Hello
everyone in Internet Land, I’m the girl who throws popcorn at people on their
phones during a movie, better known as TheCinemaChick! I’ve been so irritated by theater goers
lately. I saw Mad Max and one person
kept taking out their phone to text someone.
News flash for you buddy, I can see you every time you do it! It’s a massive distraction and why aren’t you
watching the freaking movie? You paid
good money to see it in 3D, why waste it?
Seriously, pocket the phone and watch!
I should not have to be the one who must start throwing popcorn at you
to make a point! You’re older than
me! Have you never been to a movie
before?
I know
I’m ranting but how many times have I had to talk about this? Even children (for the most part) know
better!
What
have I been up to the past month, you probably aren’t wondering? Well, I’m glad I brought it up. I have been doing some teaching but the
school year is now over, so I won’t be doing that again until August. Then, on top of that, I had several American
Heritage Girl events to attend and help with.
For those of you who don’t know what AHG is, it’s like Girl Scouts but
it’s centered on the church. The easy
way to put it is that it’s basically Christian Girl Scouts. I don’t remember if I’ve brought that up
before or not, but now you know. I just
finished up a week of vacation Bible school, which I have done for I think five
years now. I started off with the two
year olds, then went up to do arts and crafts and never looked back.
However…small
children and crafts are a tricky thing.
They get bored easily and it’s almost impossible to keep their attention
for the forty five minutes we have them.
We also have multiple rotations so we have may have a minute or two to
clean up from one class and set up for the next. Fortunately, the other ladies I work with and
I have a system. We got this down.
But I’m
not here to talk about things that aren’t cinema related…even though I just
did…Well, I’m here to talk about the movies I’ve seen recently. I’ve only got three so far, but I’ve been
busy and money’s a bit tight right now, so I have to scale back for a
while. Trust me, there are a dozen films
I’d go see right now if I could, I just can’t.
Then
there’s the movies I saw and wished I hadn’t spent money on. Like Pitch Perfect 2. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the first
one. I still watch it from time to
time. Anna Kendrick cracks me up, Rebel
Wilson is a great comedic actress and the musical numbers are amazing. It made me want to be a part of an a Capella
singing group. I admit, my choir days
are over, but this made me want to start over and do more things with it. The group’s chemistry was really good. I wish the second one had been half as good.
I
admit, the sequel does have some high points but for the most part, I just
couldn’t enjoy it. Many of the jokes are
offensive. There is a new girl named
Florencia who I believe is supposed to be from Guatemala. Instead of making her a positive character,
they made her into a walking stereotype.
All of the jokes about her were racist.
She talks about being traded for chickens or how she’ll be deported
after college and die trying to sneak back in to America. SERIOUSLY.
As a woman who is Hispanic, I am incredibly offended by this. I don’t appreciate jokes like that and I
think they crossed a line with this one.
Why did you think it was a good idea to include multiple jokes about
this? It’s not funny, it’s just
disgusting.
And, if
you’ve seen the previews, you know what happens to the Bellas. They perform for the president and Fat Amy’s
costume tears, revealing that she does not have underwear on. Here’s the second thing I had a major issue
with. Why did it have to be the plus
size girl? I know a lot of people think
it’s funny to make fun of the fat girls, but we don’t like it. Not to mention, if there is a plus size woman
in a movie, she’s either comedic relief or the ugly friend. She doesn’t get the good roles or the
handsome lead actor. Larger women are
reduced so that the skinny woman can take center stage. Fat Amy is another stereotype that I can’t
stand. She has a few lines that I liked
but for the most part, I hated her role this time. I mean, they couldn’t even give her clothes
that fit properly! Why does every outfit
she wear have to be so tight and short?
The other girls get clothes that fit great, but not her. It’s like…everything you think about fat
girls is Fat Amy. I wish Rebel Wilson
had been given better clothes and less disgusting lines.
The
plot itself is a mess. I understand the
main plot is that the Barden Bellas have fallen from grace and would like to
redeem themselves at the world championship.
That story rarely ever comes out.
Every now and then, the movie is like “oh yeah, we’re a singing group!”
and gets back on topic. They have so
many side stories going on that it detracted from the main one. There’s still the whole Beca and Jesse thing
going on, we get more on the Fat Amy and Bumper love story then the new girl
(they call her Legacy) and Ben have a romance as well. They wanted to do so much but they shouldn’t
have. I wish some of the filler material
had been cut out because it just didn’t fit.
To make
matters worse, they tried to recycle ideas from the last movie to try and
remind us that the first one was great.
So now, instead of a riff off in the pool, we have a weird contest in
some guy’s basement. The highlight of
this scene is that the Green Bay Packers are in it. Okay, they’re terrible but it’s still
funny. But it’s no different from the
last one. And what really got me is that
the Treblemakers are gone. The only
returning members are Jesse and Ben. The
rest of the group gets one musical number then you never see them again. Even the main rivals have been reduced so
much that they are nothing but romantic interests. I can’t even really say this movie tries to
promote female empowerment because it was just two hours of racism and vagina
jokes.
I
laughed a grand total of three times.
I’m not joking. The final medley
of songs was great and I really enjoyed it, especially when they brought out
the past members of the Bellas to sing with them. It was a touching moment, one I think this
movie needed more of.
My
question now is, they establish that everyone but one girl graduates. There will be a Pitch Perfect Three coming
out in the future but what’s going to happen with it? Are we going to look at the girls now that
they’ve all left college? Are we going
to focus on Legacy and her life as a Bella and a college girl? Will they explain why singing groups get
houses on campus? There are a lot of
things that never get answered.
Continuity people! Use it!
In
recent months, Fry has pointed out that I tend to be a little too critical when
I discuss films, which I admit, can be true.
However, when it comes to Pitch Perfect, I can’t help it. The movie had the potential to be just as
good, if not better than its predecessor.
Instead, they went back to the same plot, added some fluff and offensive
jokes and called it a film. I also
understand that movies are not catered to my specific tastes. I just also have the hopes that it will not
rely on racist jokes or vulgarity to be good.
And that’s what the problem is with this one. It relied on a tired formula without really
adding anything fresh to it. And if you
have to resort to race jokes, then you should have edited the script better.
Maybe I
expected too much from Pitch Perfect Two.
I admit, I did have high hopes for this one but it just never came
together for me. In the end, I felt bad
that I’d paid to see this. It wasn’t too
terribly memorable and I just didn’t enjoy myself. I know it did quite well and I’m just one
person, but I have no desire to see another film in this franchise. They should quit while they’re ahead or it’s
just going to end up as another stale, formulaic two hour bore. That’s just my opinion and if you disagree,
that’s fine by me. I’m just telling you
what I think.
I’m
TheCinemaChick and I’ve got two more reviews to go to be caught up.
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