Pitch Perfect 2: Review

02 June 2015 Last Updated on 02 June 2015 Written by David Cantu 1 Comment

After a humiliating command performance at Lincoln Center, the Barden Bellas enter an international competition that no American group has ever won in order to regain their status and right to perform.

With sequels there tends to be a lot of pressure for it to exceed the original or at least live up to it and I personally was really looking forward to this one in particular. It’s unfortunate that it isn’t as strong as it’s predecessor. From the opening gag, which I thought was funny but not as shocking as the original vomit gag, it just kind of straddles this line of jokes that hit and miss most of which were rehashed from the first film. I found myself sitting there without laughing for a good amount of the film and it was really disappointing. You can tell jokes were being told but there was something about the comedic timing of them that was just off. The other thing that felt “off” was SOME of the song choices in the film. There were some that were really good and had me bobbing my head and others that didn’t seem to really fit. The movie wasn’t all bad though. I would say the second half of the film picked up a lot more and had more laughs. The biggest laughs in my opinion came from the acapella announcers played by John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks. Their comments are so inappropriate that you can’t help but laugh at the absurdities of it all. Then of course there was the German rivals Das Sound Machine that completely KILLED it. I was a bit weary at first that they would be 2nd rate Treblemakers but they were great. I still missed the TMs (They just pushed them aside) but DSM had this quality that felt unexpected like the first film was. So the film was pretty much a 50/50 for me but it was entertaining. I just had high hopes that it would’ve topped the previous one. If you loved the first film then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one because it follows a very similar formula but don’t expect it to be as perfect (no pun intended….ok, maybe a little pun intended) as the original. 6/10