Doomed and Frivolous

First and foremost, this movie wants to share your Sandra Bullock headspace. If you don’t grok her onscreen persona (klutzy girl-next-door tomboy), Armed and Fabulous isn’t gonna change your mind. Personally, I find her engaging, so watching her go through the paces with this pedestrian script was relatively painless, although I found myself focusing on the people in the background acting as if they had a backstory.

When we last left FBI Field Agent Gracie Hart (Bullock), she had gone undercover as a beauty pageant contestant to prevent the implementation of a plot to blow up the Miss United States Pageant. Along the way she bonds with the other contestants, saves the day and hooks up with fellow agent Benjamin Bratt.

Fortunately, here we are spared the reptilian presence of Bratt, as he dumps her over the phone. Gracie’s day hasn’t been all roses to that point, either. Earlier, during an undercover stakeout at the scene of an impending bank robbery, her cover was blown by a passerby who had recognized her from her fame following the events of the first entry.

Realizing that she is useless in the field, The Bureau reassigns her to be the Face of the FBI. So we trot out all the makeover elements of the first movie, as Gracie goes out on the talk show circuit to hype the agency, with new partner Sam Fuller (Regina King), a bad-attitude borderline sociopath. Of course we know they’ll bond by the end of the flick and Fuller will loosen up.

Along the way her friend from the first film, Miss United States, and William Shatner are kidnapped and held for ransom. Gracie and Fuller break the rules to save them. Blah, blah, blah. You know the routine. Wait for the video.