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And
the
Miss
Congeniality
Award
Goes To...
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Quick:
Name the top 3 actresses, based on talent, in the business today.
Plenty of common responses here: Meg Ryan, Angelina Jolie, Helen
Hunt, Annette Bening. One name that likely didn't show up on that
list of finalists is Sandra Bullock.
Though
she might not take the top prize for her acting chops, Bullock's
popularity with |
audiences
and good looks make her a shoo-in for Hollywood's "Miss
Congeniality"--which also happens to be the name of her latest film.
A
majority of the roles Bullock has played have been that of the
typical girl next door. She's portrayed everything from the
small-town prom queen to the inner city bus station attendant, but
those roles all allowed her to be feminine and sexy. Anytime she has
stepped out of that stereotype ("Demolition Man,"
"Speed 2") her performances have been unconvincing at best
and categorized her as the proverbial "one-trick pony."
However,
that may have changed with "Miss Congeniality," the latest
movie in the long line of beauty pageant parodies. Here Bullock plays
Gracie Hart, a tough-as-nails FBI agent forced to go undercover at a
Miss United States pageant to prevent a bombing.
Along
with Eric Matthews (Benjamin Bratt, "Demolition Man,"
"Clear and Present Danger" and quite possibly best known as
"Mr. Julia Roberts" for the moment) and a team of FBI
specialists, Hart takes over New Jersey's spot in the pageant . She |

Sandra
Bullock stars in the Warner Brothers pageant parody Miss
Congeniality |
goes
about her business of making everything safe in pageant-land . . .
and getting everyone else fat and drunk in the process.
The
team of Bullock and Bratt works sufficiently well. With a few more
movies under his belt, Bratt could emerge as a leading man for the
new millennium.
The
rest of the cast is brilliant. Captain Kirk himself, William
Shatner, is hilarious as the pageant's self-absorbed host. Candace
Bergen, Emmy-winner as TV's "Murphy Brown," is great as the
overbearing pageant director. Perhaps the best performance in the
movie is turned in by Oscar-winner Michael Caine ("The Cider
House Rules"), who plays Vic Melling. A not-quite-right
beautician, Melling has the unenviable task of preparing Gracie for
the pageant in less than two days.
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