Miss Congeniality (2000)

An F.B.I. 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 F.B.I. 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 ...

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Plot Keywords:

f rated | villainess | good versus evil | evil woman | deception | 

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Taglines:

Unpolished. Unkempt. Unleashed. Undercover.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Romance

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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

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 USA:

$13,853,686, 25 December 2000, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$106,807,667, 13 May 2001

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$212,742,720

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

There was originally supposed to be a storyline which included Gracie's mother. In the first scene, after young Gracie gets in trouble for beating up the two boys, her mother was called in to the school to reprimand her daughter. The story behind her mother was that she was a top F.B.I. Agent who was killed in the line of duty, and Gracie became an Agent to make her mother proud. This was cut because Director Donald Petrie thought the whole story was too much, and that Sandra Bullock was already bringing enough sympathy to the character without having to bring in another storyline.

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Goofs

The guy that was only trying to light a cigarette, did not have a cigarette in his mouth until it magically appears right before Grace tackles him.

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Quotes

Gracie Hart: Where am I gonna keep my gun?
Eric Matthews: Nowhere I wanna know about!

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Connections

Followed by Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005)

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Soundtracks

Mustang Sally
Written by Mack Rice
Performed by The Commitments
Courtesy of MCA Records
under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

There are 100 things wrong with it...but you may catch yourself smiling after thinking it over

It's over-the-top, it's occasionally offensive--to men, to women, to gays, to lesbians, and to poor Miss Hawaii--but "Miss Congeniality" has Sandra Bullock, and she's wonderful. The opening moments, with FBI agent Bullock busting Russians in a restaurant sting operation, are so good that the movie might've played very well as an FBI comedy-drama, with Bullock on different cases. I mean, maybe they should've ditched the pageant stuff, at least until next time. But, no, Bullock goes undercover as a contestant in the Miss U.S. pageant, and the movie turns into your typical makeover thing. Lots of breast jokes, TOO many high heel pratfalls, and Michael Caine as a peculiar makeover artist (he's "dripping with disdain" one minute, fatherly the next, then bitter, then cuddly). Bullock has no chemistry with Benjamin Bratt as her boss on the operation (that's not her fault, however) and I wanted more of her home life (and that doomed microwave oven), but what works does work well. Sandra's "bonding" paint party with the girls is terrific, as is her friendship with shaky Miss Rhode Island and her attempts to face down snarling Ernie Hudson as the FBI chieftain (who, like in "Ghostbusters", gets no funny lines). The movie rests solely on Bullock's shoulders, and she delivers. It may not be comic genius, but it is congenial. **1/2 from ****