Miss Congeniality: Deluxe Edition (DVD)
Sandra Bullock stars as a bumbling female FBI agent assigned to go undercover as a participant in the Miss United States beauty pageant when it is discovered that one of the contestants is being targeted for murder. Benjamin Bratt leads the undercover team, while also playing the reluctant love interest. Candice Bergen and William Shatner manage the pageant and hire Michael Caine to turn Bullock from rough and tumble agent to stunning beauty queen. The physical transformation is impressive, although the klutzy personality remains. Everything seems to be fine once the killer is suddenly caught, but Bullock suspects there is more to this story, and the truth eventually unfolds with an unexpected twist. Forher part, Bullock received a Golden Globe nomination for best actress, and heads the star-studded cast in the year's most hilarious comedy.
Additional Features The deluxe edition of Miss Congeniality is yet another DVD rerelease timed to coincide with the theatrical opening of the movie's sequel, in this case Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. The best features--two commentary tracks, one by Sandra Bullock and executive producer-writer Marc Lawrence and the other by director Donald Petrie, plus two seven-minute featurettes--are retained from the original DVD. New to this edition are five minutes of deleted scenes, which are all worth watching, but Petrie introduces each one with an explanation of how it wasn't needed in the final cut. There's also an eight-minute preview of Miss Congeniality 2 and an overlong and unfunny quiz called "Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Beauty Queen?" introduced and read by William Shatner. If you want Miss Congeniality on DVD, the deluxe edition is a good choice. But if you already have the first DVD, there's no compelling reason to upgrade. --David Horiuchi
