This is the #1 box office film … with good reason!
Pitch Perfect 2 (Anna Kendrick, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson, Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins) – Elizabeth Banks and her husband, Max Handelman, have an unlikely franchise on their hands. The unexpected success ($65 million gross on a $17 million budget) of the admittedly nerdy Pitch Perfect made possible the incredible opening week success of Pitch Perfect 2, an even better film directed (this time) by Banks. Perfect 2 opened at $70 million and looks to be headed way over $100 million. On a budget of $30 million, this is a going to be a monster.
The film is pitch perfect, too. Not only is this Glee on steroids, it is fun and clean and made for audiences of all ages. Three-time national champions, the Bellas of Barden University experience a mishap of epic proportions, which gets them kicked out of the A Capella Association and threatens their existence. It’s graduation time, and this is the Bellas’ last hurrah. The girls have to face the fact that, not only are they facing separation, but also now they may not even be able to sing and compete.
Their only chance is to win the World A Cappella Championships, something no American team has done because “the world hates us,” according to our ever-present TV commentators (played by the nothing-short-of-hilarious duo of John Michael Higgins and Banks). That their win is a foregone conclusion doesn’t hinder the film at all; in fact, that is anti-climatic. How they get there is the essence of Pitch Perfect 2.
There is a lot going on in the film. Beca (who doesn’t love Anna Kendrick?) gets an internship with a record company that boasts clients like Snoop Dogg (there is a great cameo of him singing a Christmas carol) so she can’t give the Bellas her full attention. Love springs less than eternal between Fat Amy (the either hilarious or obnoxious Rebel Wilson) and Bumper (comedian Adam DeVine). The new girl, Emily (played by Hailee Steinfeld), joins the Bellas even though the group has been banned from adding new members. She has a budding romance starting with ultra-nerdy Benji (Ben Platt). The German a cappella team that replaces the Bellas on tour after the group gets banned is both their major competition but also is ruthlessly talented; they are practically the singing Hitler Youth.
Anna Kendrick is an incredibly likeable, relaxed, talented actress who clearly doesn’t need to hog the screen. She allows herself to be sublimated even though she reigns when she is on screen. In this way, she is very different than Lea Michele from Glee, who seems never to allow herself to be upstaged. Kendrick burst on the scene in Up In The Air and showed her acting and singing chops in Into The Woods. It is hard to believe that she is almost 30.
The dialogue in PP2 (I couldn’t resist) is snappy and hilarious. The banter between Banks and Higgins is laugh-out-loud funny. It takes a lot to get me to laugh so hard that I almost faint, but I did so at least five times in this film, four of which were in the one-liners these two deliver pitch perfectly. They had me before the Universal Films globe logo was even off the screen.
If you are going to see one movie in the next month, please make it Pitch Perfect 2. I promise you will walk out with a smile on your face.