“Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde” (MGM)
There should be a law banning the making of sequels that totally destroy the good will created by the originals. That is exactly what happens when you watch “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde.” Everything you remember as being good about the original is smeared with the dullness and stupidity of this second one.
Reese Witherspoon returns as Elle Woods, a sweetly simple and nave young woman in the first film, who now comes across as dumb and dumberer in this sequel. As the film opens she is planning her marriage to boyfriend Emmett (Luke Wilson) and also working for a major law firm in Boston.
How’s this for stupid She wants to invite her pet Chihuahua’s mother to the wedding so she hires a private investigator to track her down. And he does. She is part of an animal research project for a company, which is represented by Elle’s firm. When she asks that her firm force the company to stop animal experimentation, she is fired.
No problem. She immediately gets a job as an assistant to Congresswoman Victoria Rudd (Sally Field). After she moves to Washington she decides to push for a bill banning animal experimentation for cosmetics. Now this may seem like a worthy cause to many in the audience but Elle’s actions trivialize it. It seems like a flavor of the month bill for an airhead to work on.
The movie trivializes everything. It makes Elle seem vacuous and vain, and overly obsessed with her Chihuahua. She seems to love him much more than she does her fiance’. And the members of Congress she meets are selfish hypocrites at best and uncaring idiots at worst.
The movie treats Elle in such a simplistic way that you actually cringe with some of the speeches she delivers. It takes all of Witherspoon’s charm to actually get the audience to remain through the length of the film. Without her there would be a mass exodus early on.
The supporting cast which includes Bob Newhart, Jennifer Coolidge, Bruce McGill and Regina King are all wasted. And poor Sally Field fares the worst of all. She not only has a thankless role as the Congresswoman; she also looks bad.
The film is rated PG-13 for mild profanity and sexual humor.
Reese Witherspoon can be cute, charming and beautiful whenever she wants. Obviously she didn’t want to be any of that in this film. Or maybe she just got poor direction from Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. I would like to blame it on someone other than her.
For the record “Legally Blonde 2” is unlawfully bland from start to finish. There isn’t a truly enjoyable moment I can recall from the entire film.
I scored “Legally Blonde 2” a dark-rooted 3 out of 10.
