Pitch Perfect (2012)

Anna Kendrick plays Beca a moody, stroppy and reluctant freshman at Barden University who wishes she was working as a DJ.

The Barden Bellas are a female a-cappella group whose authoritarian lead singer (Aubrey) throws up when nervous and in the new academic year are struggling to find new female recruits. Beca decides to join the group but is in conflict with the Aubrey who seems to think despite evidence to the contrary that selecting safe songs from the last century will beat her all male rivals from the same college, the Treblemakers.

The film has a feel good feeling with plenty of songs new and old sang in pitch perfect a-cappella, great if you are a fan of the TV series Glee.

The film is however pitch perfectly predictable, schmaltzy and with all the stereotypes under the sun with some racist undertones (what a surprise it is a Universal picture, the company well known for killing off the black guy in the first ten minutes!)

People from Far Eastern heritage have a hard time getting decent representation in films but here they make one Asian person out to be a weirdo and another to be socially intolerant and racist against whites. The black lady is a butch lesbian and the guy who gets his group disqualified because he was not a student is black as well. For some reason because the the filmmakers want you to think they are equal opportunity racists they also picked on deaf Jews in order to make a DJ joke.

Anna Kendrick's character is dislikeable and her love story subplot was poor. Aubrey is so bossy you wonder why she is not on stage as a soloist as no one else would ever sing with her because of her attitude.

Aubrey never realises that getting nearly beaten by a glove puppet singing group might be more to do with her failings.

On the positive side the songs keep things bubbling along, it presumably would make for a good date film even though there is some gross out humour here and there. Rebel Wilson keeps things fun playing the bubbly fat stereotype.