characters, but like I said, it is really a small part of the story and hardly worth mentioning.

Action
******

Well it is a cop film of sorts and there is some good action in it from Bullock leaping off stages to the occasional fight seen. Die hard action fanatics will not be particularly impressed though.

Soundtrack
**********

Nothing to write home about hear, I didn't really notice anything spectacular about it at all!

Director
********

Donald Petrie directed this film and he has done a fine job. The direction particular stands out in the way the comedy timing has been dealt with. The actors are used to great effect with facial expressions being allowed to say more than words. Petrie has has a fairly successful directorial career, from his first attempt with "The Equalizer" television series back in 1985. Since then he has directed numerous other films and Television shows including "MacGuyver" (1985), "LA Law" (1986), "Mystic Pizza" (1988) and "Grumpy old men" (1993). These are just a few examples, there are many more!

DVD Extras
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Commentary
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The first extra features that you will notice is that you can watch the film with voice overs from Sandra Bullock and screen writer Marc Lawrence. This is quite dull and will bore you after a few minutes. Alternatively you can watch the film with commentary from the director Donald Petrie. This was slightly more interesting but again, if you can watch the film all the way through with this commentary then you deserve a medal. In general, the commentaries are all pretty dull.

Documentaries
*************

There are three documentaries that you can watch, all dealing with the making of the movie funny enough. These are entitled, "Preparing for the Pageant", "The Dancing Queen" and "Behind the crown". They all feature outakes, interviews with the crew and cast and some screen footage that was cut out of the final version of the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed these. They were very interesting and did add to my overall enjoyment of this DVD.

Trailer
*******

This shows the action trailer that was shown on television when the film came out. You will probably have seen it before but just in case you missed it, you can watch it here. One thing that I did find interesting was that this trailer still contains a clip from a scene that was cut from the final version of the film.

Languages
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English only verbally, but there are a few choices when it comes to sub-titles.

Overall view
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Sandra Bullock is excellent as Gracie Hart in this retake on an old idea. Does the story sound familiar, it should do as it was used many years ago in Pygmalion, better known as "My fair lady". Bullocks character can be compared to Eliza Doolittle with Michael Caines character, Victor Melling being similar to Professor Higgins. This film does an adequate retake on the idea of "common girl learns some manners" and adds a bit more comedy and humour. I did enjoy it and credit for this must really go to Sandra Bullock and Michael Caine. The DVD has some nice extra features and this would sway me if I was to consider buying it. Unless the Video version comes with all these extras (and I very much doubt it does) then I would only consider buying the DVD as the film on it's only would not justify the expense. Light hearted, low on romance and with some big named stars, this is a film worth seeing, if not one to place at the top of your list.

Official Website:

http://miss-congeniality.warnerbros.co.uk/main.html

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