The Forum: 'Legally Blonde' by Andrew Llewellyn

By /
From the Web 1.0 days I bring you The Forum. To preserve them for posterity as Geocities can no longer be found but also it's fun to re-read some of them.

This is from "See This!" - by Andrew Llewellyn (Wellington, New Zealand - where is he now?) dated 20th November, 2001

"Legally Blonde"
20th November, 2001

Legally Blonde
United States, 2001
Director: Robert Luketic
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair, Matthew Davis, Victor Garber, Jennifer Coolidge, Holland Taylor, Ali Larter
Running Length: 1hour 35 mins
Tagline: Believing in yourself never goes out of style.

I know what you're thinking... Legally Blonde? As if! Well yeah.... but you know, titles can be deceiving. Although Legally Blonde IS just about everything you'd expect from it :-). Except that it is also smart, funny, not in the slightest bit exploitational, and features a lead performance by one of the most talented & charismatic actresses in the business. Fortunately, she looks good in a bikini too. (Hey, no one said this review wouldn't be exploitational). In capsule - think Clueless (another surprisingly intelligent "airhead" movie, with a talented, charismatic lead), 5 years on.

Reese Witherspoon's been on our screens for a while (since she was 14 according to a recent Sunday newspaper). You may have caught her in such fare as:

Fear - exploitative psycho thriller with pre-ape Marky Mark.
Election - Ferris Bueller changes teams as teacher (Matthew Broderick) is traumatised by star pupil (Witherspoon).
Pleasantville - this one's mighty, Witherspoon & her brother (Tobey Maguire) are 90s kids trapped in a 50s sit-com, with colourful results for the sit-com inhabitants. Much better than the Truman Show.
Cruel Intentions - Good girl preyed upon by ultra-sleazy & manipulative Ryan Phillipe.

So there's a quick run through of her credentials.

In Legally Blonde, Witherspoon is Elle Woods, President of the Delta Nu sorority at her university in California. She's just graduated with a degree in fashion, she's been in a Ricky Martin video & she aspires to be a Victoria's Secret model. The film opens on Elle's "Perfect Day" (cue cool song on soundtrack), she's expecting her rich boyfriend Warner to propose & life will be peachy... nothing's gonna rain on her perfect day....

As if... her boyfriend however, is off to Harvard Law School and aspires to be a senator by the time he's 30, and family decorum dictates that he marry a "Jackie", not a "Marilyn". So Elle is unceremoniously out of the picture.

So what's a girl to do? Why, apply for Harvard Law School herself & try to win the big jerk back of course! And that's exactly what she does. First scoring very highly on the LSATs (some exam that Americans will be familiar with no doubt), and then submitting a unique entrance essay - on video... from the pool... demonstrating her familiarity with legal terms ("I object!") and debating whether "orange" really is this year's "pink", while bikini clad sorority sisters float past offering supporting comments. The entrance board's (stiff legal looking types) reaction to this is just about as funny as the essay.

From there, it's Malibu Barbie meets Harvard, as Elle relocates to the East Coast (with a massive furniture truck trailing her little sports car), and settles in. She also discovers that Warner hasn't been idle, and already has a snippy new (brunette) girlfriend. And it turns out classes are a lot more gruelling than she imagined.

But through her innovative approach to law (a nice argument in class regarding a case involving paternal rights for sperm donors), Elle manages to attract the attention (in more ways than one) of a professor, and ends up helping out with research for his law firm in a case involving a former Delta Nu sister accused of murder. There are some nice lines - "A spa? Isn't that like, your mothership?" And of course, she gets her day in court too.

So how entertaining is Legally Blonde? Well, on my way home from seeing some footage of the Lord of the Rings (sales pitch for the upcoming launch in December - and by the way, it looks totally awesome!) at Wellington's magnificent Embassy Theatre, I found myself standing at a bus stop with an acquaintance who is a serious film festival & art-house movie buff. We discussed the "package" for the LOTR launch, which includes admission to a number of film premieres throughout next year. I commented that they would most likely be premieres for "pap" that I would never in my right mind want to see anyway (I am a movie snob), and I gestured to the Embassy marquee down the road boasting in huge letters "Legally Blonde". The woman I was talking to agreed in principle, then enthusiastically told me she had seen Legally Blonde & thoroughly enjoyed it. There is no arguing with another movie snob (take note).

And what do the female members of my family think? Well, they came home from a shopping spree one day, with free tickets to it (for buying half the stock in a local fashion store), and the soundtrack, which now plays incessantly on the stereo. And so shortly afterwards we went. And we loved it. The girls in particular, finding it funny & inspirational. It's a "go girl!" sort of movie, funny, with the requisite pay-off - ie, everyone gets what they deserve.

I mean, it's not taxing, and it's not art, it is predictable, but it's very entertaining, and Witherspoon is exceptional, and always worth watching. Even when she's wearing more than a bikini (which admittedly, is most of the time).

And by the way... did you know that in the States, July 9 is National Blonde Day? (sponsored by Vidal Sassoon). For real.

Original at: http://www.geocities.com/mikey_boyle_cols/andrew/current.html

Comments

Post a CommentFRED

Popular articles

The Difference Between One Million And One Billion

Image
It feels like a billion is just a bit bigger than a million. Obviously it's bigger but it fits on the same scale as a million, surely. It doesn't. A billion is so so so much bigger than a million. I've trawled the internet finding graphics and videos that show the VAST difference between one million and one billion. Oh, and just to finish with a different misconception about space starting with the classic opening line from the great Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy : “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

Do The Shake 'n' Vac And Put The Freshness Back

Image
How advertising jingles influence our buying choices (and why we can still sing them decades later) Recent market research found that several of the ten most recognisable jingles for UK adults dated back three or even four decades. While comparison site Go Compare topped the list, Mars’ “work, rest and play” jingle (axed in the mid-1990s) and even Shake ‘n’ Vac “put the freshness back” (1980) are still buzzing about in the heads of those polled. ... Research has shown that the period when we are around ten to 25 years old tends to be remembered most vividly. Music cues are also best at tapping into memories of this period, which is known as the “reminiscence bump”.

One Hundred Proofs That The Earth Is Not A Globe

Image
The best thing about  bonkers "science" books like this is that they're so old it's free to download and actually read them. So I did. INDEX. 1 The aeronaut sees for himself.   2 Standing water level.   3 Surveyors’ “allowance.”   4 Flow of Rivers—the Nile .  5 Lighthouses—Cape Hatteras.   6 The sea-shore.—“Coming up.”   7 A trip down Chesapeake Bay .  8 The model globe useless.   9 The sailor’s level charts.   10 The mariners’ compass.   11 The southern circumference.   12 Circumnavigation of the Earth.   13 Meridians are straight lines.   14  Parallels of latitude—circles.   15 Sailing down and underneath.   16 Distance round the South.   17 Levelness required by man.   18 The “level” of the astronomers.   19 Half the globe is cut off, now!   20 No “up” or “down” in nature?   21 The “spherical lodestone.”   22 No falsehoods wanted!   23 No proo...

2025, The Theme Is "Backfill"

Image
It's quite the moment when you're pondering, cogitating, think think thinking about something and then, *pop*, the answer comes into your mind. 2024 was a "Foundational" year for me. One of working out what I want to do with the final third of my time on this planet. And that has worked out well, I have moved on from tech and finding my feet in sustainable "community work". I want 2025 to be less, dramatic. I've been reflecting for the past few days what it should feel like and it slooooowly dawned upon me, I want this year to be a bedding in year. A quick Google of the stages one goes through when moving a tree from one spot to another and the word "backfill" is used a lot. Once you've uprooted the tree, put it into its new hole home then you need to backfill with soil and compost, pat it down, give it water, and settle it into its new place. That's me. Over 2023/4 I have uprooted the tree of my life and I'm now safely / happily in...

"Right Wing" Comedians

Image
Too many people comfortably plump themselves into an army of one type or another . Surrounded by those that sound like you, listen to you intently whilst nodding, and echo your thoughts on why the fight is a good fight and that the other side are such bad terrible people. I used to be more like that than I am nowadays ... hmmmm, aren't we humans meant to become more conservative and reactionary as we age, strange Mike. These thoughts have me thinking of two UK comedians that have been tagged as "right wing", which is putting them into an army for the benefit of someone but, I suspect, not them. First up,  Simon Evans who makes me laugh when he's talking about his family, kids, and life in Brighton. He then hit my ears big time with: Simon Evans Goes to Market , has had six seasons, delighting audiences with his witty and insightful take on the comedically unpromising territory of economics, all of which prove among the most popular downloads on the Sounds App. On the...

W. C. Fields quotes

Image
The office has all been moved around - new desks (with starter handles to raise and lower them), new high(er) speed network and ... the same old work. At least I have a differing view of the world, my team (well, the team I'm a part of not "my" team) is a lot closer - finally - and it's like an office from the 80's ... or even a classroom. But I still have time to move the crap off the PC : ------ Any man who hates dogs and loves whiskey can't be all bad. Anyone who hates Dogs and Kids Can't be All Bad. Hey! Who took the cork off my lunch??! Who stole the cork from my breakfast? Now don't say you can't swear off drinking, it's easy. I've done it a thousand times. Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. Then quit, no use being a damn fool about things. Madam, there's no such thing as a tough child - if you parboil them first for seven hours, they alwa...

The Cookie Time DC-3, I Found It

Image
Every Kiwi that has ever been on a roadtrip up / down State Highway 1 knows about the Mangaweka Cookie Time Douglas DC-3 café. You may stopped off and had a look around inside, the kids and I certainly have. But in 2021 it was suddenly gone, what happened? Well, it seems the plane was owned by two Mangawekan (?) business people who had a falling out. One dark and stormy night one decided to ship it away without the knowledge of the other (sort of). Shifting the plane meant they had to take the wings off first and now the body lives in Shannon at 2 Ballance Street, just next to the Club Hotel / bar.  Apparently it's being restored and will go back .. it won't. The wings, well who knows where they disappeared to but I understand they're not gonna be joining the body anytime soon. A little history lesson for us all: ZK-APK was delivered to the RNZAF in August 1945, then sold to the newly-formed National Airways Corporation (NAC) in 1947 and given the name Poaka. NAC was New Ze...

Goodbyes To Hashigo Zake

Image
It's March 2024 and a stalwart of the Wellington bar scene, Hashigo Zake, closes its doors for the final time. (click/tap to open the Photosphere and others to relive the main bar area one more time)

Tiny Orange Life

Image
I was about to use the phrase "clinging on" but who knows, this lichen might be living the best lichen life possible. How do you pronounce it, "ly-kin", "ly-chin", or, "li-chin"?