Legally Blonde

Shallow SoCal sorority bimbo Elle Woods is supposed to be, like, totally smarter than she looks in this paint-by-numbers big screen sitcom about a ditzy coed following her snooty, upper-crust ex to Harvard law school to prove herself worthy and win him back. But while Elle is played with irresistibly bouncy ebullience by the wonderfully daft Reese Witherspoon (Election, Freeway), the movie never provides any evidence of her supposed smarts. Basically Clueless goes to college, but with barely half the creative wit, Legally Blonde is plied with such transparent plot devices that five minutes after the opening credits the entire story arc is laid out before you like a road map drawn in crayon. Flashy Elle stands out on buttoned-down campus, gets in over her head in heavy-duty classes, competes with a condescending preppie (histrionically pouty Selma Blair) for her ex's affections, pulls off a courtroom miracle during an internship, and realizes she's better than that loser ex anyway. A highly telegraphed, eye-rolling affair that falls back on Elle's superficiality to resolve the plot. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Blackwelder) [Blu-ray Review—Mar. 12, 2019—Shout! Factory, 2 discs, 191 min., R, Blu-ray: $34.99—Making their latest appearance on Blu-ray, 2001’s Legally Blonde and 2003’s Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde both feature decent transfers with DTS-HD 5.1 audio. Extras on Legally Blonde include a new interview with costar Jessica Cauffiel (13 min.), with previous extras including two audio commentaries (one by director Robert Luketic, star Reese Witherspoon, and producer Marc Platt; the other by costume designer Sophie de Rakoff Carbonell, production designer Melissa Stewart, cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond, screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, and animal trainer Sue Chipperton), deleted scenes (10 min.), a behind-the-scenes featurette (22 min.), 'The Hair That Ate Hollywood' segment (9 min.), and the 'Perfect Day' music video by Hoku. Extras on Legally Blonde 2: Red White & Blonde include a new interview with costar Jessica Cauffiel (9 min.), with previous extras including audio commentary with costars Jennifer Coolidge, Cauffiel, and Alanna Ubach, a 'Blonde Ambition' behind-the-scenes featurette (22 min.), the production segments 'Stars and Stripes, Never!' (8 min.), 'Elle's Anthem' (7 min.), 'Hair Apparent' (7 min.), 'Pretty in Pink' (7 min.), and 'Puppy Love' (3 min.), as well as deleted scenes (9 min.), a gag reel (3 min.), and the music video for 'We Can' by LeAnn Rimes. Bottom line: a pair of popular if also unremarkable films with only two new extras added to the previous Blu-ray releases.]