Sandra Bullock Movies
Giving new meaning to the term America's Sweetheart, Sandra Bullock won over scores of filmgoers and critics with her wholesome, exuberant portrayals of ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances. Since her breakthrough role as Speed's unwitting heroine, Bullock has enjoyed the type of popularity that was in the past reserved for actresses along the lines of Mary Pickford or Shirley Temple.Born in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 1964, Bullock was the elder daughter of a vocal coach dad and an opera singer mom. Touring through Europe with her mother, Bullock was given her first taste of show business while still a child. Back in the States, she attended high school in Virginia and was a popular cheerleader, whose classmates dubbed her the person Most Likely to Brighten Your Day. After a stint at East Carolina University, Bullock took her sunny nature to New York, where she began concentrating on an acting career. After tending bar and studying her craft with dramatician Sanford Meisner, she got her start with a number of stage productions. It was for one of these productions, the off-Broadway No Time Flat, that Bullock received a rave review for her portrayal of a Southern belle, the strength of which was enough to land her an agent.
Television work followed, with a small role in the 1989 Bionic Showdown: The Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman and, after her migration to Los Angeles, Melanie Griffith's role in the short-lived television version of Working Girl. Miraculously surviving the widespread career fallout that surrounded her first starring film role in Love Potion No. 9 (1992), the actress went on the following year to star in the similarly ill-fated The Thing Called Love. However, things began to look up the same year when the struggling actress became the last-minute replacement for Lori Petty in the Sylvester Stallone action flick Demolition Man. Though her role was essentially limited to intermittent saliva exchanges with Stallone, her performance won the attention of the film's producer, Joel Silver, who in turn recommended her to Jan de Bont. De Bont, then in the process of casting his upcoming bus-with-a-bomb action film, chose the struggling actress for the part of Annie, the film's reluctant heroine. In casting Bullock against Keanu Reeves, de Bont reportedly came up against considerable resistance from studio executives, who wanted someone blonde and buxom for the part. The director persevered and, in 1994, Bullock took her place in movie history as part of Speed, one of the most successful action films ever made.
The film propelled the actress to stardom, surprising no one more than Bullock herself, who later remarked, "never in a million years did I think a bus movie would open every door I ever possibly wanted open."
Doors now wide open, Bullock next starred in the 1995 romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping. The film was a critical and commercial hit, and the actress followed it up with a screen adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill, co-starring Ashley Judd and Matthew McConaughey. The success of that film was the last that Bullock would enjoy for a while, as she then entered something of a sophomore slump with disappointments such as In Love and War (1996), Two If By Sea (1996), and, perhaps most excruciating, Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997). Fortunately for Bullock, her audiences seemed to be inclined to forgive and forget, and she had a modest rebound with the following year's Hope Floats, which also happened to be the first project of the production company she founded, Fortis Films. The same year, Bullock also starred in another romantic comedy, Practical Magic, opposite Nicole Kidman. The film provided another modest success for Bullock, who, back in the saddle again, proceeded to do yet another romantic comedy, this time starring with Ben Affleck in Forces of Nature (1999). Although the film proved to be a critical and commercial disappointment, Bullock was back on the radar with a number of projects in 2000, including the critically disembowelled comedy Gun Shy and 28 Days, a comedy that starred the actress as a newspaper columnist forced to enter rehab after her drinking problem assumes uncontrollable proportions. Following her role in Miss Congeniality (2000) as an FBI agent forced to go undercover in the Miss U.S.A. beauty pagent in order to prevent a bombing, Bullock faced off against a more low-key menace in the thriller Murder By Numbers (2002) before returning to lighthearted drama with Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (also 2002). Her status as the reigning queen of the chick flick permanantly established, Bullock next teamed with Hugh Grant for the amiable romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice before taking a two year furlough from the big screen - during which time she would assume the duty of executive producer for the George Lopez show in addition to turning in the occasional guest appearance.
In 2005, Bullock found herself at the center of Oscar talk when she essayed the role of the racist wife of a prominant district attorney in Paul Haggis' critically acclaimed drama Crash. An unflinching look at racism in the multicultural melting pot of Los Angeles, Crash defied expectations to take home best editing, best screenplay, and best motion picture at the 77th Annual Academy Awards. That same year, a return to her role as bumbling undercover FBI agent Gracie Heart in Miss Congeniality 2 found Bullock returning to familiar lighthearted territory, although the sequel performed far more poorly than the first film. With her role as a lovelorn doctor who discovers a curious rift in time in 2006's romantic fantasy The Lake House (a remake of the 2000 South Korean film Siworae), the actress marked a graceful return to swooning, romantic pictures, not to mention a reteaming with her Speed man Keanu Reeves. Determined to remain firmly planted in serious acting, Bullock singed on to play author Harper Lee in the movie Infamous which, because of its unfortunate timing, was swallowed by comparisons to the film Capote, and went largely unnoticed. Undaunted, Bullock singed on for the supernatural thriller Premonition, about a woman who experiences shifts in the events of the universe and must use the visions to prevent her husband's death. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
In this romantic comedy, a journalist who's become too much the life of the party finds a new lease on life in a drug and alcohol treatment center. New York newspaper columnist Gwen Cummings (Sandra Bullock) has a fondness for liquor, a boyfriend (Dominic West) with a similar taste for the bottle, and a party girl image that camouflages plenty of emotional baggage. At the wedding of her sister (Elizabeth Perkins), Gwen's pursuit of a good time goes a bit too far when she topples the wedding cake and steals the bridal party's limousine. The result is a court-ordered, 28-day stay in a rehabilitation facility for drug and alcohol abusers. Gwen's failure to get with the program causes her to butt heads with the clinic's director (Steve Buscemi), but her attitude begins to change when she meets Eddie Boone (Viggo Mortensen), a baseball player trying to deal with his substance abuse problems. Diane Ladd, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Azura Skye play Gwen's fellow rehab inmates, and legendary roots rock band NRBQ performs at the wedding reception. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Viggo Mortensen, (more)
Religion, Inc. was originally -- and very briefly -- released as A Fool and His Money. While watching TV, ex-adman Morris Codman (Jonathan Penner) receives a message from God. Advised by the Almighty to go into business for himself, Codman inaugurates his own religion, founded on a philosophy of selfishness. Two distinguished men of letters appear in Religion Inc -- George Plimpton (as God!) and Jerzy Kosinski -- but that's not why this loser is currently available on video shelves. It seems that a pre-Speed Sandra Bullock shows up fleetingly as a long-suffering public defender. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jonathan Penner, Gerald Orange, (more)
Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) takes the law into his own hands after the legal system fails to adequately punish the men who brutally raped and beat his daughter, leaving her for dead. Normally, a distraught father could count on some judicial sympathy in those circumstances. Unfortunately, Carl and his daughter are black, and the assailants are white, and all the events take place in the South. Indeed, so inflammatory is the situation, that the local KKK (led by Kiefer Sutherland) becomes popular again. When Hailey chooses novice lawyer Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) to handle his defense, it begins to look like a certainty that Carl will hang, and Jake's career (and perhaps his life) will come to a premature end. Despite the efforts of the NAACP and local black leaders to persuade Carl to choose some of their high-powered legal help, he remains loyal to Jake, who had helped his brother with a legal problem before the story begins. Jake eventually takes this case seriously enough to seek help from his old law-school professor (Donald Sutherland). When death threats force his family to leave town, Jake even accepts the help of pushy young know-it-all lawyer Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson, (more)
A brilliant crossword-puzzle designer travels across the country in hopes of convincing a CNN cameraman that the pair is meant to be together, only to find her quest taking an unexpected turn in this romantic comedy starring Thomas Haden Church and Sandra Bullock. Despite the fact that she has only gone on one short date with the man, a love-struck puzzle creator becomes enamored with a successful cameraman and follows him to a series of media events in hopes that the feeling is mutual. While she is saddened to discover that it is not, she soon becomes involved with a group of misfits who selflessly accept her at face value. First-time feature filmmaker Phil Traill directs a screenplay penned by License to Wed scribe Kim Barker. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, (more)
- 1989
Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors and Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner are reunited for the made-for-TV Bionic Showdown. Also on hand is Richard Anderson as Oscar Goldman, the government supervisor for both Majors and Wagner on their respective 1970s TV series. Something new has been added, however: Jeff Yagher appears as Goldman's nephew, while Sandra Bullock makes one of her earliest TV appearances as a 1989 model New Bionic Woman. The plot concerns a villainous cyborg, bent on destroying chances for World Peace (we need a cyborg for that?) Bionic Showdown clanked and clattered its way onto the TV screens of America on April 30, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2006
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Star Trek star William Shatner settles into the celebrity hot seat, opening the floodgates for a series of relentless barbs by eager friends and colleagues in this installment of the popular Comedy Central Roast series. The tranya flows, the band rocks, and the insults fly as a series of celebrities including Clint Howard, George Takei, Jason Alexander, Jeffrey Ross, Nichelle Nichols, Fred Willard, Betty White, and Kevin Pollak all line up to take a shot at the man who would boldly lead television viewers to realms where no man, or woman for that matter, had gone before. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Shatner
Issues of race and gender cause a group of strangers in Los Angeles to physically and emotionally collide in this drama from director and screenwriter Paul Haggis. Graham (Don Cheadle) is a police detective whose brother is a street criminal, and it hurts him to know his mother cares more about his ne'er-do-well brother than him. Graham's partner is Ria (Jennifer Esposito), who is also his girlfriend, though she has begun to bristle at his emotional distance, as well as his occasional insensitivity over the fact he's African-American and she's Hispanic. Rick (Brendan Fraser) is an L.A. district attorney whose wife, Jean (Sandra Bullock), makes little secret of her fear and hatred of people unlike herself. Jean's worst imaginings about people of color are confirmed when her SUV is carjacked by two African-American men -- Anthony (Chris Bridges, aka Ludacris), who dislikes white people as much as Jean hates blacks, and Peter (Larenz Tate), who is more open minded. Cameron (Terrence Howard) is a well-to-do African-American television producer with a beautiful wife, Christine (Thandie Newton). While coming home from a party, Cameron and Christine are pulled over by Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon), who subjects them to a humiliating interrogation (and her to an inappropriate search) while his new partner, Officer Hansen (Ryan Phillippe), looks on. Daniel (Michael Pena) is a hard-working locksmith and dedicated father who discovers that his looks don't lead many of his customers to trust him. And Farhad (Shaun Toub) is a Middle Eastern shopkeeper who is so constantly threatened in the wake of the 9/11 attacks that he decided he needs a gun to defend his family. Crash was the first directorial project for award-winning television and film writer Haggis. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, (more)
The plot of this action film begins in 1996, with Los Angeles in a violence-crazed conflagration. One of the LAPD's most notorious cops, John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), known as "the demolition man," is in hot pursuit of blonde-haired psychopath Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), who is so nasty he even kills sometimes just because he feels cranky. John captures Simon, but not before Simon kills innocent hostages. John is blamed for the deaths of the hostages, and both he and Simon are cryogenically frozen to remove their brand of ultra-violence from a society that is simply just too violent. The film shifts to the future world of 2032, where Los Angeles has become a megalopolis called San Angeles. There is no poverty, Arnold Schwarzenegger was (at one time) president of the United States, and Taco Bell is the sole survivor of the Franchise Wars. Into this peaceful and bland society, Simon is summarily defrosted by reigning benevolent dictator Dr. Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne) to have Simon murder Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary), the leader of a group of underground rebels. But Cocteau bites off more than he can chew when the melted-down Simon proceeds to go on a murder-and-looting spree. Reluctantly, Cocteau defrosts John to hunt down his old adversary. As John adjusts to self-driving cars and having sex wearing helmets, he pairs up with Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock), a bored cop with a nostalgic fascination for 20th-century culture. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, (more)
- 2002
- PG13
- Add Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood to QueueAdd Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood to top of Queue
Screenwriter Callie Khouri makes her directorial debut with this adaptation of a pair of popular novels by author Rebecca Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Altars Everywhere. Sandra Bullock stars as Sidda Lee Walker, a New York playwright who opens a can of emotional worms with her estranged, boozy mother, Vivi (Ellen Burstyn), when she discusses her painful childhood and particularly Vivi's less-than-enviable mothering skills in a Time magazine article. The eccentric Louisiana drama queen Vivi has already been barred from her daughter's oft-delayed wedding to her fiancé, Connor (Angus Macfadyen), so the article sends her into a rage. Coming to the rescue of the relationship are Necie (Shirley Knight), Caro (Maggie Smith), and Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan), a trio of bickering women, who, along with Vivi, formed a secret society of feminist empowerment and friendship 60 years earlier that they dubbed the "Ya-Ya Sisterhood." The Ya-Yas kidnap Sidda and bring her home to Louisiana, where they reveal to Sidda via a carefully maintained scrapbook her mother's painful past (with Vivi portrayed in flashback by Ashley Judd), effecting a rapprochement between mother and daughter. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood also stars James Garner. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, (more)
Two Americans abroad discover how high the price of activism can be in this drama. When a well-known environmental researcher is murdered in the Amazon jungle, an arrogant photojournalist (Craig Sheffer) joins forces with a beautiful young activist (Sandra Bullock) to find out who is responsible. Along they way, they fall in love as they discover the men responsible for the killing would be more than willing to murder again if it will keep them quiet. Fire on the Amazon was filmed in 1990, but it wasn't released until 1993, when Sandra Bullock's appearances in The Thing Called Love and Demolition Man made her a star on the rise. Legend has it that she also used gaffer's tape to insure that her breasts would not be fully exposed during the film's love scenes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Craig Sheffer, (more)
Ben (Ben Affleck) has two days to get from New York to Savannah, Georgia for his wedding to Bridget Cahill (Maura Tierney). Everything is running smoothly until his plane skids off the runway. Ben inadvertently saves the life of his seatmate, Sarah (Sandra Bullock), who becomes his companion for the longest two days of his life. As fate begins to repeat itself through a series of disasters involving a rental car, a train, and a bus (not to mention a hurricane), Ben has to wonder if someone's trying to give him a message. Inevitably, he also finds himself falling in love with Sarah. Meanwhile, Bridget wonders where, exactly, Ben is, and her old boyfriend Steve (David Strickland) attempts to take advantage of the situation. Not that Bridget's dad (Ronny Cox) really minds, since Steve is much more successful than Ben. En route, Ben and Sarah collide with Ben's best man, Alan (Steve Zahn) and his girlfriend, the maid of honor (Meredith Scott Lynn), which further adds to the series of cosmic tests that Ben must try to answer. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Ben Affleck, (more)
- 2002
In keeping with its promise to add ethnic diversity to its prime-time lineup, the ABC network gave the green light to the development of a weekly, half-hour sitcom built around the talents of Latino standup comedian George Lopez. On his eponymously titled series, Lopez was cast as "himself," an employee at a large airplane-parts factory not named Lockheed. Newly promoted to manager, George now found himself in the untenable position of ordering around his old pals -- not to mention his own mother, and fellow employee, the indomitable and insufferable Benny Lopez (Benita Moreno). Others in the cast included Constance Marie as George's wife Angie, Masiela Lusha and Luis Armand Garcia as his children, and Valente Rodriguez as his best friend Ernie. George Lopez debuted on March 27, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this action-laced comedy, a cop on the verge of a nervous breakdown finds love at the least convenient time. Charlie Mayo (Liam Neeson) is an undercover agent with the DEA who was nearly killed when a sting set up to nail a gang of drug dealers went horribly wrong. The accident left Charlie shaken, and he's gone into therapy to hold himself together as he struggles through one final case before retiring. Charlie's superior (Mitch Pileggi) has set him up on another undercover assignment as he tries to bring in two Colombian drug kingpins and a low-level Mafiosi with delusions of grandeur (Oliver Platt). As Charlie makes his way through therapy, he's referred to a nurse (Sandra Bullock) interested in New Age healing techniques; now he has love on his mind as he tries to keep himself out of harm's way under increasingly dangerous circumstances. Gun Shy marked the feature directorial debut of television veteran Eric Blakeney. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liam Neeson, Oliver Platt, (more)
Former boxer Jake LaMotta stars Hangmen along with Rick Washburn and Doug Thomas. The scene is New York's East Side, which according to this film is a hotbed of intrigue. An elite corps of ex-CIA agents form a covert terrorist team known as The Hangmen. When the hero (Washburn) finds out about this, he is targeted for elimination, but the villains forget that he's been trained by the CIA as well. Hangmen later received a home-video release due to the presence of Sandra Bullock as the heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rick Washburne, Jake LaMotta, (more)
Actor/director Forest Whitaker (Waiting to Exhale) helmed this romantic drama about a one-time high-school beauty queen who returns to her hometown of Smithville, TX. The Steven Rogers screenplay begins in Chicago, where blonde Connie (Rosanna Arquette, uncredited) appears on a trashy daytime talk show and tells a nationwide TV audience about her affair with the husband of her best friend, Birdie Pruitt (Sandra Bullock). Walking into the ambush, Birdie is paraded forth for a public humiliation as Connie's claim is confirmed by husband Bill (Michael Paré). Birdie and her young daughter, Bernice (Mae Whitman), then move back to Texas to live with Birdie's eccentric mother, Ramona (Gena Rowlands), a taxidermist who has filled the house with stuffed animals. Since most of Smithville saw the TV show, embarrassment keeps Birdie sitting around the house in her pajamas; however, her moment of glory as the homecoming "Queen of Corn" has not been forgotten by handyman Justin Matisse (Harry Connick Jr.), the first guy who kissed her back in high school, so a romance soon begins. "Just give hope a chance to float up and it will," says Birdie. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick, Jr., (more)
This romantic historical drama is based on the diaries of Agnes Von Kurowsky, who while serving as a nurse during World War I had a love affair with a young man who would later become one of the great literary figures of the 20th century, Ernest Hemingway. In 1918, 18-year-old Hemingway has volunteered to fight in the great war; while he goes into battle imagining it to be a lark, he soon discovers that the realities of warfare are far more grim, and during a shelling attack in Italy, his leg is severely wounded. Hemingway has taken a great deal of shrapnel, and the doctors at the field hospital decide that amputation would be the quickest and most effective way to deal with the injury. However, the idea of losing a leg horrifies Hemingway, and he pleads with Agnes (Sandra Bullock), the Austrian nurse looking after him, not to let the doctors cut off his limb. Moved by Hemingway's concern, Agnes convinces the doctors to pursue other treatments, and she looks after him during his long and difficult convalescence. Love and passion bloom between the young and naive soldier and the 26-year-old nurse, but while he's eager for her to return home with him as he follows his muse as a writer, she regards him not as the love of her life but as a passing fling and thinks that he's too young to marry. Agnes eventually sends Hemingway a "Dear John" letter; later Hemingway would use her as the basis for several characters in his novels and short stories, not always flatteringly. In Love and War was directed by Richard Attenborough, previously an Academy Award winner for Gandhi. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Chris O'Donnell, (more)
Douglas McGrath's Infamous represents the second major biopic about the avant-garde belletrist Truman Capote to be released within a year. It thus tells roughly the same story as Bennett Miller's earlier Capote, recounting the events that belied the writer's six-year authorship of the seminal "nonfiction novel" In Cold Blood. The story opens with Capote (Toby Jones) visiting the site of the 1959 Clutter family homicide, on a Kansas research trip, accompanied by his close friend and colleague, author Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock). As Capote settles into the community, McGrath uses the preponderance of screen time to explore the emotional tapestry of Capote's increasingly risky emotional attachment to one of the two murderers, Perry Edward Smith (Daniel Craig), with whom he senses more than a few common bonds. McGrath weaves a decidedly bittersweet tale, contrasting the optimism and devil-may-care, "conquer all" attitude of Capote in his early years with a seemingly endless string of poor choices in the writer's later years, from addictions to drink and pills, to a failure to maintain healthy output as a writer, to poorly chosen romantic and sexual entanglements. Most significantly, however, McGrath reveals how the relationship with Smith virtually destroyed Capote as an artist and a human being, by inducing him to sell out on all levels to satisfy his lust for accomplishment and notoriety. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, (more)
Actor-turned-filmmaker Griffin Dunne directs this mockumentary about the lives of struggling thespians. The film focuses on Lisa Picard (Laura Kirk), a fledgling actress about to burst on the scene thanks to a bit part in a made-for-TV movie. She is followed around by Dunne as she makes her publicity rounds with her friend Tate Kelley (Nat DeWolf), a writer/actor/militant gay activist. Famous is populated with several direct-to-camera interviews featuring the likes of Penelope Ann Miller, Charles Sheen, and Mira Sorvino. This film was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel London
When it comes to love, Paul Matthews and Diane Farrow, two highly educated and talented scientists don't know a thing. Looking at their geeky demeanor's it's easy to see why. Despite the fact that both are neighbors, share the same interests and both are psychobiologists who study primates, neither is really aware of the other romantically until Paul, who is terribly shy around women, goes to gypsy Madame Ruth in desperation and asks for help. She reads his palm and tells him that he needs a woman; she then hands him Love Potion No. 8 which will attract women like flies to honey. This romantic comedy chronicles what happens to him (and Diane) when, after experimenting on animals, they decide to try it on themselves. Though the changes only last four hours per dose, they are truly remarkable and the two agree to separate for three weeks and then come back together to compare results. The time passes quickly and wonderfully for them and when they finally reunite both have changed for the better. Just for fun, they decide to go out with each other. They do not drink the potion, but still have a wonderful and passionate night. This leads Paul to propose to Diane. Unfortunately, she thinks she loves another, a man who is really more interested in exploiting the potion for money than he is in her. He ends up buying up all of Madame Ruth's latest batch. Paul goes back to her and explains his problem and that is when Ruth hands him the potent Love Potion No. 9, which can manifest true love. Quickly, he takes it and sets off to find Diane before she makes a terrible mistake. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tate Donovan, Sandra Bullock, (more)
A mother once neglected as child but possessed of a heart overflowing with love grows increasingly despondent as her beloved child begins to claim his independence in director Kevin Bacon's adaptation of Victoria Redel's best-selling novel. If loving too much were a crime, well-meaning but overbearing mother Emily (Kyra Sedgwick) would be spending life behind bars with no hope of parole. When Emily was a child, her parents were deeply in love with one another but tragically indifferent to their affection-starved daughter. Now a grown adult with a deep-rooted desire to bear a child, Emily goes to desperate lengths to conceive before eventually giving birth to an exceptionally gifted boy whom she names Paul. Emily's devotion to Paul burns brighter than a thousand suns as she creates a wondrous world of books, music, art, and games to share with her growing child, but her ever more desperate attempts to preserve the purity of their relationship reach a frantic fever pitch as a kindhearted local man opens his life to the pair and Paul prepares for his first year of school. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon, (more)
Jimmy Corona (James Lorinz) is related to a bunch of mafia types, sure, but he has always earned his living writing potboiler exposés on the killing of John F. Kennedy. Now his publisher insists that he write something gritty about society's underside instead. This makes the youngish man suicidal, but none of his amateurish attempts to end his own life succeeds. Eventually he decides to seek out his mobster uncle (Tony Darrow), who takes him under his wing. He is just getting into the swing of this new life when he is snared by the cops to get the goods on his uncle's second in command. However, Jimmy's competence and luck in this, as in everything else, soon turns sour, when his body mike starts playing that day's ball game. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Lorinz, Tony Darrow, (more)
Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is an FBI agent with a reputation for being aggressive and hard-nosed, who has long wanted to duplicate the career of her deceased mother, also an FBI agent, who died in the line of duty. Her cantankerous nature, though, has made her few friends, excepting her trusting, sensitive partner Eric Matthews (Benjamin Bratt). However, her true abilities are put to the test when she is called upon to infiltrate a Miss United States pageant after a terrorist threatens to bomb it. Gracie, who prides herself on her toughness, must now feminize her behavior to effectively participate in the pageant with the aid of Victor Melling (Michael Caine), a pompous consultant who dreams of whisking away Gracie's past self and creating "Gracie Lou Freebush" for an appreciative, all-American audience. After her arduous conversion, Gracie must play the role of beauty queen and FBI agent, and try not to blow her undercover outfit. Miss Congeniality, which was produced by star Bullock, features television stalwarts William Shatner and Candice Bergen in supporting roles. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Michael Caine, (more)
- 2005
- PG13
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FBI agent-turned-reluctant beauty queen Gracie Hart (played by Sandra Bullock) is taking on both bad guys and high glamour again in this sequel to the comedy smash Miss Congeniality. After her undercover mission at the Miss United States pageant becomes public knowledge, Gracie becomes something of a celebrity, and the FBI uses her notoriety to generate positive PR for the bureau; however, Gracie would like to get back to some solid police work, especially after scuffling with fellow female agent "Sam" Fuller (Regina King), who isn't impressed with Gracie. Despite their differences, the two find themselves working side by side when two of Gracie's pals from the pageant -- contest winner Cheryl Frasier (Heather Burns) and master of ceremonies Stan Fields (William Shatner) -- fall victim to kidnappers. As she did on the first film, Sandra Bullock served as both producer and star for Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, while director John Pasquin's credits include several episodes of the situation comedy George Lopez, also produced by Bullock. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Regina King, (more)
