''Legally Blondes'' is a 2009 American
teen comedy film
The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
directed by
Savage Steve Holland. It is a
spin-off of the
''Legally Blonde'' film series, though filmed as a pilot to a canceled television series.
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Reese Witherspoon, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Aw ...
, who played
Elle Woods in the first two ''Legally Blonde'' films, serves as a producer. The film stars
Milly and Becky Rosso as Elle's British twin cousins.
The film was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
on April 28, 2009,
followed by its television premiere on August 2, 2009, on
ABC Family
American cable television, cable and satellite television network Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through four different owners and six different name changes dur ...
.
Plot
British twin sisters Izzy and Annie Woods move in with their cousin
Elle Woods in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...
after Elle becomes a successful lobbyist and moves to Washington, D.C. Awaiting the girls are a pair of
chihuahua dogs who are the nephews of Bruiser, Elle's chihuahua. The twins are dismayed to learn that they will be attending Pacific Preparatory (Pac Prep), Elle's alma mater, a private school that requires uniforms.
The twins meet Chris Lopez, a scholarship student who is smitten with Annie, and Tiffany Donohugh, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy donor of Pac Prep. Tiffany pretends to befriend them but later reveals to their classmates that the twins are attending Pac Prep on a partial scholarship, embarrassing them. Izzy and Annie then form friendships with other scholarship students, and they all begin making ways to change Pac Prep's culture. Izzy also tries to help Chris get closer to Annie.
Chris and Izzy are later accused of cheating on a history test and set out to prove their innocence. After learning that Justin Whitley, Tiffany's boyfriend, has access to a master key that opens all doors in the school and that Tiffany has a master passcode that grants access to all of the school's computers (which had been donated by her father), the twins suspect that the two framed them by gaining access to the test answers on their teacher's computer.
While defending herself in student court, Izzy is locked in the bathroom by Justin, forcing Annie to overcome her fear of public speaking and impersonate her. As Izzy returns, Annie must continue making her case while impersonating her sister to keep up the ruse. As Annie finishes her summation of Tiffany and Justin's plot, supporters of the twins click their pens to anger Justin, who is irritated by the sound. Out of rage, Justin admits to framing Chris and Izzy on Tiffany's behalf. Tiffany admits to masterminding everything but claims that she cannot be punished because of her family's status as founders and long-time donors of the school. Despite this, headmistress Elsa Higgins expels both Justin and Tiffany and claims that she has her eye on Izzy and Annie.
In the end, Annie and Chris share a kiss and Izzy does the same with Brad, a scholarship student who had assisted the twins in student court. The twins and their friends become popular at the school, while Tiffany and Justin are cut off from their families' wealth and sent to public school, though Ashley Meadows, Tiffany's friend, swears revenge.
Cast
Reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film has a 37% rating based on two reviews.
Kelly West of
CinemaBlend rated the film three out of five stars and wrote, "Like so many other movies ABC Family unleashes, this one is pretty predictable and nothing that'll really move you emotionally but it does have its moments." David Nusair of ''Reel Film Reviews'' gave the film one out of four stars, calling it "
ineffective as direct-to-video sequels come" and "never quite able to justify its very existence."
David Cornelius of ''
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman.
History
Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...
'' stated that the film "reimagines the franchise in the tone of a Disney Channel sitcom", while criticizing Savage Steve Holland's direction, as well as "the cheap production values, sloppy editing, and
..that morally questionable screenplay".
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Portal bar, Film, United States, Comedy
Legally Blonde (franchise)
2009 films
2009 comedy films
2009 direct-to-video films
2000s American films
2000s English-language films
2000s high school films
2000s teen comedy films
American direct-to-video films
American high school films
American sequel films
American teen comedy films
Direct-to-video comedy films
Direct-to-video sequel films
Films about twin sisters
Films directed by Savage Steve Holland
Films produced by Marc E. Platt
Films produced by Reese Witherspoon
Films set in California
Films shot in England
Films shot in Los Angeles
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer direct-to-video films