Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)

**Despite Bullock and King's good performances, the film is frankly predictable and never really gets interesting.**
I enjoyed _Miss Congeniality_, despite the various issues and problematic points I talked about in my review of that film, and I hoped that, at least, this sequel (which is far from being the second part of a bigger film, like Sandra Bullock said she faced all this) would be able to match the original film. Let's be fair, it had everything to achieve this: in addition to keeping the same protagonist and having a script that linked directly to its predecessor, the film kept part of the original crew and cast. Well, I'm sorry, but I feel that those expectations were disappointed: the film is not so bad, but it is below what I expected to find.
The problem starts with the script: it's a very underdeveloped and basic story, despite starting from a promising initial premise. Marc Lawrence, who has worked on the previous film, just couldn't do any better. If the first film was guided by the exaggeration of the story, this one proved to be predictable and has ideas that simply don't work, such as seeing two federal agents, posted outside their area of origin, and who have the luxury of disobeying blatantly to superior orders without this earning them an immediate suspension and the handing over of their weapons and badges. What the movie does is almost make fun of the FBI (well, sometimes they deserve it). Another problem is the melodrama that the protagonist lives after the end of her romance, which started in the previous film. This is irritating enough to prevent us from sympathizing more with the character, who is saved "in extremis" by the baggage of previously acquired sympathy.
Sandra Bullock is, frankly, the best asset present in this film. She was not only the producer but also the protagonist and, once again, she offers us a job well done, full of commitment, charm and charisma. Regina King also does quite well as a tough federal agent with anger management issues. The collaboration between both actresses is excellent, and the scenes they both star in are among the best in the film, particularly when they don't understand each other. Heather Burns and William Shatner also return for this film, in their respective roles, but the truth is that they have little to do and don't particularly stand out, apart from the demerit of other actors. Treat Williams tries but fails to do much more than he does, Diedrich Bader is very irritating in the role of a brazen homosexual with cross-dressing aspirations, and the two villains are never credible or exude any sense of real threat.
On a technical level, the film is on average, and that can be evaluated by the cinematography, editing and choice of sets or visual and sound effects. It's not a film where the production has invested a lot in technical issues. The soundtrack also leaves a lot to be desired and doesn't bring any theme or song that stays in the ear. The film's pace is slower than would be desirable, but I wonder if the plot, so confused and disordered, would perhaps allow the adoption of a faster pace without a significant loss of the intelligibility of the story. The humor is quite clever at times, but it barely strays from the conventional family sitcom jokes, puns, wordplay and physical humor (nothing against it, it's humor more suited to a family movie, and I recognize that). The costumes have some interesting ideas, but they don't go beyond what was expected to find.