Miss Congeniality (2000)

An FBI agent must go undercover in the Miss United States beauty pageant to prevent a group from bombing the event.

Director:

Donald Petrie

Writers:

Marc Lawrence, Katie Ford,

Stars:

Sandra Bullock, Michael Caine, Benjamin Bratt

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 7 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sandra Bullock	...	Gracie Hart
Michael Caine	...	Victor Melling
Benjamin Bratt	...	Eric Matthews
Candice Bergen	...	Kathy Morningside
William Shatner	...	Stan Fields
Ernie Hudson	...	Harry McDonald
John DiResta	...	Agent Clonsky
Heather Burns	...	Cheryl Frasier, Miss Rhode Island
Melissa De Sousa	...	Karen Krantz, Miss New York
Steve Monroe	...	Frank Tobin
Deirdre Quinn	...	Mary Jo Wright, Miss Texas
Wendy Raquel Robinson	...	Leslie Davis, Miss California
Asia De Marcos	...	Alana Krewson, Miss Hawaii
Ken Thomas	...	Agent Harris
Gabriel Folse	...	Agent Jerry Grant

Storyline

Undercover FBI agent Gracie Hart shows no signs of having any femininity in her demeanor or appearance. Generally a bright and capable agent, she is in trouble at work when she makes an error in judgment in a case which results in a near disaster. As such, one of her by-the-books colleagues, Eric Matthews, who has never shown any inclination of thinking outside the box, is assigned to lead the high profile case of a terrorist coined The Citizen instead of her, while she is facing possible disciplinary action. Gracie pieces together the evidence to determine that The Citizen's next target will be the Miss United States beauty pageant. The pageant represents everything that Gracie abhors. Despite Gracie's mannish demeanor, Eric, with no other undercover female agent remotely fitting the demographic, assigns her to go undercover as a pageant contestant to see if she can flush out The Citizen, who is perhaps one of the other contestants. Although the pageant administration, led by former ...

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Plot Keywords:

pageant | fbi | undercover | beauty pageant | female agent | 

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Taglines:

She's about to give crime fighting a makeover.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual references and a scene of violence

Details

Official Sites:

Castle Rock Warner Bros. (UK)

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English Russian French Hawaiian Spanish

Release Date:

22 December 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Miss Undercover

Filming Locations:

Austin Studios - 1901 E. 51st Street, Austin, Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,873,246 (UK) (23 March 2001)

Gross:

ESP 720,275,127 (Spain) (29 June 2001)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Castle Rock Entertainment, Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The opening scenes take place in a Russian restaurant named Laika. Laika was the first dog in space, and the name means "Barker."

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Goofs

Gracie's, Victor's and the FBI's room numbers at the hotel are the same (103).

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Quotes

Eric Matthews: We recently discovered some information about the winner from New Jersey.
Gracie Hart: And her performance in a little film called "Arma-get-it-on."
Stan Fields: Was that her?

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Connections

Referenced in Friends: The One After Joey and Rachel Kiss (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Get Ya Party On"
Written by Herschel Small, Colyn Grant, Anthony 'Monks' Flowers (as Anthony Flowers),
Marvin Prosper, Patrick Carey, Jeffrey Chea, Cedric Poitier and Michael Mangini
Performed by Baha Men
Courtesy of S-Curve Records

User Reviews

Good Quality comedy

There are some actresses who produce weighty or worthy pieces of work and there are those who produce popular movies. Sandra Bullock is an actress who falls into the latter category. Yet, in this category, she is at the top of the tree and it is in films such as Miss Congeniality that she proves this.

For a fish out of water comedy, this is a film that plays to Bullock's qualities - her tomboy image from Speed, her warm humour and her ability to play for laughs and be deadpan. As such, Bullock is allowed to shine from a castlist containing Michael Caine and Ben Bratt. However, if I had one criticism, it would be that there are occasions when Caine just appears to be shamelessly mugging and camping it up for the camera to no real effect.

There are some genuinely funny moments, mostly centred around the pageant and it is nice to see such a movie which doesn't take itself or its setting too seriously. Many of the contestants give good supporting performances and as such, it is hard to pick one out.

Overall, it is a bit slight but anyone renting/buying this movie would surely know what to expect - familiar, funny and essentially sweet-natured - just like Sandra Bullock herself.

8/10 - A good example of the genre.