Winner May '01

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What Women Want/ Miss Congeniality Reviews

Posted by: MOVIEMAVEN

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"What Women Want" (Mel Gibson)

The story of a super macho Ladies-man,Nick, working at an advertising agency who,through an electric shock, is suddenly given the power to hear the thoughts of every woman he meets..

OK so the circumstances of the plot are not plausible,,,but the 'women from mars/men from venus" theme is done is a cute way..

The relationship Nick has with with his daughter,previously distant..now is sharpened by his ability to hear what she is really thinking about him,.which forces him to wake up and pay more attention to the job of fatherhood and less to the job of advertising. Due to female marketing trends, he is fired from his job and replaced by a woman..who he is jealous of and attracted to at the same time. and yes..he can read her thoughts too! While he tries to get into her head, the slapstick scenes with women's clothing, are very funny..

This movie reminded me of the Spencer Tracy Kate Hepburn repartee of movies years ago. Also Cary Grant's "The Philadelphia story," and the more recent "He Said,She Said". The subject of what makes the other sex tick is not a totally new movie concept..but Mel Gibson has the ability to carry off that that type of macho, suave and comical character which is a throw back to Cary Grant...so he makes it fun to watch..and Helen Hunt does well as the cold, business woman type, who eventually falls for her nemesis, Nick. Its a nice romantic comedy for a day when you want a laugh.!

Miss Congeniality

Here is a movie in which Sandra Bullock's talents are wasted..

In "The Net", Bullock, she made us feel terrified with her as she outwitted the bad guys,and in "Speed", she conveyed that shock of an everyday woman caught in an unbelievable circumstance. But in this movie.. Bullock was cast as a superficial one dimensional plain jane FBI woman, who looks down on beauty queens and then is forced, by assignment, to go under cover in a beauty pageant.

There is no sub-plot here,the action/danger seems forced and there no reason why we identify with her and its basically a copy of "My Fair Lady" and "A Bunnys' Tale".

But; both of those movies at least delivered a message about class discrimination and sexual discrimination. This movie did neither. The funniest parts of this movie is seeing Willam Shatner playing the MC, and Candice Bergen playing the head of the pageant, a psycho ex-beauty queen. If you have a particular interest in the art of makeup and hair makeovers..then rent it . But other than that,, I would rather rent some of Sandra's previous movies. IMHO,

- MM

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