Legally Blonde (2001)
Directed by Robert Luketic
Fashionable sorority queen Elle Woods has it all, but, she wants nothing more than to be Mrs. Warner Huntington III. But he dumps her before heading to Harvard Law School. Elle rallies all of her resources and gets into Harvard, determined to win him back. While there, she figures out that there is more to herself than just good looks.
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What critics compared Legally Blonde to
A studious loner, Elphaba couldn’t be less like her popular classmate Galinda, whose cheery exterior and princessy pink outfits can’t help but recall another blonde, Elle Woods, as portrayed by Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde.
Meanwhile, it's Grande who steals the show with a sparkling performance that seems modeled on two great Reese Witherspoon roles: the despicable Tracy Flick from "Election" and the endearing Elle Woods from "Legally Blonde."
It’s a movie about bucking traditions and shaking up the old boys’ network and a woman finding a place at the table — and yet for all its modern sensibilities and up-to-the-minute social commentary, the style and tone are reminiscent of light, last-decade fare such as “Legally Blonde” (2000) and “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006).
More Legally Blonde than Support the Girls , Late Night is content to be a fluffy, formulaic crowdpleaser with a sweet and uplifting message, and only has so much interest in reckoning with the depressing, nigh-Sisyphean trials of being a woman, and especially a woman of color, in a white-male-dominated workplace.
Based on the novel by Sophie Kinsella but seemingly more inspired by " Legally Blonde " and " The Devil Wears Prada ," the movie strains to follow the tried-and-true formula of a perky fish out of water who is in over her head but with the determination and intelligence to prevail.
If you gave Bernie Madoff custody of your life savings mere days before the FBI knocked on his door last December, your timing still wouldn’t be as wretched as that of Confessions of a Shopaholic, a bright, cheery hybrid of Legally Blonde and Sex and the City that seeks to offer escapism from our current economic crisis via the story of a precious young Manhattanite who just can’t stop being fiscally irresponsible.
Despite a plot filled with contrived and cheesy moments and virtually no palpable romance between Rebecca and Brandon, what makes the film mildly engaging is its lively, energetic cast, especially Isla Fisher who radiates plenty of offbeat charisma much like Reece Witherspoon did in Legally Blonde.
A gloss of “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Legally Blonde” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” “Confessions” was directed by Brit P.J. Hogan (“My Best Friend’s Wedding”), adapted by Tracey Jackson, Tim Firth (“Kinky Boots’) and Kayla Alpert (“Ally McBeal”) and is at times wildly uneven.
On a high level, Confessions of a Shopaholic is trying to fuse The Devil Wears Prada with Legally Blonde , but it lacks the darkly satirical edge of the former and the frothy innocence of the latter.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Directed by Cathy Yan
Themes
Think John Wick with a Legally Blonde vibe.
The whole thing is a breakup movie, like a rebellious riff on Legally Blonde .
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No matter, these are minor nits to pick compared to the brilliant character work by Williams and co-writer Nell Benjamin, who joined her husband Laurence O’Keefe to adapt “Legally Blonde” for Broadway in 2011, then adapted “Mean Girls” for the stage in 2018.
But the screenwriters – Nicole Eastman and the "Legally Blonde" team Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith – don't do anything we haven't seen before, and better.
Director Robert Luketic ( 21 , Monster-in-Law , Legally Blonde ) has always been a strict adherent to the modern style-over-substance school of filmmaking, and The Ugly Truth is suitably glossy and slick.
It’s not that The Ugly Truth, directed by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde), isn’t sporadically funny.
No oneand that includes director Robert Luketic (2008's " 21 ") and screenwriters Nicole Eastman, Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith (the latter two responsible for 2001's " Legally Blonde " and 2008's " The House Bunny ," both far better)escapes entirely unscathed.
The people responsible for “The Ugly Truth’’ - director Robert Luketic and screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, sharing a credit with Nicole Eastman - were also responsible for “Legally Blonde.’’
…and 21), and written by the trio of Nicole Eastman, Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith (the last two of whom teamed up with Luketic on Legally Blonde), is a romantic comedy with a glacier where its heart should be.
Like a slightly more educated Legally Blonde, Witherspoon plays these scenes well.
There’s a fair bit of Legally Blonde here after all.
After Election and even Legally Blonde, Witherspoon seemed like ideal casting: that big, sharp—Becky Sharp!—jaw line; that crack comic timing; that laserlike stare.
But since then, the young actress has become America's new box office sweetheart, starring in her own "Legally Blonde" franchise, followed by the insipidly saccharine romantic comedy "Sweet Home Alabama."
In fact, the prevailing tone is pink -- the kind of pink that Reese Witherspoon, who plays Rebecca Sharp, made her trademark color as Elle Woods in ''Legally Blonde.''
It makes for an odd coupling: Instead of the coldly calculating heroine of the novel and her requisite downfall, Nair's Becky Sharp (Witherspoon) seems more like a sharp cookie who's able to roll with the punches, more Elle Woods (of Legally Blonde fame) than epic heroine.
That plot is kind of like Elle Woods heading to Harvard Law in “Legally Blonde,” but absent the basic feminism of that iconic 19-year-old comedy.
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The supporting characterizations are thin and nondescript, almost as if McCarthy and Falcone watched films like Neighbors , The House Bunny , Legally Blonde and the aforementioned Back to School and decided to see if they could create situations and characters that would purposefully blur the line between homage and plagiarism.
