Review of Legally Blonde 2: Red, White And Blonde

Introduction

I haven`t seen Legally Blonde, or indeed Clueless or any films of that ilk. The whole Sorority-Fraternity thing also passed me by. It wasn`t much help attending a British University in that respect, and the closest I`ve comes to appreciating the shallow, self-obsessed social climbing materialistic teen, who insists on talking in labels, is Cordelia Chase in Buffy, and lets face it, that has vampires in. So when it came to Legally Blonde 2: Red White & Blonde, I was woefully unprepared, although you could say I had no preconceptions, other than the stereotype I just described. It`s subverting stereotypes which concerns the Legally Blonde films, as you see a typical archetype, that of the `airhead` become the protagonist of the film and actually open people`s eyes to their own prejudices, without once sacrificing her own identity.

Elle Woods is making strides as an associate at a top legal firm, while planning her wedding to Harvard Law Professor Emmett Richmond. Naturally she can`t get married without the family of her faithful Chihuahua Bruiser attending, so she contacts an investigator to locate Bruiser`s mother. You can imagine her shock when she learns that mummy is a test subject in a cosmetics lab, a lab owned by one of her own firms more lucrative clients. When her heartfelt presentation to her colleagues against animal testing results in her dismissal, she realises that if she can`t fight the law, she`ll make it instead, and it`s off to Washington DC to becomes an integral part of Rep. Victoria Rudd`s team, and to introduce a bill to ban animal testing as well as free Bruiser`s mum. Unfortunately, Washington DC isn`t quite ready for Elle Woods

Video

Legally Blonde 2 is presented in a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer. The picture is clear enough, though a tad grainy and soft. It`s of more than adequate quality though. Mind you there is a smidgen of print damage, which is surprising in a film so recent. The lack of an absolutely pin sharp picture becomes understandable given the amount of extra material crammed onto one disc. Legally Blonde is all about the fashions, with Elle having more costume changes than in a Bollywood musical number, and those qualities come through well.

Audio

The sound is a DD 5.1 English soundtrack. It`s a dialogue heavy film, which all comes across clearly enough, but the sound does get lively when the music kicks in.

Features

OK, first a rant about copyright warnings. With MGM discs, I make it a point to stop the disc once the end credits begin to roll, otherwise I`ll be trapped in the copyright screens, from which there is no escape no matter which button I press on the remote. I forgot to do that this time and the dreaded copyright screen appeared. "Not to worry", I thought, and got up to make a cup of tea, and heat my dinner in the microwave. 10 minutes later and I come back with my steaming platter to find that I still have to endure copyright screens for most of Eastern Europe. I`m getting the feeling that MGM are just making up countries now for the sake of it. Where is HLVATY anyway?

Aside from the animated menus, there are three pages of extra features with Legally Blonde 2, all of them subtitled and in varying ratios, from 4:3 to 1.85:1 letterbox.

The audio commentary is presented in DD 2.0 Surround, and features co-stars Jennifer Coolidge, Alannah Ubach and Jessica Cauffiel. It`s quite a silly lightweight commentary done mostly for laughs, but it does have moments of interest in it. It helps though, if you are a fan of the movie.

There is a trivia track that flashes up cute little pink captions of trivia during the film. It truly is trivial, though it does occasionally hit a pertinent point.

Blonde Ambition is the 23-minute making of featurette. It`s your usual PR stuff, with clips of the film interspersed with interviews with cast and crew, behind the scenes footage and some unseen footage. There is an interesting point about the heightened security in Washington and the necessity of having to film in Salt Lake City as an alternative.

There are Easter Eggs, in the form of 7 minutes of Bruiser`s outtakes, and a 2½-minute featurette on the gay dogs` relationship.

Pretty In Pink is a 6½-minute featurette on the design of the sets used in the picture.

Stars and Stripes, Never! is a 7½-minute look at the most important part of the picture, Elle`s fashions.

Hair Apparent is a 7-minute look at an equally important aspect, the hairstyles.

Elle`s Anthem also runs for 7 minutes and looks at the composing and recording of some of the film`s score.

7 deleted scenes last for some 9 minutes in total. Some would have been better left in, but some were wisely taken out, including an ill advised Rocky homage.

3 minutes are filled with a gag reel filled with fluffed lines, stumbles and general cock-ups. It just seems wrong without Denis Nordern and his clipboard.

There is a music video from LeAnn Rimes singing "We Can", the theatrical trailer and a 2½-minute slideshow of behind the scenes stills.

There is an unrelated advert for the Sims 2 game, which is mildly entertaining, and finally there is the Delta Nu Interactive Quiz. You are asked questions on the movie by the cast and crew. I managed to answer the quiz correctly and I find myself an honorary Delta Nu sister. I`m keeping my beard though.

Conclusion

Legally Blonde 2 is a mildly diverting waste of time. It`s the kind of film that has its heart in the right place, but doesn`t quite hit all the right spots. The biggest problem is that it really only has one joke, and stretched over ninety minutes, it becomes tenuously thin. It`s also a post-modern sense of humour, where being derogatory about a minority group is fine as long as it is `ironic`. It seems the rules are thus, that you can only make dumb blonde jokes if you are blonde, black jokes if you are black, Irish jokes if you are Irish and so on. I always get the feeling that the Bernard Mannings of the world are sitting with their feet up, having a belly laugh when they realise that they don`t even have to do the hard work of thinking up the punch lines anymore. Well, maybe not…

There is a marginal interest in seeing the endlessly effervescent and vivacious Elle, bringing her unique personality and outlook to face off against hard-bitten and cynical politicos, but the novelty soon fades, and only a half hour in I was clockwatching. It`s another fish out of water tale, and the clichéd doorman who knows the ins and outs of Washington is hardly a surprise. Yet the film dragged me back into it`s enchanted web as the inevitable uplifting and empowering ending approached.

The film is carried for the most part on the formidable (metaphorical I hasten to add) shoulders of Reese Witherspoon, and it`s her honest and heartfelt performance as Elle Woods that truly maintains the audience interest, in the wake of an uninspiring story. Sally Field gives solid support as Victoria Rudd, and Regina King is deliciously nasty as the cynical chief of staff Grace Rossiter. I also love Bruce McGill as the Republican NRA advocate, Stanford Marks whose reaction to the realisation that his dog is gay is priceless.

Legally Blonde 2 is nice, nice with the emphasis on nice. It is just relentlessly, sugary and uplifting and heart warming and Nice! I just don`t have the heart to be harsh about it. It`s like the cute retriever puppy that has made a mess on your carpet then looks up at you with those cute soulful eyes and says "I wuv U". I couldn`t be mean to a puppy. Legally Blonde 2 is that puppy, it`s warm sweet and safe and if there isn`t much to it, how can you ignore all the niceness? So what if the only really funny joke in it is about the gay dogs, no feelings are hurt, no hearts are broken and even if you overdose on the sugar, at least you`ll feel nice about yourself, for a little while.

Still, I`m probably the wrong demographic, so what do I know? I`ll end with the reviewer`s cliché, if you like this sort of thing, then you`ll like Legally Blonde 2. The disc comes jam packed with extras and the transfer is of good quality.