User Reviews

I knew this film was about singing, and I knew a couple of the female stars in it, as for everything else, I was looking forward to seeing this sleeper hit for myself. Basically, at the annual International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCAC), at Lincoln Center in New York City, the Bellas, from Barden University, are the first all-female group to make it to the finals. But they cannot compete against the all-male Treblemakers, as they perform uninspired arrangements, outdated girl songs, and they are humiliated by Aubrey Posen (Anna Camp) vomiting during her solo. Four months later, freshman Beca Mitchell (Anna Kendrick) is a new arrival at Barden. She has no desire to attend college, but her professor father (John Benjamin Hickey) has forced her, she wants to pursue a career as a DJ and music producer in Los Angeles. Beca spends her time making mash-ups and takes up an internship at the school radio station, where she gets to know fellow freshman Jesse Swanson (Skylar Astin). Beca's father finds out she has not been attending classes, so he makes a deal with her, if she joins a club and still wants to leave college after a year, he allow her to do so, and will pay her way to Los Angeles to pursue her career. Beca is persuaded by Chloe Beale (Brittany Snow) to join to Barden Bellas, Aubrey initially disapproves, but she sees Beca has talent. Soon other members join, that do not fit the group's typical mould, including Cynthia-Rose (Ester Dean), Stacie Conrad (Alexis Knapp), Lilly Onakuramara (Hana Mae Lee) and Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson). Their rehearsals are shaky, but they slowly find harmonies and roles. The new Bellas lineup perform at the southeastern regional competition at Carolina University, but at Aubrey's insistence they perform the same medley they did at the finals the previous year. But the last of their three songs is a hit, and they get second place and progress to the semi-finals. But disaster strikes when the Treblemakers cause an uproar with the Bellas after the competition. Beca accidentally smashes a window with the trophy, she is arrested by the police. Jesse, who joined the Treblemakers, bails Beca out, but it gets worse when her father gets involved and tells her he will no longer pay for her to go to Los Angeles. Beca is infuriated and her friendship with Jesse is soured, and Aubrey will not listen to her suggestion for the Bellas to be more daring songs. At the semi-finals, during the Bellas' "traditional" performance, Beca provides an impromptu back-up of one of her favourite songs, the audience enjoy the remix, but the Bellas come third, behind the Footnotes and the Treblemakers. Aubrey is furious with Beca, who in turn quits. But things improve when the Footnotes are later disqualified from the national competition, because the lead singer was actually still in high school, meaning the Bellas can take part instead. The Bellas reform after spring break, without Beca, Chloe stands up to Aubrey for her stubbornness, and the group fall apart. Beca meanwhile is declined an apology from Jesse, so she returns to the Bellas, apologising for her actions at the semi-finals, and Aubrey eventually allows her a second chance. Having had a heart-to-heart conversation, the Bellas decide to adopt Beca's more modern and original music style. Meanwhile, Treblemakers group leader Bumper Allen (Adam Devine) leaves after being offered a job to be backup singer for John Mayer. Jesse convinces them to let his previously rejected roommate Benji Applebaum (Ben Platt) join the group. At the a cappella national competition, the Bellas, with Beca's arrangement, sing a modern song, plus a performance of "Don't You (Forget About Me)", featured in The Breakfast Club, one of Jesse's favourite movies, this acts as a more effective apology from Beca. Following the performance, Beca and Jesse kiss, the Bellas win the competition, and six months later, they audition for new members. Also starring Elizabeth Banks (also producing) as Gail Abernathy-McKadden, John Michael Higgins as John Smith, Alexis Knapp as Stacie Conrad, Ester Dean as Cynthia Rose, Hana Mae Lee as Lilly Onakuramara, Kelley Alice Jakle as Jessica and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Tommy. Kendrick is likeable as the determined would-be DJ and new talent to the gang, Camp is convincingly annoying as the uptight soloist, and Wilson with her Australian accent and big screen presence gets many of the laughs being the loud eccentric one. It is a simple story, an a cappella girl group struggling get a new talent and improve dramatically, there are clichés and stereotypical characters, but the script is smart, the energy is razor-sharp, and the singing talent and soundtrack in splendid, it is a most enjoyable musical comedy. Good!

I watched Red Sparrow in theaters earlier in the same day and when it was a disappointment, I had to watch another movie, when I was back home. Pitch Perfect was on TV and I have thought about watching this.

I think the movie was okay. It's not a Chicago, but it was sort of entertaining as long as it lasted. Of course in these kind of movies you always know, how the plot goes, but this time it didn't bother me that much. Maybe after Red Sparrow I was up for anything else. I just wanted something entertaining and light. The acting was pretty bad at some points, but I wonder, if they wanted it to be that corny on purpose.

I do like musicals and I thought the music was well done, and the harmonies were on point. And when they were on stage, I really enjoyed those parts.

The throwing up -joke was stupid and they should've not put that kind of joke here. It was joke that you see on those stupid parody movies like Scary movie and American Pies, but not in a musical. It was like a six-year-old had said what would be a funny joke.

I actually really wanted this to be a good musical, but it wasn't original enough. Why do the high school and college movies always have so stereotypical characters? Always the bitches, nerds, etc... Maybe someday someone will actually come up with something original.

Summary: it was okay and entertaining, but very predictable and lacked in originality what comes to teen movies and teen musicals.

Most of the people I saw Pitch Perfect with truly enjoyed it. They laughed and clapped and booed at me when I expressed my disgust. For many, this movie will definitely be enjoyable. Make no mistake, that does not make it any less of an awful movie.

Several factors contribute to my low opinion of Pitch Perfect. The largest of these concerns is the cast of characters. While there are few complaints in the acting department, the characters themselves are among the worst set of "people" committed to screen in recent memory.

"Beca" (is that spelling supposed to be hip or something?) is an arrogant, brooding, selfish brat who spends most of her time sulking on her computer and complaining about being forced to go to COLLEGE and be with PEOPLE (blegh, right?!). This is a perfect setup for character development, right? Wrong. After a half-hearted apology for being a terrible human being before the climax, Beca morphs not into an upstanding social and moral butterfly, but a smug leader of the troop she so recently was kicked off of, and this is the image the audience is left with.

"Jesse" is the most cliché love interest one can imagine. Seriously, girls, if you ever meet a guy this perfect and blameless, marry him. Jesse prances throughout the movie being sweet to everybody, from his unrealistically nerdy roommate to the jerks he sings with. He pursues Beca valiantly for no particular reason and provides the cliché moral criticism Beca so desperately needs late in the movie (but of course he takes her back). While girls might be enthralled by this sentiment, no true development can occur through a character who is so blatantly one-dimensional.

Worst of all are the two commentators for the sing-offs, Gail and John. These two buffoons spew dialogue that is not only shockingly inappropriate for television/radio, they simply aren't funny. While clearly trying to channel Fred Willard's comedic performance from Best in Show, the pair instead come across as amusing as your drunk middle-aged parents at a frat party.

Other character "highlights" include the mind-bogglingly narrow-minded and stubborn team leader, Aubrey. Stacie provides the necessary college-aged sex-addicted tramp character (a character so over-the-top, you're guaranteed to squirm). Bumper (the captain of the boy's singing team) is a character so insanely arrogant and rude that he is not only hard to enjoy watching, he makes you want to kill every jock on the planet. Slowly.

The movie's second fatal flaw is its achingly stupid sense of humor. Yes, boys and girls, Fat Amy is funny. She has several good one liners and lends the movie its only spark of humor-related vitality. However, all else falls flat. The most achingly obvious example is the vomit-laden climax. Seriously, was that girl doing vomit-angels supposed to funny? I guess I just don't get it.

Also, for a PG-13 flick aimed at mostly female tweens, Pitch Perfect is surprisingly offensive. The movie takes heavy jabs at nerds, Asian people, Jewish people, redheads, and probably more that I fail to recall at the moment (not to mention several distasteful jokes like the one about eating another baby in the womb). Seriously, filmmakers, you aren't Sacha Baron Cohen, and you don't have the same audience.

Finally, the movie follows the most cliché (I like this word, don't I?) storyline imaginable. Girl has trouble in college. Girl meets boy who befriends her. Girl joins team of has-beens. Girl pushes away boy away because of her past and her daddy issues. Girl forced off team. Girl "learns lesson" and wins boy back and helps team of has-beens win championship. Yay, ingenuity!

Ultimately, the comedic sparks from the humorous character Fat Amy can not save Pitch Perfect. I'll be honest, this movie completely lost at the vomit scene(even Miss March was more tasteful than that!) I was quite aca-thankful when the movie came to its (very abrupt) ending.