Pitch Perfect

UK Release: 21st December 2012

Watched on DVD: Wednesday 22nd May 2013

Rating: 12A

Genre: Comedy, Music, Romance

Runtime: 1hr 52mins

IMDb Plot Synopsis: Beca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.

My Review: Pitch Perfect featured in my Films To Watch feature at the end of last year and I’ve heard a lot of good things about it since it came out, so was excited to finally get my hands on the DVD! I have to say it was mostly Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson who drew me to the film the most as Wilson was absolutely hilarious in Bridesmaids, and she gets a much bigger role in which to shine here, and Kendrick is one of those brilliantly natural dramatic and comedic actors. 

The whole ensemble was very strong and it was full of laughs from the very first scene. It had that great ‘glee’ spirit to it in that the morals are that singing together as a group, mixing it up and not playing safe ultimately pays off. It was predictable but somehow thankfully managed to stay clear from being too cheesy. 

The only downside was the lack of realism in the ‘love story’ between Kendrick’s character and Jesse, played by Skylar Astin. I was expecting something much more tangible and it felt like it was thrown it at the last minute so that it wasn’t all about the singing and dancing. The came together in a reasonably believable way but after breaking up badly it seemed she only needed to sing ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’ from The Breakfast Club and he couldn’t wait to have her back. I get it, even I would forget about any disagreements and fall into the arms of anyone who sang Simple Minds’ classic to me, but that’s not the point. It was a major cliche and brought me out of the ‘moment’ and made me rather irritated. But I suppose I can’t have it all. Overall it was a hilarious, heartfelt and entertaining movie but I think without Rebel Wilson and Kendrick it wouldn’t have done nearly as well as it did. And a cheesy 80’s song and fantastic musical mash-ups gets me every-time...

Score: 9/10