DIRECTOR: Elizabeth Banks LEAD CAST: Anna
Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Britanny Snow, Skylar Astin, Elizabeth Banks SCREENWRITER: Kay Cannon PRODUCER: Elizabeth Banks and Paul Brooks EDITOR: Craig Alpert MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Mark Mothersbaugh GENRE:
Comedy/Musical CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jim Denault DISTRIBUTOR: Universal
Studios LOCATION: USA
RUNNING TIME: 1:15 mins.
Technical assessment: 3
Moral assessment: 3
CINEMA rating: PG 13
After being humiliated by a wardrobe
malfunction at the Lincoln Center—with the President of the United States of
America and his wife in the audience—the collegiate singing group, the Barden
Bellas, are taken out of the A Capella circuit for being an embarrassment to
the Barden University. But they are not prohibited from joining the World A
Capella Competition to be held in Copenhagen, although they are discouraged
from joining because, as the Barden authorities themselves claim, “no American
team has ever won that competition.”
The undefeated champion at present is the formidable Das Sound Machine
from Germany. The Barden Bellas
have to try twice as hard to beat them.
The university feel of Pitch
Perfect 2 lends the movie a touch of realism, with characters one might
encounter in such a setting. The
simple story is enlivened by the musical score while the acting delivers the
requirements of characterization in that genre. From the time someone’s pants is ripped open to the moment
the winner is announced there is no let up, not a second a viewer might be
tempted to nap, although the movie resorts to the occasional crude language,
obscene gestures, and adult themes and innuendo to keep the viewer awake.
College-age young adults as well as
their elders have much to discuss in Pitch
Perfect 2, such as the primacy of teamwork, the power of sisterhood,
tradition as a positive force in supporting one another for a cause bigger than
oneself, etc. The surprise ending
is a heart-lifter, coming so unexpectedly at a moment a boost is most needed.
