PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT (2004) *1/2 The main point of the film appears to be to allow Anne Hathaway to put on a new outfit in every scene. Drab and tasteless consumerism barely pasted onto a background of bad pop songs and modern day princesses and other such nonsense. A thoughtless waste of time, and an insult to the girls it targets. Even Julie Andrews is remarkable only for the speculation she arouses as to how much is plastic surgery and how much makeup, and her ability to smile on cue. Cast as neither a comedy nor meaningful, the film exists in a sort of artistic purgatory, too boring to notice long enough to condemn to even hell. But then, the end is so sloppy and schmaltzy and sentimental and willfully stupid and well meaning that you can't help laughing, with it or at it depending on your own composition. Julie generates that more authentic charm that she's famous for and...well, that's about it, but it's a marked improvement on what's gone before. That's part of the strategy of only having one good scene, you see: you have to set it up in dramatic contrast to all else.
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