Sadly, it took until 2013 to get a decently-budgeted female buddy cop comedy. $160 million in 2013/$18 million adjusted Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock in 'The Heat' 20th Century Fox Miss Congeniality may not be a classic, but it’s about as good as we used to expect every A-level theatrical release to be.

Whatever, it’s just good Hollywood fun, with game supporting turns by Michael Caine and William Shatner and a flirty love interest turn from Benjamin Bratt. It spawned an underwhelming but-harmless sequel ($107 million/$45 million in 2005) has its cake and eats it too, gently ribbing the beauty pageant industry for its regressive foundations while still noting its potential for character building and progressive ideals. The high-concept genre hybrid (a tough cop goes undercover as a beauty pageant contest to catch a terrorist) earned $212 million on a $45 million budget. It is also the kind of film that Hollywood desperately needs to start making again. This Christmas 2000 hit (10.7x its domestic opening weekend) may be the prototypical Sandra Bullock star vehicle. $107 million in 2000/$177 million adjusted (Photo by Warner Brothers/Getty Images) Getty Images Michael Caine walks with Sandra Bullock in a scene from the film 'Miss Congeniality', 2000.

Moreover, Bill Pullman ( Malice, Sleepless In Seattle, etc.) gets the girl for the first time since Spaceballs. It’s an excellent version of what you expect it to be. Complicating matters is her genuine chemistry with and eventual feelings for the guy’s brother.

The film’s high-concept, about a down-on-her-luck toll booth employee who rescues her crush from a subway accident only to stumble into a situation where everyone (including the amnesiac mugging victim) thinks they are engaged. While the press mainly obsessed upon David Caruso and Nicolas Cage’s (pretty good) Kiss of Death remake (and, eventually, Michael Bay’s Bad Boys), this under-the-radar fairy tale rom-com was the year’s biggest pre-summer grosser.

There once was a time when audiences would take a liking to an actor or actress in a big movie and then show up in theaters when that performer got their star vehicle. $81 million in 1995/$171 million adjusted (Photo by Buena Vista/Getty Images) Getty Images Bill Pullman and Sandra Bullock in a scene from the film 'While You Were Sleeping', 1995.

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