Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde

Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) is getting married to Emmett Richmond (Luke Wilson). She goes in search of her dog Bruiser Woods' parents for the wedding. She finds Bruiser's mom being tested on at V.E.R.S.A.C.E. When she objects, she's let go from her law firm. She decides to go to Washington D.C. to change the law for animal testing. She gets to work for fellow alumni Rep. Victoria Rudd (Sally Field).

The first movie had the charm of something completely original. I liked the first one enough but this one doesn't have the possibility of taking us by surprise. The idea seems old now. The movie tries to put Elle Woods in the most unlikely place again. So they twist a story out of shape to put her there and make DC out to be something unreal. It isn't quite as funny anymore. At least it's not funny intentionally.

Unfortunately, this film does not live up to its antecedent, which was very enjoyable. The problem is not with the cast, but with the script. It lacks the humor or the heart that made the first film funny and stirring. This is a real disappointment, I'm sure, to so many fans who wanted to root for Elle Woods again.

Perhaps if Elle had had a truly troublesome issue to overcome, something to add weight to the drama (which is absent in this film), viewers would have someone to cheer for. This film had all the gravitas of a Barbie playdate.

I loved the original Legally Blonde, and I knew going into this movie that it wouldn't be as good as the original. My only solace lies in the thought that this could have been so much worse than it was.

First, LB2 relied too much on the Elle-Woods-Fish-Out-Of-Water plot. It should have portrayed the main character as being savvy enough to take advantage of the fact that her opponents always underestimated her. After all, she's been out of law school a couple of years already, surely she'd have learned that much, right?

Second, the plot itself was too contrived. There wasn't a single believable character in the show, and Witherspoon was just a caricature of the original movie's heroine.

But I still managed to enjoy most of the show. I even chuckled in a couple of scenes. But I winced at far too many other scenes, and the climactic speech to Congress was abominable.

I've seen worse remakes than this, but I think the producers missed an opportunity to make a good film instead of a knock-off.

There can be little doubt, this movie is an inferior follow-up to Legally Blonde. Too many characters are recycled and made to look cute, but it doesn't work as well as when it was fresh. Still, Reese Witherspoon has created in 'Elle Woods' a character that is just fun to watch. She never stays down long, always picking herself up with a fresh approach until she achieves her goal. I look at it like a 'Roadrunner' cartoon, but with real people. It is silly and implausible, but funny. In this case the 'bad guys' are the US Congress in a parody of it's habit of making backroom deals and taking care of supporters to guarantee reelection, even if nothing is done to help constituents. Elle Woods finds that animals are used to test cosmetics, and her quest is to get a law passed that will make it illegal. Nothing more than cute, funny fluff.

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde is a very disappointing sequel as it fails to deliver the laughs. Elle Woods is now a rising young lawyer at a great firm, balancing a demanding a career with preparations for her wedding to the man of her dreams. But when she finds out that her beloved dog Bruiser's family members are being used as cosmetic test subjects by one of her firm's own clients, she stands up for their rights--and is promptly fired. Ms. Woods decides to go to Washington to take matters into her own hands. The plot actually had some potential, unfortunately the execution was very poor. The original wasn't an Oscar quality film, it was just a fun film to watch. The sequel isn't as fun nor is it fun in general. It was pretty much the same as the first movie and so it was a pretty pointless sequel. Reese Witherspoon returns and she does a good job but she's working with a weak script. The supporting cast isn't very good as none add much to the film. Sally Field is a very good actress but her talents are wasted. Luke Wilson's character isn't very interesting and Jennifer Coolidge tries to hard most of the time. Regina King is a new addition to the cast and she does an okay job, nothing memorable though. Missing from this sequel is Selma Blair, this doesn't matter though as her character wasn't really needed. Charles Herman-Wurmfeld replaces Robert Luketic as the director and does a very bad job. The running time is a brief 95 minutes though it feels a lot longer then that. The film felt a lot longer since the movie just wasn't funny. There were a few funny moments though most of the jokes this film delivered were, at best, small chuckles. Do a few funny moments redeem this film? No, this sequel is one of the worst sequels of 2003 and one of the worst comedies of 2003. In the end, this sequel may seem funny but I assure you it isn't. Rating 4.3/10, rent the original instead.