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LEGALLY BLONDE 2
by Judge J. Howard Sundermann
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White
and Blonde, the sequel
to Legally Blonde, is another example of why sequels have
gotten such a bad reputation. Reese Witherspoon reprises her
role as Elle Woods and goes from Barbie goes to law school to
Barbie goes to Congress. In my review of the first film, I said
that if you could suspend belief a little, the film was good
fun and Ms. Witherspoon's performance was terrific. But in this
film, the plot is so silly and such a rip- off from the first
film that you would have to suspend belief to a whole new level.
 The plot, such as it is, has Elle
graduating from law school and working for a large law firm in
Boston. As she is searching for the birth mother of her dog,
she stumbles upon the cause of protecting animals from being
used in cosmetic testing. Because of this, she is fired from
her law firm and winds up as a legislative aide for a congresswoman
in Washington D.C. There she leads a fight to pass a bill outlawing
such testing. She meets the other staff members of the office,
and they don't take her seriously, similar to her fellow law
students in the first film. In Legally Blonde Elle demonstrated
a first class brain behind her superficial exterior, but she
exhibits no such ability in this film. She seems to have no idea
what she is doing, and by this time we don't care. Didn't she
see the first movie?
The plot is loosely based on a good film, Mr. Smith goes to
Washington (1939), and in case you don't get this, they work
in a brief clip of the film. The film takes a view of Congress
that would be taken in a bad sitcom. I was so happy that the
film was finally concluding that I almost missed the most inane
part. Elle gives a speech to a joint session of Congress. A legislative
aide doing this, give me a break. On top of that, the speech
is so stupid it looks like an outtake from the Gong Show.
I kept expecting a large hook to remove her from the podium.
But, of course, the congressmen cheered wildly and Elle wins
the day.
In a side plot, Elle's principal
political advisor, who seems to know everything about politics,
is the doorman at her apartment building, well played by Bob
Newhart. How did he learn all of this? It is explained that he
hears things around the door. I advise you to save the eight
dollars for the ticket and join me in doing everything possible
to prevent Legally Blonde 3.
Posted July 28, 2003
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