‘Legally Blonde’ and ‘Terminator’ both please in sequel fest

‘Legally Blonde’ has no ambition, it’s just fun

Legally blond granddaughter Tabatha, 12, arrives with blond friend

Khiara and brunette Leah for a week with grandma and grandpa. As we

drive by Triangle Square, they jump up and down blaring, “Legally

Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde” comes out today. Can we go? Pleeeze!”

We unpack, they don their tiaras and off we go to see the

escapades of oh-so-blond bedecked in pink attorney Elle Woods (Reese

Witherspoon) and her dog Bruiser.

In “Blonde 2,” Elle is focused on all the fluff of planning her

wedding to attorney Emmett Richmond (Luke Wilson). Flowers are set,

and cake is picture perfect, but “Oh no,” she must invite the long

lost mother of her Chihuahua, Bruiser, to the wedding.

With the help of a private eye, Elle goes off to a cosmetic lab in

Washington, D.C. to find out that Bruiser’s mom is part of an “animal

testing lab.” We can’t have that, so Elle rushes back to her law firm

trying to convince her partners to fight the battle to free all the

adorable little animals who are being used as guinea pigs. ... She is

fired!

During a fuzzy moment when Elle is trying on her wedding gown and

tiara (the girls adjusted theirs) she realizes she has been “barking

up” the wrong tree! She heads back to Washington, D.C. and introduces

the “Bruiser Bill” to make animal testing illegal, putting her

wedding on hold.

Of course, finding the perfect outfit for the Washington trip is

as big an ordeal as planning a closing argument at trial. She chose

none other than the Fourth of July Barbie outfit to make her

statement.

Well, the outrageous story drags on as they toss in Sally Fields

as Congresswoman Rudd -- the girls didn’t get any of this plot line.

Then Bob Newhart (as the friendly doorman, Sidney) -- was he their

friend? They did recognize the “Snap Cup” Elle brought along to

Washington. The girls have those in their classrooms at school.

The audience of teeny boppers, moms and grandmas applauded at the

happy ending! Tabatha, Khiara and Leah agreed, “It is very important

to us to know that blond girls have friends, because some people

think they are dumb and sometimes aren’t nice to them.”

* GAY WASSALL-KELLY is the editor of a Balboa newspaper and is

active in the community.

‘Terminator 3’ keeps the tradition alive

Hold onto your hats. There are no wasted words and no wasted time

in this high-octane, action-packed thriller. From the opening

moments, the Terminator roller coaster ride streaks into hyperdrive

to catapult you to the next level of white-knuckle special effects

and time travel adventure.

Once again, a cyborg assassin from the future returns to the

present to hunt down the one human who might later save the world

from total domination by machines. “Terminator 3: Rise of the

Machines” furthers the story line of this franchise movie series

without fail and without missing a beat. It builds on the first two

efforts with faithful logic and close attention to detail of what

came before. Yet it still produces a few twists that give new life to

the old facts of this remarkable tale.

Credit the screenwriters and the able direction of Jonathan Mostow

for including some genuine human interest and a touch of wry humor

with the omnipresent and mind-boggling stunts on the screen.

Of course, only Arnold Schwarzenegger could play the T-101

Terminator at the center of all the action. Newcomer Kritanna Loken

is icy cold as the latest model “Terminatrix” sent to dispatch Arnold

and his human pals to the next world.

Clair Danes is excellent as the unwilling heroine thrust into the

epic battle between mankind and the self-aware cyborgs with amazing

powers. But Nick Stahl seems a little too tame to be the infamous

John Conner; the hesitant hero who is supposed to save mankind in the

post-nuclear world that may or may not come to pass. It is left to

Clair’s character to draw out the real man in Conner, and she does an

admirable job that bodes well for the next episode.

No new ground is broken in this movie, but it definitely honors

and advances the best of what came before it. You have to like this

genre to like this movie. But if you loved the first two, you won’t

be disappointed in No. 3. And the producers leave no doubt at the end

that there will be another Terminator.

* JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator

for the Orange County public defender’s office.