Three star

ANYONE looking for fun and escapism is in luck, for this film is definitely what they are looking for.

Sandra Bullock plays Gracie Hart, a tough-cookie FBI agent who can certainly more than handle her own with 'the boys' but who seems to have forgotten that she is actually a woman too.

But when a terrorist threatens to attack the Miss USA beauty pageant, she is sent undercover as one of the contestants to weedle out the culprit and stop whatever havoc he/she intends to wreak.

Cue Michael Caine as the beauty pageant 'consultant, darling' who is called in to make her plausible as Miss New Jersey in two days - a feat that can only be achieved with much plucking, make-up and, yes, the dreaded bikini wax.

Bullock's own natural beauty stands out a mile but this is a role which she could play in her sleep. Caine is superb as Victor Melling, camping it up horribly but enjoying every minute of it.

But the real star of the show is William Shatner, who parodies himself outrageously and is hilarious. This is good, clean harmless comedy.

SC