Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde

Although I recognize the fact that I'm a guy and shouldn't like chick flicks anyway, Legally Blonde 2 was ridiculous on so many levels that after watching the movie I had to lower my head in shame.

The first LB movie, while not very funny, was still entertaining to watch because it actually had effort put into the storyline. It was interesting to see a fashion-obsessed blonde in pink apparently not fitting in at Harvard law school. They tried the same approach with LB2, only with her walking into congress buildings wearing her all pink outfits. However, since we've already seen that attempt at humor in the first movie, it just wasn't anything special.

Aside from that, the plot outline was horrible. Basically, Elle Woods (Witherspoon) is having an upcoming wedding where she plans to invite the mother of her pet dog. She discovers that the dog's mother is in a lab, where they were testing fingernail polish on the dog's nails. Elle got sad and was like 'I am going to go to DC and make it illegal for them to test on animals!' The viewer, however, doesn't really care, realizing that putting nail polish on a dog's nails really isn't that big of a deal, but hey.

I'm not trying to sound mean, but I just can't really think of anything good about this movie. Every single joke used in the movie was either not funny or recycled from the first one. The entire concept of the plot is just retarded. It even seemed Reese was half-assing her acting job through the movie, doing even worse than she did in the first film. Nobody else in the movie will be nominated for any Oscars, either.

It just seemed that some filmmaker wanted to cash in from the first movie's success, knowing that people will pay money to see this movie just because the first one was popular. All of the production team's effort went into marketing and hype and they just didn't put enough into the actual movie itself.

2 out of 10

I loved the original Legally Blonde, and I knew going into this movie that it wouldn't be as good as the original. My only solace lies in the thought that this could have been so much worse than it was.

First, LB2 relied too much on the Elle-Woods-Fish-Out-Of-Water plot. It should have portrayed the main character as being savvy enough to take advantage of the fact that her opponents always underestimated her. After all, she's been out of law school a couple of years already, surely she'd have learned that much, right?

Second, the plot itself was too contrived. There wasn't a single believable character in the show, and Witherspoon was just a caricature of the original movie's heroine.

But I still managed to enjoy most of the show. I even chuckled in a couple of scenes. But I winced at far too many other scenes, and the climactic speech to Congress was abominable.

I've seen worse remakes than this, but I think the producers missed an opportunity to make a good film instead of a knock-off.

Unfortunately, this film does not live up to its antecedent, which was very enjoyable. The problem is not with the cast, but with the script. It lacks the humor or the heart that made the first film funny and stirring. This is a real disappointment, I'm sure, to so many fans who wanted to root for Elle Woods again.

Perhaps if Elle had had a truly troublesome issue to overcome, something to add weight to the drama (which is absent in this film), viewers would have someone to cheer for. This film had all the gravitas of a Barbie playdate.

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde is a very disappointing sequel as it fails to deliver the laughs. Elle Woods is now a rising young lawyer at a great firm, balancing a demanding a career with preparations for her wedding to the man of her dreams. But when she finds out that her beloved dog Bruiser's family members are being used as cosmetic test subjects by one of her firm's own clients, she stands up for their rights--and is promptly fired. Ms. Woods decides to go to Washington to take matters into her own hands. The plot actually had some potential, unfortunately the execution was very poor. The original wasn't an Oscar quality film, it was just a fun film to watch. The sequel isn't as fun nor is it fun in general. It was pretty much the same as the first movie and so it was a pretty pointless sequel. Reese Witherspoon returns and she does a good job but she's working with a weak script. The supporting cast isn't very good as none add much to the film. Sally Field is a very good actress but her talents are wasted. Luke Wilson's character isn't very interesting and Jennifer Coolidge tries to hard most of the time. Regina King is a new addition to the cast and she does an okay job, nothing memorable though. Missing from this sequel is Selma Blair, this doesn't matter though as her character wasn't really needed. Charles Herman-Wurmfeld replaces Robert Luketic as the director and does a very bad job. The running time is a brief 95 minutes though it feels a lot longer then that. The film felt a lot longer since the movie just wasn't funny. There were a few funny moments though most of the jokes this film delivered were, at best, small chuckles. Do a few funny moments redeem this film? No, this sequel is one of the worst sequels of 2003 and one of the worst comedies of 2003. In the end, this sequel may seem funny but I assure you it isn't. Rating 4.3/10, rent the original instead.

Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) is getting married to Emmett Richmond (Luke Wilson). She goes in search of her dog Bruiser Woods' parents for the wedding. She finds Bruiser's mom being tested on at V.E.R.S.A.C.E. When she objects, she's let go from her law firm. She decides to go to Washington D.C. to change the law for animal testing. She gets to work for fellow alumni Rep. Victoria Rudd (Sally Field).

The first movie had the charm of something completely original. I liked the first one enough but this one doesn't have the possibility of taking us by surprise. The idea seems old now. The movie tries to put Elle Woods in the most unlikely place again. So they twist a story out of shape to put her there and make DC out to be something unreal. It isn't quite as funny anymore. At least it's not funny intentionally.