A truly excellent performance by Rebel Wilson

Rating: 8/10 (9 November 2012)

*The Quickie* 8/10 – Definitely a must watch. Catch it this weekend people!
*Pros* Great performances Excellent performance by Rebel Wilson
*Cons* Average story Bland characters
*Pitch Perfect* The trailer for this movie, while interesting at first, got me really jaded recently because it kept being played everywhere. Also, while the jokes in the trailer were funny, there wasn't really much to it. Pitch Perfect looked like your typical dance movie, except with A Cappella singing.
I am very happy to say that Pitch Perfect is a fantastic movie and I had an incredibly enjoyable time watching it.
*Synopsis* Beca (ANNA KENDRICK) is a freshman in college and is one of the new recruits of the A Cappella group known as the Barden Bellas. The Bellas are led by senior Aubrey (ANNA CAMP) who is looking to prove herself after choking during the previous year's competition finals thereby costing the Bellas the competition.
However, Beca soon realises that Aubrey's insistence on sticking to old and tired routines is proving detrimental to the group. With their rival group, The Treblemakers, being as good as they are, the Bellas have to come together to come up with a new routine that is good enough to win them the national A Cappella championships.
*Review* To be honest, I really wanted to hate this movie. I've never been a huge fan of dance movies and this
In all fairness, the story isn't anything original. It's the same cookie-cutter story about how a newcomer to an underdog team inspires the team to come together and they eventually go on to beat the odds and win the championship (and no, I'm not spoiling anything). It's not a literary masterpiece but it works and is actually really competently written.
The actual singing and performances I thought were really good. Sure, there were some songs that were just alright but for the most part, the scenes with the characters singing A Cappella were goosebump-inducingly enjoyable and I loved every second of it. There is some dance choreography in here as well but it isn't all that great and takes a backseat to the singing.
I think special mention has to be given to the character of Fat Amy (REBEL Wilson). This one character was what made this movie as good as it is. A lot of the jokes in this movie were written around this character and the jokes themselves are hilariously crafted. Rebel Wilson absolutely killed this performance. Her deadpan delivery of already well-written jokes was such a delight to watch. It's been a really long time since a movie made me laugh that hard.
However, I have to say that the other characters weren't all that interesting. The main protagonist, Beca, is likable enough but there isn't anything very interesting about her character to make her stand out from any other protagonist in this type of movies. The same can be said for her love interest, Jess (SKYLAR ASTIN).
In addition, while a lot of time is spent on Beca and Jesse, and to some extent Aubrey, the other characters have almost no character development. You never get any idea who these people really are other than what archetype they're supposed to be. For example, you get the girl who is extremely promiscuous, a very masculine lesbian, a soft- spoken Asian, etc. I guess it's good that they're different enough from each other so I could at least tell them apart that way. Other than that, nothing else is made known about these characters.
*Rating* I really enjoyed this movie and thoroughly enjoyed sitting through this. The performances were entertaining and the jokes were awesome. While there are certain flaws to this movie, that doesn't detract from the fact that this is a fantastic movie and deserves to be watched.
I rate this movie a high 8 out of 10.