Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

Elizabeth Banks moves from her position in front of the camera in Pitch Perfect (2012) to an additional responsibility that she is not too unfamiliar with per se.  She gets behind the camera. Banks’ acting skills have been impressive albeit over the top (including Pitch Perfect) and her direction seems to be headed the same way.  There are high points (literally) in PP2 but overall lands up barely meeting expectations.

Pitch Perfect (2012)

I decided to watch Pitch Perfect only because the sequel releases tomorrow.  Surprisingly – pleasantly at that – I didn’t regret it.  I tread with caution but within a few minutes I was hooked.  It is probably the only movie to date (I haven’t seen the sequel yet) that is centered on the acapella scene in the United States – at least it is the only one that I have seen to date.

Bridesmaids

If you look at the nominations for best original screenplay in this year’s Academy awards you will find that Bridesmaids shares space with the likes of Margin Call, The Artist, Midnight in Paris and A Separation (foreign film). Makes me sit back and wonder why actually. I mean, it was a good fun storyline but had too much of crappy scenes and over the top segments for it to be called really up there. I thought the likes of Rango for e.g. was much better. What stuns me even more is that Bridesmaids has been included in the Best Screenplay for even the BAFTAs. Now I think I need a serious relook at my understanding of screenplay. It was just a simple straightforward regular semi slapstick comedy with some decent dialogues thrown in. I personally believed that it was nowhere close to being Oscar league.
Lets then go onto the performance of one Melissa McCarthy. This one for my money’s worth takes the cake yet again. She shares the space with stunning performances from Bérénice Bejo (Artist), Jessica Chastain & Octavia Spencer (Help) & Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs). Am I seriously missing a point here? So we are saying that the over the top slapstick antics of McCarthy are superior to the sincere solid performances from the likes of Chloë Grace Moretz (Hugo) or Shailene Woodley (The Descendants). Both performances far superseded McCarthy and were from less than 18 year olds – which cannot be the reason for the Oscars ignoring them. Need to get my fundas cleared.

Bridesmaids is definitely a very enjoyably flick. So don’t get me wrong on that count. Just that it is too tacky for Oscar nominations. There are truck loads of consistency errors. The performances are honestly quite average. There are moments in the movie which make you laugh out loud due to the simplicity of humour which is yet so well spoken that one cannot help but acknowledge the effort. However, several movies through the year have done a much better job than Bridesmaids and it is disappointing to not see their names on the list.

Director Paul Fieg hasn’t directed too many features other than the reasonably well known Unaccompanied Minors. He hasn’t exceeded himself or raised the bar significantly. If anyone stood out for my money’s worth they were Kristen Wiig in the lead role and Rose Byrne who for my money’s worth was much better than McCarthy. One need not have looked too far to find a performance that was better. Nevertheless, worth a DVD Rental. Enjoyable definitely. 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4215119129/

A Few Best Men

So the fact is that I was supposed to watch the Charlize Theron RomCom titled “Young Adult” and realized that mistakes in online schedules are not characteristic of India at all. For 2 days in a row, I experienced a gaffe in show timings at the local theatre in Adelaide called Wallis Cinemas @ Mitcham Mall. Firstly, The Iron Lady was called out as the 1205 show and turned out to be the 1235 show – lucky I say. But not so lucky when The Young Adult was called out as the 1830 show and turned out to be the 1710 show. So now what? I wasn’t going to go back without watching a movie. So I picked up the 1910 show of A Few Best Men which not only resulted in 90 minutes of acute pain but also in missing the first minute or 2 of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I am not sure what pissed me off more – watching the movie or missing the first couple of minutes of the next one. I guess it was both!!!!


AFBM turned out to be an excruciatingly painful example of British Slapstick – yes there is a genre of comedy called British slapstick because I just experienced it and it sucks!!!! While I didn’t expect a stunning example of classic comedy – the posters were quite obvious about it – I didn’t expect the latest form of British torture. Indeed MI5 would be seriously considering putting those serious terrorists who refuse to break, through the likes of AFBM. Spill out the secrets that you have hidden from us or else we will force you to watch AFBM.

From the first frame it becomes quite obvious that you are in for a tough time. Mia Ramme (Laura Brent) meets David Locking (Xavier Samuel) during a random vacation in Tuvalu (a Polynesian island for those who are unaware) and they fall in love over 10 days and decide to get married. Now Mia is Aussie. And David is well …. British. So it comes as no surprise when David’s mates back home turn out to be a bunch of idiots – Tom (Kris Marshall), Graham (Kevin Bishop) and Luke (Tim Draxl). By this time you are quite certain that u r in for a more than tough time!!!!

The pain gets excruciating when the actual facts start falling out of the cupboard. Mia is a Senator in waiting. Her dad is the current Senator and is rich like nearly nothing else. David is a nitwit. His friends get pally with a dope runner as soon as they get to Oz. They are even bigger nitwits. Mia’s sister is twice her size and pretending to be a lesbian. Her mother is a frustrated wife of a senator. 4 snorts of lethal cocaine doesn’t kill someone it just makes them extremely happy and go blabbering all over the place. The list is endless.

To cut a long story short, Stephan Elliott (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) cannot direct to save his life. The cast cannot act to save theirs. The dialogues suck. The comedy is non existant unless u are a sucker for slapstick (not to mention severe pain). And even if this is playing on an in-flight, which it will starting a month or two, you should avoid it like the plague I say. 3 on 10 for some decent moments that enable you to survive this crap.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf4aaxIH-nQ