- I did not expect to like this. My sister suggested it and I thought it was going to be in the vein of bad teen dance flicks, but with singing. I generally like teen dance flicks, but there’s usually very little about them that’s any good aside from the choreography. This? This I actually liked way beyond just the singing.
- If you like the concept of Glee but hate the execution, this movie is for you. I stopped watching Glee midway through the first season for a variety of reasons, amongst which was that I found Will Schuester to be too embarrassing to watch week in, week out. Last week I watched a couple more episodes on a plane just to see if it had improved any and, unfortunately, it was still all the things that I disliked about it. Alas! Up front, Pitch Perfect makes it known that it’s not going to deal with any Teachable Moments™ or after school special story lines, and that it’s going to take the piss out of as much of this stuff as possible. It’s not mean spirited, though; like Beca, you eventually drink the Kool-Aid and start to like it genuinely instead of ironically.
- I don’t remember the last time I saw a movie where the girl rather than the guy makes the Big Romantic And Mildly Apologetic Gesture™ at the end of the movie as she recognizes the error of her ways. Like, Jesse actually got all glassy-eyed during the Bellas’ rendition of “Don’t You Forget About Me.” It was kind of nice? Shut up.
- It probably says a lot about my expectations of movies based on everything else that’s out there, but I was genuinely surprised that Beca didn’t end up needing her rape whistle. I was convinced that the manager of the campus radio station was going to get fifty shades of inappropriate with her once he started listening to her mixes.
- I love that all glee clubs / barbershop quartets / a capella groups, etc. have to have pun-based names. And, somehow, they’re always fun.
- I was put off by the “demure, quiet Asian lady” stereotype Lilly started out with, but they turned that on its head when it turned out she was increasingly saying totally off-the-wall stuff that was well outside of that stereotype. Kimmmy Jin was Ye Olde Asian Student Stereotype but had a couple of zingers about white people that were funny.
- Enjoyed Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins as the competition commentators.
- I had more to say but WordPress timed out before I could save another copy of the draft, so… eff you, WordPress.
Categories: 3 Stars