May 23rd, 2015 – Pitch Perfect 2

Location: Scotiabank Theatre St. John’s

Seen with: My wife Sara

I remember seeing the original movie in theatres, though I’m not sure exactly who I saw it with; I want to say Sara and my sister, Jen? This is one of the main reasons why I started this blog. But yes, I remember seeing Pitch Perfect and being very happy with it. I’d be straight up lying if I said the shower scene didn’t have anything to do with that (aka the scene that launched a thousand fics) however the movie as a whole was great. It was fresh, funny, and original, not to mention it featured a predominantly female cast which is refreshing and rare in and of itself.

So when I heard there was going to be a sequel I was pretty excited. There were so many great characters in the first film, and so much potential to see where they went and what became of them. I’d heard Brittany Snow was returning, which was awesome news as she was a senior in the first movie, and in fact just about everyone was reprising their roles. It seemed like everything was lining up for a decent sequel to a sleeper hit movie for a change.

Well, not quite.

It wasn’t horrible, per se, but it was far from what I was expecting. It’s set three years after the last movie, which had me scratching my head at Brittany Snow’s characters still being in the Bellas for starters. There was a throw away reference to her having failed a course three times now to stay there, but really? I know there’s a suspension of disbelief required here, as with most movies, and this isn’t meant to be a historically accurate period piece or a documentary or whatever, but come on.

It also didn’t help that my head!canon featured different futures for the characters; Aubrey, for instance, ends up in a much different place than I’d ever imagined, while other characters showed little to no growth or change at all. Benji is still Benji, and Jesse might as well not have been in the movie at all for what little good or use they made of him.

The plot wasn’t up to snuff either, and again, I know, we’re not talking Oscar calibre expectations here but still. The opening premise was a performance incident threatened the future of the Bellas, then quickly shifts focus from their collegiate careers to an international competition. So they’re banned from competing and representing their university on a collegiate level but are more than welcome to do so on a global stage. There’s a convenient loophole that allows this but really, it didn’t really seem necessary.

Then there’s the additional characters, one of whom is a legacy and joins even though they’re forbidden to allow new members (which conflicts with the aforementioned unnecessary ban), and one who has joined at some point since the first movie. That character, Flo, hails from South America and makes several third world country jokes that for me fell very flat and came across as just filler. In fact a lot of the early interactions between the Bellas felt forced and a little stilted, especially one scene in particular outside the Dean’s office when they’ve just been told about the ban.

There’s also a lot of heavy-handed exposition, especially with respect to Beca’s attempts to succeed in the music industry with more than mash-ups and the new girl’s original compositions, which is repeatedly telegraphed throughout the film.

All that being said, the music was very good, which was to be expected, and it was really nice to revisit the same characters. Their interactions do get better as the movie goes on, and of course they put on a fantastic show at the end of the movie. The last performance had me asking a few questions as well, but for fear of spoilers I won’t get into that here, and it was still entertaining.

Highs: Fantastic music; great to see the Bellas again; Das Sound Machine stole the show.

Lows: Unoriginal plot; new one-dimensional characters; heavy-handed exposition at times.

Overall: Despite its flaws this was still an ok movie, especially if you really liked the first one. While it doesn’t escape the typical sequel-itis symptom of not being as good as the sequel, it’s worth a watch. You definitely don’t need the big screen experience with this one, but if you’re stuck for something simple yet entertaining to watch (or looking for a date movie) then this will do.

May 7th, 2015 – Get Hard

Location: Scotiabank Theatre St. John’s

Seen with: My cousin Terry

In what some might say is an odd choice for an inaugural entry for such a blog, in my defence I say: I had no idea I wanted to start something like this at that time. Also, I wanted to see the new Avengers movie but was told that I couldn’t without my wife (three guesses who told me that). With nothing else remotely interesting to my cousin and I, Get Hard it was.

Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. Whether that mindset lowered my expectations to the point that it didn’t take much to please me or it was actually good is a completely valid question, but at the end of the day I didn’t feel like I’d wasted my money or my time.

In the interests of full disclosure, I am a Will Ferrell fan, which helped immensely. I’m curious to see if there will be any Apatow-esque line-o-ramas on the DVD/Blu-Ray release because there were tons of scenes where I’m sure they just let the actors improv away and kept what worked. One scene in particular – featuring Will Ferrell’s character testing out his attempt at tough prison talk for Kevin Hart’s character – had me rolling in the aisle. That type of humour isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, I know, but there was a lot more of that than I’d anticipated, leaving me pleasantly surprised.

Kevin Hart did a great job as well. I can’t say I know all that much about him but there was definitely some comedic chemistry between him and Ferrell, enough to keep the movie from feeling completely forced and scripted at least. He played a nice foil to Ferrell’s clueless white collar role, and was funny enough in his own right.

While no one could ever mistake this for an Oscar contender, or even a top comedy, I walked away entertained and glad that I saw it. It was definitely a good movie to see with people who have a similar sense of humour – there were numerous titular puns, to the point where they stopped being funny and then were funny again in my humble opinion, for instance – and not really a date movie, but my cousin and I enjoyed it.

Lastly, one thing I’d feared going in was that there’d be a ton of rape “jokes,” but thankfully there were none. Well, actually, the word was used once I believe but I’d been scared it’d be nothing but those, and was happily proven wrong.

Highs: Funnier than it seems; good chemistry between Hart and Ferrell, Alison Brie and Craig T. Nelson cameos.

Lows: Not the most original by far; not good if you don’t like crude humour.

Overall: Not that bad of a movie. It is what it claims to be, a decent comedy, though you can certainly pass on seeing it on the big screen and still get just as much enjoyment seeing it at home.