Like other sports, there's something patently ridiculous about beauty contests. Many tend to think it's a retrograde exploitation of women that objectifies them and brings scorn to an entire sex. But then others think it's just plain old good fashioned fun.
Zoolander (2001)******
Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Christine Taylor, Milla Jovovich, Jerry Stiller .
If you liked Austin Powers (all of them, and I know you've watched each and every one of them), you've got to get your hands on Zoolander. The humor mainly comes from having a protagonist who is so self-absorbed and pretentious that he doesn't realize he's totally STOOOOOPID. (Talking about Austin Powers or Zoolander?) And the comic timing isn't half-bad. The film is stupid, but also a lot of fun. Not every joke works, but you can keep laughing because Ben Stiller has the knack for blending smart satire with not-so-smart yet sympathetic characters.
The film takes a number of "shots" at the fashion industry, with a high-profile movie cast. Oh wait. There's also Fabio. Not to spoil the plot, but our protagonist starts off as bigger-than-life male model, gets shanked and manipulated out of the industry and goes home to spend quality-time with his coal-miner dad, only to get suckered back into the industry –so that he can be brainwashed to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia? Why? Because the PM of Malaysia is about to abolish child labor –and the fashion industry just cannot have that!
Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)**
Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards, Kirstie Alley, Ellen Barkin, Allison Janney, Brittany Murphy, William Sasso. Oh, but if only gorgeous girls could drop dead…in this mockumentary. It's shot like a documentary with the camera person's point of view (it's a bit like Spinal Tap, but for beauty queens) with interviews amongst the contestants, their parents, and the judges of the pageant. It's supposed to follow a small-town beauty pageant in a little country town (hmmm, sound familiar already?) that becomes an all-out battle for the sparkling tiara.
The two leading ladies are Amber (Dunst), a country trailer park girl whose hero is Diane Sawyer, and Becky (Richards), a rich and typical fake high school bitch who is too much for herself. It's full of terribly crude clichés and awfully ridiculous caricatures abound in this movie. Not that beauty pageants aren't RIPE for satire…
Happy Texas (1999)****
Steve Zahn, Jeremy Northam, William H. Macy.
A comedy that also rates pretty well on the old weirdometer. Two escaped convicts are mistaken for gay beauty pageant consultants, and find themselves advising a small town on their 5 year old beauty pageant - while noticing the local bank doesn't seem very well secured. One of them of course falls in love, while the local Sheriff falls for one of them.
The story is simple and follows the havoc that two imposters wreak on a small town. There are lots of satisfying, character scenes that should hold your interest and have the added bonus of moving the plot along. One cautionary note: this movie involves children and contains some gratuitously cute moments. Egaads! Fortunately, not many. The performances are good and the comedy doesn't appear overly forced. I'd look for it on VCD.
Miss Congeniality (2000)***
Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt, Candice Bergen, Marc Lawrence, Michael Caine. Chick Flick? No. First Date movie? Yes. Plot? Not much of one. Sandra Bullock plays Hart, who is "just one of the guys" on the FBI team. If only there was some way they could infiltrate a beauty pageant…what a brilliant idea! They need to sneak someone into the beauty pageant, and stake it out since there were rumors of a terrorist threat that was meant to happen during a live telecast.
What follows isn't hard to guess. Hart undergoes a rather amusing makeover at the hands of a pageant consultant (Michael Caine), gets in the pageant, and starts to look for clues. I won't say any more about the plot, but I bet you could finish the storyline for me without any help at all.
