Review of Pitch Perfect (2012) by Brett H — 17 May 2015

Pitch Perfect is a bubblegum rehash of Bring It On that swaps cheerleading for a cappella to capitalize on Glee's success, and while it's certainly well-made and has a great cast, the film is too ridiculous for it's own good.

The biggest problem for me is the lunacy that a cappella singing is THIS BIG to the point of selling out venues and apparently enabling you to sing back-up vocals for artists like John Mayer and friggin, Prince! Cheerleading is an actual sport and requires physique and months of training, a cappella exercises your vocal chords and you need to keep in time; hence I never bought most of the "stakes".

Then there's the omniscient commentators played hilariously by John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks but I couldn't help but feel their characters only served their bit as no matter how filthy their commentary got, no one reacted to what they were saying.

Now, this movie is entertaining and features some great musical performances with catchy songs, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Anna Kendrick can make pretty well anything watchable (excluding Twilight) but the girl-power lameness that infected this movie just didn't hold any water with me and I didn't laugh nearly as much as I had expected to (Rebel Wilson was a drag).

Best scene was the riff-off competition, that was great!