With the exception of the subplot that finds Beca's boss played by that reliable scene-swiper Keegan-Michael Key - who comes closer than anyone here to resembling an actual human - there's just too little that's new under this particular sun. Fat Amy is still Fat Amy, if a little more so - and sadly, more screen time for the ever-wonderful Wilson doesn't necessarily lead to more hilarity, even if she is granted one memorable bit aboard a canoe. The Bellas of color (Ester Dean, Chrissie Fit, and Hana Mae Lee) are still treated, principally by the script, as one-note jokes. with Fat Amy and Bumper (Adam DeVine) getting one that's a little more " Ew-w-w-w!" Anna Camp's Aubrey, despite having graduated, is still barking orders. Instead of Beca and Jesse, it's new sorority sister Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) and lovable loser Benji (Ben Platt) who get the "Aw-w-w-w!" romance. Instead of a collegiate bash, it's a private party hosted by a pajamas-clad eccentric (a mildly amusing David Cross) at which rival ensembles compete in a riff-off contest. Instead of the Treblemakers serving as the Barden Bellas' adversaries, it's the German vocal group Das Sound Machine, with the withering sarcasm of its leaders (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen and Flula Borg) good for some chuckles. (The closest thing to a shock in Pitch Perfect 2 is how infrequently and badly used Skylar Astin is as Beca's beau Jesse, considering that this madly talented, sweetly unthreatening heartthrob all but stole the first film away from Kendrick, Banks/Higgins, and Rebel Wilson's Fat Amy.)īasically, this follow-up just takes the original and rejiggers its elements ever so slightly. But the cinematic pleasures of the expected are far less pleasurable when absolutely everything about a movie is expected, and with its sequel following the Pitch Perfect recipe to the specific ingredient, there's nothing here, aside from two well-timed bits of bear-trap slapstick, to elicit even a ripple of surprise. Predictability isn't necessarily a detriment, and can even be a happy perk, in movies of this type. (To be fair, the movie was adapted from Mickey Rapkin's nonfiction book - a book, it should be noted, that does not have a sequel.) So it seems almost willfully lazy for this new film to be built around the question of "Will our gals win the world championship?", particularly when the idea of their doing so is laughed at - for a full 30 seconds - by Banks' and Higgins' characters, whose comical dunderheads can't possibly be proven right. Spiky and charming and winning though Pitch Perfect was, it's not as though its "Will our gals win the national championship?" narrative was anything to write home about. (A teen sitting near me even shouted, " Yes!") With its unanticipated popularity netting The Little A Cappella Comedy That Could a sequel, why should Banks and Cannon have messed with what so clearly worked the first time around? After earning a solid, unspectacular $65-million domestic, Moore's film went on to become a massive home-video smash and something of a cultural touchstone - so much of one that when I first saw the preview for Pitch Perfect 2 this past winter, all it took, in the trailer's first seconds, was the opening refrain of Anna Kendrick's breakout hit "Cups" for a large segment of the audience to gasp and giggle. I suppose Banks and screenwriter Kay Cannon (who also wrote the first Pitch Perfect, along with a bunch of 30 Rock's best episodes) can be forgiven for hewing so closely to formula, especially considering how out-of-left-field the original's success was. Because although it starts promisingly, as the saying goes, it's all downhill from there. And while it's true that this musical-comedy follow-up, like director Jason Moore's 2012 predecessor, is set in the world of collegiate a cappella groups - and specifically the world of Anna Kendrick's fledgling mash-up artist Beca - it's more accurately set atop a steep precipice. Pitch Perfect 2 opens strongly, with the peerlessly funny Elizabeth Banks (who also directed the film) and John Michael Higgins performing an a cappella rendition of the Universal Pictures theme song and launching into the hilariously bitchy byplay that made their vocal-contest judges among Pitch Perfect's many highlights.
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