Bad Sequels

Amybear and I rented two movies this weekend. The first was Miss Congeniality 2 and the second was House of Flying Daggers.

To do this backwards, House of Flying Daggers was quite good. The action was excellent and the plot had sufficient twists to keep things interesting. It is meant for those hardy enthusiasts among us who don't mind subtitles though. I like a good dub job myself (subtitles distract from the visual for me), but I still enjoyed the film. I liked Hero, Zhang Yimou's other movie, better but House of Flying Daggers is still very good.

The original Miss Congeniality is a pretty good movie. Miss Congeniality 2 was not. It wasn't just a bad movie, it was one of those bad sequels that ruins the original in the first five minutes. MC1 concludes with Gracie Hart saving the day and getting the boy. Yeah thats a spoiler, but Miss Congeniality isn't exactly an unpredictable ride of wild plot twists. MC2 picks up only days after the end of the first film with heroine Gracie Hart getting dumped by the boy on the phone mostly because Benjamin Bratt isn't in this sequel. Bratt is smarter than I thought. A few minutes later, the people she saved in the last movie are in jeopardy all over again. Remember when Aliens 3 killed off everyone that survived Aliens 2 in the first few minutes of that stinker? Yeah, it's like that only marginally funnier.

The rest of the movie is a crappy female buddy-cop film with no hint of the romantic comedy that made the original so good. When I mean crappy I mean crappy. Arrogant two-dimensional boss who won't listen to her for no good reason? Check. Grumpy partner that prefers to work alone? Check. Getting stripped of her badge and sent home? Check.

Anyway skip it. Don't just skip it, blot its mere existence from your mind so you can properly enjoy the first one.