Review of Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) by Reysonpoint — 06 Jun 2015

Pitch Perfect 2 is a great example of why comedy sequels don’t work. This film is a mess, with very few things that had me laughing or even to enjoy. I personally wanted to like the movie very much since the first one was so great and entertaining, but sadly there was nothing perfect about this film.

Lets talk about the movie itself; the Bellas are back and this time singing for the commander and chief. Everything goes wrong during their humiliating performance in front of the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Due to their humiliation the Bellas are taken out of the “Aca-Circuit”. Now, in order for the Bellas to regain their status they have to win the international competition that no American has ever won before.

One of the biggest problems I had was the absence of good comedy and story consistency. Anna Kendrick (Into The Woods, Up in the Air) was only seen a few times on screen. Whenever she was on screen she was working on her side internship as a secret. Another problem was the stupid humor between Kendrick and a female from a German singing team which seemed forced.

The film was trying extremely hard to be funny on many levels.

As for Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), she’s playing the same character as always, with some scenes that were worth laughing and others not so much. It’s obvious the studio loves her due to the amount of screen time she is given. Besides her, there were some new characters that were also introduced that were simply not needed, as they came out being annoying, unfunny, or extremely racist. The only new character that was good was an academy award nominee Hailee Steinfeld (Tru Grit). Steinfeld was the only newcomer that had some good moments involving some funny lines and a great voice.

Enough with the negatives, the film also had some good moments. The singing is the very reason why you come to these films. The Bellas had some very good musical numbers that left me wanting to get up and dance. Also, a great surprise was the cameo moments were Keegan-Michael Key (Key and Peele) were on screen. Key brought some funny scenes opposite to Anna Kendrick. Talking of cameos, rapper Snoop Dog brings the biggest laughs of the entire film with only one scene.

Pitch Perfect 2 is actress Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, The Lego Movie) directorial debut and sadly it was not a very good one. We all know that Banks is a great talent that shines in almost everything she’s in, but sadly here she falls short. I truly hope she can do better on any other future projects.

Overall the biggest issue with this film is the horrendous script filled with unfunny and thoughtless moments that left me feeling uncomfortable, yawning, and wanting the film to be over.