Legally Blonde/Legally Blonde 2-Red White and Blonde (2005)

"[1] Two thumbs up!  Ebert & Roeper And The Movies
"[2] The film is a glorified sitcom, but Witherspoon takes it to another enchanted level.  Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee
"[Legally Blonde] A feel-good girl-power comedy!  People Magazine
"[Legally Blonde 2] ...Witherspoon is a sheer delight, all charm and light and loveliness; you just want her to win.  Susannah Gora, Premiere
"[Legally Blonde 2] Reese Witherspoon is America's movie sweetheart!  Access Hollywood
"[Legally Blonde 2] ...this hugely enjoyable sequel serves up a generous second helping of the ingredient that made the original such an irresistible hit.  Ken Fox, TV Guide
"[Legally Blonde] In a perfect marriage of player and part, Reese Witherspoon is Elle Woods.  Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader
"[Legally Blonde] Witherspoon turns in yet another stellar, nuanced comic performance.  Stephen Miller, TV Guide

Editor's Note LEGALLY BLONDE: In the sharply funny LEGALLY BLONDE, Reese Witherspoon gives a glittering performance as Elle Woods, the natural blonde sorority queen who enrolls at Harvard Law School. When she first appears, Elle seems to be no more than the bright cousin of CLUELESS's Alicia Silverstone. Expecting her boyfriend, Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis), to propose, she is mortified when instead he says he needs somebody serious as his wife. When Elle discovers Warner's brother is engaged to a law student, she decides to go to Harvard. She studies for the LSATs, submits a video essay--in which she appears in a sequined bikini--and, miraculously, is accepted. At first, Elle is rebuked by Professor Stromwell (Holland Taylor) and is the target of snide comments from other students. But, gradually, it becomes clear that Elle is no fish out of water--she is smarter, more driven, and more likely to survive in the rarefied Harvard atmosphere than anyone else. Witherspoon gets fine support from Selma Blair as Warner's new fiancée, Jennifer Coolidge as a beautician, Victor Garber as an unscrupulous professor, Ali Larter as a client from Elle's sorority, Holland Taylor, and Luke Wilson as a lawyer fascinated by Elle's unconventional approach. The smart, witty script is by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. The first-time director is 28-year-old Australian Robert Luketic. LEGALLY BLONDE 2: RED, WHITE, AND BLONDE: Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) returns in all of her pink splendor in this sequel to LEGALLY BLONDE. This time, spunky lawyer Elle is in the midst of planning her wedding to law professor Emmett Richmond (Luke Wilson) when she realizes that she has to locate the mother of her pet Chihuahua, Bruiser, in order to include her on the guest list. A detective locates Bruiser's mom, only to find her in an animal testing facility. Determined to put an end to the practice and to free Bruiser's mom in time for the wedding, Elle heads to Washington, D.C., to work as a legislative aid to fellow Harvard Law alum, Representative Victoria Rudd (Sally Field). Unfortunately, Capitol Hill isn't as welcoming as Elle had hoped, and she finds herself learning about the darker side of Washington politics. Undeterred, the ever-optimistic Elle enlists her friends to help in her campaign to stop animal testing. Witherspoon is delightful as the wide-eyed, good-hearted Elle. Bob Newhart stars as her politically aware doorman, and Jennifer Coolidge reprises her role as Paulette, Elle's personal beauty consultant. Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld, the film also stars Regina King, Bruce McGill, and Dana Ivey.

	Jennifer Cooloidge
	Luke Wilson
	Matthew Davis
	Reese Witherspoon
	Regina King
	Sally Field
	Selma Blair
	Charles Herman-Wurmfeld - [2] Director
	Robert Luketic - [1] Director

San Francisco Chronicle 7 of 10
[2] Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde takes the financially successful formula of Legally Blonde, the Reese Witherspoon hit from two years ago, and does something unexpected. It fiddles with it, changes it and actually fixes it. It takes the galling thing about the original--the elite complacency of its heroine--and puts it away forever. It transforms Elle Woods, materialistic priss, into Elle Woods, liberal. - Mick LaSalle

Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
[Legally Blonde 2] "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde" evokes a fairy-tale America in which a congresswoman's ditzy blond junior staff member, pretty in pink, is asked to address a joint session of Congress and sways them with her appeal for animal rights. Not in this world. It might happen, though, in the world of the movie--but even then, her big speech is so truly idiotic, she'd be laughed out of town...Ramping up for this review, I came across a curious column by Arianna Huffington, who attended a preview screening and wrote: "Sitting between my teenage daughters while watching Elle take on the U.S. Congress, I was struck by the palpable effect it had on them: They left the theater inspired, empowered and talking about the things they wanted to change and the ways they might be able to change them." She quotes approvingly from Elle's big speech ("So speak up, America. Speak up for the home of the brave. Speak up for the land of the free gift with purchase. Speak up, America!")...Amazing that the usually tough-minded Huffington fell for the movie. Amazing, too, that two teenage girls who have their mother as a role model were inspired and empowered by the insipid Elle. I have a movie for them to see together: "Whale Rider." Now there's a great movie about female empowerment, and the heroine doesn't even wear makeup...America will no doubt speak up, alas, by spending millions of dollars on "Legally Blonde 2" in obedience to the movie's advertising blitz (buses in several cities have been painted entirely pink). And so the myth of a populist Congress will live on, apart from the real world of lobbyists, log-rolling, punishment to the disloyal and favors for friends. In the real world, Elle Woods would be chewed up faster than one of little Bruiser's Milk-Bones. - Roger Ebert

Salon.com 7 of 10
[1] ...[Reese Witherspoon's] sophisticated-pixie brilliance practically makes the movie, and her easy, confident, curvaceous carriage doesn't hurt, either--she's the thinking guy's cupcake, maybe because her mind is just as supple as her curves... - Stephanie Zacharek

Reel.com 8 of 10
[Legally Blonde] It's probably safe to say that Legally Blonde is the best '80s movie of the new century. It's a throwback to a time when class issues and revolutions were played out by nerds and jocks on conjured college campuses, where microcosms were all there was and the outside world was like a dream kept at bay by ivy-clad brick walls. Things then seemed, at best, tenuously connected to anything larger, except whatever shining notion of the future was presented in the closing scene before the screen went black and the Flock of Seagulls track started up...The detached optimism of the '80s film, the sacred fantasy of a triumphant ending (touchstones here are Revenge of the Nerds and Porky's, though others certainly pertain), is captured like a yearbook photograph in Legally Blonde, a charming and belated (and charmingly belated) update to the genre. Reese Witherspoon is our Molly Ringwald, playing a flighty yet determined sorority sister who follows her boyfriend Warner (Matthew Davis) to Harvard Law School to win him back...Helmed by newcomer Robert Luketic, the film was based on a semi-autobiographical novel by writer Amanda Brown, who enrolled in law school as a fish-out-of-bottled-mineral-water. The book was converted into a script by the writing team responsible for 10 Things I Hate About You, another snappy and smart comedy that recalls the bygone era of (my) youth...The film is certainly not flawless -- Luketic hasn't developed his own style yet, and whatever directorial flourishes there are seem Hollywood-glossy. The director of photography is Anthony Richmond, an old-timer whose previous credits include Don't Look Now and Let It Be...Richmond's talents are underused, but he sure makes Witherspoon's hair look purty. - Neal Block