Director: Jason Moore
Writer: Kay Cannon
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson
This film spawned the biggest Internet craze since Y2K… the
cup song. Weirdly enough, it only takes up about 20 seconds of the entire film.
How anyone could find this moment so incredibly inspiring that they would
parody it is a concept that I am yet to understand.
A girl goes to college with fierce rivals of varying a cappella esteem. As a free willed youth, she joins the repetitive and overtly feminist group in order to smite their rivals, the unrealistically repugnant boy group who win near every trophy they go after.
The film starts off surprisingly well. It very succinctly notifies you of the type of comedy that will come in the film (although this is somewhat lost later on in place of a soulless sentimental gas). I was rather caught off guard when one of the caricatured antagonists recommends suicide to one of their a cappella opponents.
Dodgeball was constantly coming to mind when I was watching this. This is not even close to as good as Dodgeball but it is strikingly similar. It has the same sort of structure where you have a contest and you distinctly see the stages pass by with our characters (in this you wouldn’t be able to tell which round was which save for the helpful white text that pops up). Another similarity is that there are two commentators who are disturbingly passive aggressive. It seems that if you say something blatantly offensive to someone’s face, laughing camouflages you from any repercussions. While you may be thinking, this sounds great I love Dodgeball, this sort of formula requires excellent characters because of the simple plot. This film contains very few memorable characters. The only one that stands out in my mind after a mere four days is Fat Amy… mainly because she is called Fat Amy.
It would be more than reasonable to think that since this film heavily involves music, it would have a lot of effort put into its soundtrack. Well you would be sorely disappointed because this film has very little good to do with its soundtrack. Boasting such classics as Miley Cyrus’ Party in the U.S.A. and Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson. There is even a scene in which Anna Kendrick attempts to rap and people think she is good. I have never witnessed a sequence more unbelievable. While the soundtrack is (perhaps intentionally) schlock, sometimes what they do with it is pretty aurally satisfying. Sometimes they are just straight up singing it and it is borderline unbearable.
These issues could all be seen as quite minor in the face of the genuinely chucklesome jokes that pop up throughout the film. This, however, is inexcusable. There is a moment, towards the beginning of the film in which two of the characters are discussing films. This is when you step into very dangerous territory especially if you criticise films. The writers decided to step on the landmine of claiming that all films are predictable and even gave some examples. One of these examples being, ‘the guy gets the girl’. I won’t explicitly spoil the end but I think at this point it is pretty obvious what happens. Calling this film predictable would be a huge understatement. I reckon someone could work out the ending of the film by reading the iMDb plot synopsis and looking at the poster. If you complain about films all being predictable, don’t be predictable. It seems like purely common sense but apparently these writers can’t grasp that axiom.
Pitch Perfect is the result of genetic engineering that morphed Vince Vaughn into an a cappella singing Anna Kendrick who could only speak in hypocrisies. It contains a soundtrack that is sure to induce mental and physical vomiting. Despite this, the film provides some moments in which I couldn’t help but laugh. I can’t remember any of them but I’m sure there were some.
Pitch Perfect receives a: 5.5/10
A girl goes to college with fierce rivals of varying a cappella esteem. As a free willed youth, she joins the repetitive and overtly feminist group in order to smite their rivals, the unrealistically repugnant boy group who win near every trophy they go after.
The film starts off surprisingly well. It very succinctly notifies you of the type of comedy that will come in the film (although this is somewhat lost later on in place of a soulless sentimental gas). I was rather caught off guard when one of the caricatured antagonists recommends suicide to one of their a cappella opponents.
Dodgeball was constantly coming to mind when I was watching this. This is not even close to as good as Dodgeball but it is strikingly similar. It has the same sort of structure where you have a contest and you distinctly see the stages pass by with our characters (in this you wouldn’t be able to tell which round was which save for the helpful white text that pops up). Another similarity is that there are two commentators who are disturbingly passive aggressive. It seems that if you say something blatantly offensive to someone’s face, laughing camouflages you from any repercussions. While you may be thinking, this sounds great I love Dodgeball, this sort of formula requires excellent characters because of the simple plot. This film contains very few memorable characters. The only one that stands out in my mind after a mere four days is Fat Amy… mainly because she is called Fat Amy.
It would be more than reasonable to think that since this film heavily involves music, it would have a lot of effort put into its soundtrack. Well you would be sorely disappointed because this film has very little good to do with its soundtrack. Boasting such classics as Miley Cyrus’ Party in the U.S.A. and Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson. There is even a scene in which Anna Kendrick attempts to rap and people think she is good. I have never witnessed a sequence more unbelievable. While the soundtrack is (perhaps intentionally) schlock, sometimes what they do with it is pretty aurally satisfying. Sometimes they are just straight up singing it and it is borderline unbearable.
These issues could all be seen as quite minor in the face of the genuinely chucklesome jokes that pop up throughout the film. This, however, is inexcusable. There is a moment, towards the beginning of the film in which two of the characters are discussing films. This is when you step into very dangerous territory especially if you criticise films. The writers decided to step on the landmine of claiming that all films are predictable and even gave some examples. One of these examples being, ‘the guy gets the girl’. I won’t explicitly spoil the end but I think at this point it is pretty obvious what happens. Calling this film predictable would be a huge understatement. I reckon someone could work out the ending of the film by reading the iMDb plot synopsis and looking at the poster. If you complain about films all being predictable, don’t be predictable. It seems like purely common sense but apparently these writers can’t grasp that axiom.
Pitch Perfect is the result of genetic engineering that morphed Vince Vaughn into an a cappella singing Anna Kendrick who could only speak in hypocrisies. It contains a soundtrack that is sure to induce mental and physical vomiting. Despite this, the film provides some moments in which I couldn’t help but laugh. I can’t remember any of them but I’m sure there were some.
Pitch Perfect receives a: 5.5/10
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