PRETTY VACANT

REVIEWED - MISS CONGENIALITY 2: ARMED AND FABULOUSConsider, for a moment, the career of Sandra Bullock. OK, that's long enough. The less than brilliant progress of Ms Bullock in the decade since she unexpectedly became a bona fide movie star in Speed is a cause for mild regret rather than handwringing. She could have been her generation's Doris Day, but a succession of lamebrain comedies, slushy weepies and halfwitted thrillers have left her as, well, her generation's Doris Day.

Some Like It Hot it wasn't, but the original Miss Congeniality, with Bullock as the tomboyish FBI agent forced to don the lipgloss and go undercover at the Miss America beauty pageant, was a harmless enough piece of mediocre fluff, with Michael Caine and William Shatner camping it up in the background.

This sequel, set in (yawn) Las Vegas has no Caine and very little Shatner. What does it say about a film when you find yourself wishing for more William Shatner? Caine's shoes are filled by Diedrich Bader as Joel, gay makeover artist to the stars, who turns Ms Bullock into a sort of FBI Barbie PR girl.

If one were so inclined, one might attempt to disentangle some of the sexual ambiguities here. Bader plays a man who wants to dress like a woman. Bullock plays a woman who wants to dress like a man. Her FBI partner (Regina King) likes to wrestle with Bullock and punch her in the head for no good reason (this is presented as a charming eccentricity).

But really, who could be bothered? The perfunctory plot (Miss America is kidnapped); lazy characterisation (why does King hit people?) and lamer than lame gags (Bullock's hilariously madcap pursuit of a Dolly Parton lookalike who turns out to be - you're way ahead of me - Dolly Parton) make Armed and Fabulous seem even more overstretched and padded out than that ridiculous running time of 115 minutes would suggest.