Critics are loving the movie's quirky cast and the script's hilarious one-liners. By Kara Warner
Anna Kendrick in "Pitch Perfect" Photo: Universal Pictures
Are you in the mood for a movie with a little song and dance, paired with pretty young things who are as talented as they are hilarious? Well, then you are ready to see "Pitch Perfect," a well-rounded and original ensemble comedy with hints of "Bring It On," "Glee" and "Mean Girls," for good measure. So far, the film has been embraced with mostly open arms by critics and at time of publication was sitting with a "Fresh" rating over at Rotten Tomatoes. With critics applauding the film's original, eclectic cast and their actual singing abilities, you can't help but get swept up in the film.
Prepare to be pitch slapped as we sing through the "Pitch Perfect" reviews!
The Story "Pitch Perfect will fill the bill nicely for those who yearn for the glory days of "Glee," enjoy fast-paced, nerdy snarkiness and have a soft spot for tales of rhythmic scholastic activities, as in Drumline or Stomp the Yard. Beca (Anna Kendrick) goes to college against her will, prodded by her professor father. What she really wants to do is produce music. Her first move is to get a job at the campus radio station, where she meets fellow music aficionado and warbler Jesse (Skylar Astin). A flirty friendship is born. Beca is roped into joining The Bellas, an all-girl a cappella group, by the gung-ho Chloe (Brittany Snow), who hears her singing in their dorm shower. Soon, Beca becomes a key member of this group of lovable, motley, musical misfits." — Claudia Puig, USA Today
Not the Same Old Song-and-Dance "Like sports movies, dance movies, and other singing movies (the recent Queen Latifah/Dolly Parton vehicle Joyful Noise comes to mind), Pitch Perfect largely relies on the audience's existing enthusiasm for the genre, and its assumed willingness to put up with some cardboard characters and stiff plotting if the money sequences deliver. Pitch Perfect stacks the deck with humor from Rebel Wilson as an amiable, spacey a cappella diva who calls herself Fat Amy ('So twiggy bitches like you don't do it behind my back'), and Christopher Guest-style dry comedy interactions from a cappella commentators John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks. They're pulling hard to compensate for Kendrick's character; teenagers may love and relate to the way she reacts to absolutely everything with a curled lip and mildly horrified, disdainful disbelief, but for older audiences, she's a bit of a self-absorbed pill. Still most people will probably be able to tell whether they'd enjoy Pitch Perfect by deciding whether they can conceive of enjoying a pretty, energetically delivered, vocally complicated a cappella medley of sex songs, including "S&M," "Let's Talk About Sex," and "No Diggity." Those who react to the prospect with a Kendrick-esque curled lip should steer clear." — Tasha Robinson, The A.V. Club
The Sassiness "Once 'Pitch Perfect' gets going, there's absolutely no slowing it down, with Kay Cannon's script slinging one zinger after another, and the young cast of up-and-comers biting into the film's bitchiness and flashes of heart with such aplomb they should all become stars immediately. Like Mean Girls and Clueless before it, 'Pitch Perfect' takes what ought to be a story with limited appeal and makes it so hilarious you can't deny it. I practically wore out my hand writing down all the great lines, from delicious put-downs like Rebel Wilson's Fat Amy referring to her teammates as 'twiggy bitches' to giddy nonsense like 'My dad always says if you're not here to win, get the hell out of Kuwait.' " — Katey Rich, Cinema Blend
The Singing And Dancing "Director Jason Moore is a Broadway hand (Avenue Q) who knows how to sell a number without assaulting the audience, and, right from the jump, he and a cappela 'godfathers' Ed Boyer and Deke Sharon and choreographer Aakoman 'AJ' Jones nail the tone: silly-exquisite, too hyperbolic to be straight, too emotionally pure and, well, pitch-perfect to be camp. Lisa Zeno Churgin's editing is brilliantly off the beat, Julio Macat's camera at just the right distance for us to savor all those different bodies — petite, fat, willowy, beefy — in motion. I wasn't looking forward to remakes and mashups of songs that make me long for deafness when my daughters blast Z100 in the car, but I was humming along with 'Titanium' and 'Don't Stop the Music' and even 'Party in the U.S.A.' (The soundtrack is a joy.) The cast includes a full-time songwriter, Ester Dean, who wrote Rihanna's 'S&M' (which she sings a piece of), and the only thing wrong with movie's centerpiece — a 'riff off' in which rival a cappella groups bring it on (and then get loaded and fall into bed) — is that it ends too soon." — David Edelstein, Vulture
The Bottom Line "Cheeky and snarky but with an infectious energy, 'Pitch Perfect,' a comedy set in the cutthroat world of competing college a cappella groups, makes us fall in love with the very thing it's making fun of. It's ridiculous and predictable but also just a ton of fun, so you may as well give up and give in to your inner musical theater geek." — Christy Lemire, Associated Press
Check out everything we've got on "Pitch Perfect."
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