Review of Miss Congeniality

Introduction

Sandra Bullock has played a wide variety of roles since her breakthrough role in Speed.

The comedy Miss Congeniality sees her as a bungling FBI agent whose assignment requires her to be entered in the Miss USA beauty pageant. The problem is that she’s rather uncouth, and Michael Caine is given the job of turning her into a beauty queen (which he does admirably by the way). She is then entered into the pageant and has to not only blend in with the other contestants, but uncover a terrorist threatening the show.

Video

Video comes in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of a high standard, with no dirt or grain evident.

Visually the movie is well made and set primarily at the Miss USA beauty pageant. There`s not much in the way of special effects, with most of the film concentrating on the FBI agents and the girls - who of course look very good!

Audio

The disc has a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack which is very good quality, but doesn’t make much use of the rear channels. For the most part, the sound consists of dialogue, and it is relayed through the three front speakers, with the rears only called into action occasionally for spot effects.

You`ll be pleased to hear that the jokes and cringeworthy moments are always clear and understandable.

Features

Extras consist of two behind-the-scenes documentaries, which are both interesting but short, and contain various outtakes and deleted scenes. There are also two commentaries and the trailer.

The disc is packaged in Warner’s usual snapper case, which opens up to detail the 33 chapter breaks.

Conclusion

Overall, Miss Congeniality is a fun film, which had me (embarrassingly) laughing out loud at times – the way all comedies should be! Sandra Bullock is great in her role and is backed up by a fantastic cast that includes Michael Caine, William Shatner and Benjamin Bratt.

The script is great, and contains plenty of laughs, some action and the film moves along a good pace, so there’s minimal tedium.

Good video and sound are backed up by reasonable extras, making this a recommended DVD.