Legally Blonde started out as a half-way clever attempt at putting the super-serious law profession in perspective by suggesting that even the most cartoonish bimbo could get in, literally on looks alone (along with the help of a significant amount of sheer, morbid curiosity on the part of the overwhelmingly male admissions board). The first film ended with Elle Woods, the ultimate sorority caricature, making her way through Harvard Law School and then wowing the audience by winning a huge case using nothing but her basic beauty salon know-how. Pretty sad way to conclude a film that must have been meant at least in some part to empower girly college girls, but at least they didn't pretend that Ms. Woods could giggle her way through one of the most prestigious law schools in America and come out on the other side as a serious attorney. Indeed, she graduates as exactly the same girly college girl that she always was, except now she has a license to practice law. Scary.
The question is, what was good about the first movie? Granted, it was definitely entertaining and certainly had its charming and amusing moments. I might even say that it was only the conclusion that was a major let-down. I always thought that one of the goals of a good story was to show character change, and there was none in Legally Blonde, from the beginning of the first movie to the end of the second. Oh wait, she dumped her boyfriend, that's right. Any human girl with two brain cells operating at the same time would have done that the second he told her that he was going to college and now needed to "be serious," basically calling his relationship with her a big joke, but hey, at least there's something...
Now, Elle is a law school grad and a real-life lawyer who has won her first case, so now it's off to the real world. And by that, of course, I mean it's off to a highly demanded private investigator to FIND HER DOG'S PARENTS. Yes, it's true. This movie exists because of Ms. Woods' mission to find her dog's parents so they can come to her wedding. Good God man, when she said she wanted everyone that mattered to be at her wedding and her dog barked at her, I thought it was going to be a quick joke and then they would move on with the movie. Nope. The story comes to a grinding halt (it wasn't moving much anyway), jumps the rails, and goes bouncing and jostling across the desert into the desolate horizon.
Elle discovers with a shock that the people she works for are dirtbags, so goes to Washington with the mission of saving Bruiser's (her purse dog) mother from animal testing at the secret Versace testing facility. My guess is that Versace didn't pay for this name placement...
In the first film, there was some half-hearted attempt at presenting the reality of law school, but all of that goes out the window here. Elle is seen as a joke when she first gets to Washington (because she is a joke, of course), but wins credibility at the most bizarre circus of a Congressional hearing you can imagine. Indeed, the ridiculous skits that take place in this movie are outdone for absurdity only in the way that crowds of government officials, senators, and House representatives burst into tears or burst out laughing or clamor over each other in their belligerent rush to sign their names to whatever bill this group of childish lunatics was trying to push through.
The one thing that we have to be thankful for is that the movie is short. At about 90 minutes it still feels a lot longer because it is something of an endurance test, but it could definitely be a lot worse. The real reason the movie is so bad is because of the entire premise of searching out Bruiser's parents (no mention is ever made of Bruiser's father, incidentally - maybe he took off when he learned his son was gay), which might be one of the dumbest plot devices in film history. This is even worse than that computer in Lost where they have to type in some code every 108 minutes to prevent some unknown disaster (or nothing) from happening. Clever.
(spoilers) The film turns a little bit scary at the end when Elle and her endlessly tolerant new husband are driving away from Washington. He asks her where she wants to live, and the film ends with Elle glancing mischievously at the White House as they pass by.
Don't even think about it, Elle. You've already made a complete mockery of the American legal system, already fraught with corruption and crooks, and now you've made a complete mockery of the American government, a bloated, bureaucratic mess which is also already fraught with corruption and crooks. Let it stop now...
The question is, what was good about the first movie? Granted, it was definitely entertaining and certainly had its charming and amusing moments. I might even say that it was only the conclusion that was a major let-down. I always thought that one of the goals of a good story was to show character change, and there was none in Legally Blonde, from the beginning of the first movie to the end of the second. Oh wait, she dumped her boyfriend, that's right. Any human girl with two brain cells operating at the same time would have done that the second he told her that he was going to college and now needed to "be serious," basically calling his relationship with her a big joke, but hey, at least there's something...
Now, Elle is a law school grad and a real-life lawyer who has won her first case, so now it's off to the real world. And by that, of course, I mean it's off to a highly demanded private investigator to FIND HER DOG'S PARENTS. Yes, it's true. This movie exists because of Ms. Woods' mission to find her dog's parents so they can come to her wedding. Good God man, when she said she wanted everyone that mattered to be at her wedding and her dog barked at her, I thought it was going to be a quick joke and then they would move on with the movie. Nope. The story comes to a grinding halt (it wasn't moving much anyway), jumps the rails, and goes bouncing and jostling across the desert into the desolate horizon.
Elle discovers with a shock that the people she works for are dirtbags, so goes to Washington with the mission of saving Bruiser's (her purse dog) mother from animal testing at the secret Versace testing facility. My guess is that Versace didn't pay for this name placement...
In the first film, there was some half-hearted attempt at presenting the reality of law school, but all of that goes out the window here. Elle is seen as a joke when she first gets to Washington (because she is a joke, of course), but wins credibility at the most bizarre circus of a Congressional hearing you can imagine. Indeed, the ridiculous skits that take place in this movie are outdone for absurdity only in the way that crowds of government officials, senators, and House representatives burst into tears or burst out laughing or clamor over each other in their belligerent rush to sign their names to whatever bill this group of childish lunatics was trying to push through.
The one thing that we have to be thankful for is that the movie is short. At about 90 minutes it still feels a lot longer because it is something of an endurance test, but it could definitely be a lot worse. The real reason the movie is so bad is because of the entire premise of searching out Bruiser's parents (no mention is ever made of Bruiser's father, incidentally - maybe he took off when he learned his son was gay), which might be one of the dumbest plot devices in film history. This is even worse than that computer in Lost where they have to type in some code every 108 minutes to prevent some unknown disaster (or nothing) from happening. Clever.
(spoilers) The film turns a little bit scary at the end when Elle and her endlessly tolerant new husband are driving away from Washington. He asks her where she wants to live, and the film ends with Elle glancing mischievously at the White House as they pass by.
Don't even think about it, Elle. You've already made a complete mockery of the American legal system, already fraught with corruption and crooks, and now you've made a complete mockery of the American government, a bloated, bureaucratic mess which is also already fraught with corruption and crooks. Let it stop now...