 Critics for the most part are not feeling the least bit congenial about Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, starring Sandra Bullock. Manohla Dargis in the Los Angeles Times dismisses it as a "junky sequel" to the 2000 original. "It isn't just that Miss Congeniality 2 is nearly absent a single genuine laugh; it's that instead of a screenplay and a story we now have stereotypes and sketch comedy," she writes. Eric Harrison in the Houston Chronicle is kinder but appears to go out of his way to avoid using the term "cheesy" to describe the film, writing instead: "In the end, it's pointless to think too much about this pasteurized tub of cinematic Velveeta. It was made and processed to go down easy, which it does. It isn't a subtle French Camembert, but then it doesn't pretend to be." Bullock herself gets fine notices in most of the reviews, and critics, by and large, go out out of their way not to assign blame for its failings to her. Comments Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in the Atlanta Journal: "Miss Congeniality 2 isn't a total waste of your time; Bullock sees to that. But it is a waste of the star's time." And Lisa Kennedy in the Denver Post observes: "More than any other actress, she appears to have an unlimited supply of audience goodwill, even as she makes lesser pictures." |
