Review: "Pitch Perfect 2"

Movie: Pitch Perfect 2
Release Date: May 14^th 2015
Language: English
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Based on: “Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory”  by Mickey Rapkin
Stars: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Hailee Steinfeld, Elizabeth Banks, Skylar Astin, Anna Camp etc.
Rating: (5 / 5)

The sequel we have all been waiting for… Pitch Perfect 2! With the slogan being “We’re back, pitches!” we can only expect endless jokes all over this movie. For all of you who don’t quite know what it’s about, which I can’t imagine since that would mean you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a quick summary:

“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.” [IMDb]

The movie starts off with the hilarious Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins as their characters, Gail and John, introducing the Bella’s as they’re about to sing for the president of the United States. As Fat Amy is hanging from the ceiling, singing Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’, something goes wrong and ends up showing the entire audience her… fanny.

This “happening” leads to many, many jokes, problems and consequences. One of these consequences is that the Bella’s cannot hold auditions for new members. One new character finds her way into the Barden Bella’s anyways and is added to the group and they find a way to continue singing after all. I mean, duh. What else would this movie be about?!

Following the success of the first movie, people have incredibly high expectations for this one. I must say, I did too. Because of these high expectations, I did not find it much better than the first one. I’m still not sure whether I liked it a bit more or just as much, but whatever, still loved it.

With all the different kinds of jokes going on, I still thought it wasn’t much funnier than the first one. I liked the story; I loved how they brought Anna Camp’s character (Aubrey) back, how some of the characters fell in love again and how the movie ended.

With this movie following the success of the first one, of course there had to be some amazing cameos. We got to see Barack Obama and his family in the beginning, all the newscasters after the Fat Amy fiasco, the judges of the American version of The Voice and my all-time favourite a Capella group, Pentatonix.

This movie also introduced some remarkable insults from Beca, as she was very much intimidated by the beauty of the German group, especially the female lead singer… Phrases like “your sweat smells like cinnamon!” were thrown around and made the entire theatre laugh. Personally, I didn’t like the introduction of the German group as much as the creators of the movie probably wanted people to like it. I didn’t feel like they were much better than the Barden Bella’s and I very much disliked their seriousness.

Now after haven written this review, I don’t think I like it more than the first movie. Sure, it was funny, I liked seeing something new of these characters and I would gladly recommend it to anyone, but I had too high expectations after obsessing over the first movie.

In a nutshell:
Liked it: Yes
Loved it: Kind-of!
Re-watch: Sure!
Cinema worthy: Definitely!