6/18/2023 0 Comments Rocketship comedyReturning screenwriter Kay Cannon brings much of the same sharp-tongued sass and tart sense of humor to this fairly familiar second verse (the plot’s chain of events is pretty predictable, though not too problematic). She also has the same band of funny oddball characters and performers to work with, and they’re still a blast. There are a few exceptions (see: the meta mayhem of last summer’s "22 Jump Street"), and thankfully "Pitch Perfect 2" slides in amongst them. Old jokes are pulled out again and made bigger, if not necessarily better, while the extra effort put forward to maintain the spark of the first installment just ends up extinguishing it instead. Meanwhile, a new freshman add-on Emily (Hailee Steinfeld, "True Grit") struggles to fit in with the frazzled pack, and Fat Amy battles her affections for former Treblemaker nemesis Bumper (Adam DeVine, "Workaholics").Ĭomedy sequels typically serve as an invitation for disappointment. Leader Beca (Anna Kendrick) is secretly trying to split her time between both the Bellas and her new record company internship, becoming frustrated that the other ladies aren’t looking to their future as well. The Bellas’ problems aren’t limited to outsiders either. The reason? "They hate us … the whole world," laughingly warns a cappella’s most entertaining, least competent broadcasting duo (Banks and John Michael Higgins). However, that means overcoming the über-flashy and über-intimidating German squad, as well as overcoming America’s winless record at the competition. Turned into national news laughing stocks, berated with hate mail – including a letter from an outraged Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor – and suspended from performing or holding auditions, the Bellas’ only chance of reinstatement is winning Worlds. However, the group’s reign – and its continuing existence – risks coming to an end after boisterous Australian songbird Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) ends up a little too free in front of the leader of the free world, accidentally exposing herself to an archival footage President Obama in a mid-performance gaffe. Hmm …ĭirected by Gail Abernathy-McKadden-Feinberger herself Elizabeth Banks (who serves as a producer on both films), "Pitch Perfect 2" finds the first film’s musically gifted freshman misfits now seniors – or super super seniors in the case of Chloe (Brittany Snow) – on the three-time college a cappella champion Barden Bellas. Now, if only there was some way to connect this experience as some sort of metaphor to describe my feelings about 2012’s surprise a cappella comedy hit "Pitch Perfect" – perhaps as the opening to a review of its minorly flawed but still majorly funny sequel. But more often than not, those few off-key notes were happily washed out by the overall experience of enjoying fun and laughs with good, sharp-witted company and catchy, hopefully not sharp music. Sure, there were some flat notes – normally courtesy of yours truly – and flatter decisions (there was an attempt to do Taio Cruz’s "Dynamite" that was the whitest mess since an explosion at the glue factory). For the next three years, I spent a significant chunk of my free time with about 15 other people, making various tuneful "tums," "dms," "oohs" and "bops" that somehow melded together to create the Eurythmics’ "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" or some other pop song. During my freshman year of college, I managed to trick Marquette University’s coed a cappella group into thinking I was a competent singer.
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