Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)

Simply Perfect

Powerful

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Very disappointing. The musical highlights do not make up for a complete lack of plot. Total garbage. And John Lithgow's pretend Aussie accent (morphing to British now and then) was absolutely torture to listen to. Avoid.

The Pitch Perfect films shows the contempt Hollywood shows to its female audiences. The original was a fun frothy film aimed at women and enjoyed by men as well. A serviceable if flawed date movie.Since then it has been a case of diminishing returns as each sequel gets worse. In the third instalment the script seems to be made up as it goes along.The Bellas have gone their separate ways after the previous film. Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) is leading a new version of Bellas and asks the girls to attend a reunion which they take to mean that the original Bellas will reunite. It seems the original girls are not happy with their jobs and would love to sing together again. Aubrey (Anna Camp) uses her dad's military connections to get into the USO and perform in Europe where they get a chance to compete to be the opening act for DJ Khaled who seems to be impressed by Beca's (Anna Kendrick) vocals.Television hosts Gail (Elizabeth Banks) and John (John Michael Higgins) pop up again making abysmal catty comments about the Bella's and later follow them to make a documentary on the group, an idea so messily added into the plot, that is forgotten part way through.The main plot involves Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) who reunites with her estranged father (John Lithgow) but he is more interested in her overseas bank account that contains a lot of money.Well at least the singing is nice but the story is awful, at least the cast spent a few days in Nice. John Lithgow has a nice stab at an Australian accent but it seems no actual Australian actors were available.

I really loved the first two Pitch Perfect movies and was really looking forward to this but..... while I appreciate the story line, there were two things that really annoyed me. First, since when did this become a Rebel Wilson movie? It was all about her. I don't mind Rebel Wilson in small doses but I'm not a huge fan and frankly, as much as I love the movies, I don't particularly enjoy her part in them. I am Australian and I actually find her sense of humour distasteful. She's not funny. Second, I did not like the way that Rebel Wilson's character, Amy, belittled Haillee Steinfeld's character, Emily. Quite simply, it showed to the world that it's okay to bully someone. And it wasn't just once, it was quite a few times. This is not a criticism of Rebel Wilson but a huge criticism of the writers/director as it leaves me wondering what on earth was going through their minds when they okayed those lines in the movie. Anyway, apart from that, it wasn't too bad but definitely not as good as the first two. I will say that the ending was was great and so was the song they chose, Freedom.

I've now seen all the Pitch Perfect films which may be a surprise for a single 26-year-old guy, but I'll admit the first one was entertaining. It could be argued they should have stopped at one, but this one has its redeemable points. For example, I never thought I'd ever see John Litgow singing, but I'm thankful that is in the world now. The story was predictable and the sudden fighting sequence of the usually clumsy Fat Amy was just odd to watch and seemed out of place from the entire Pitch Perfect universe. Finally the fact that the main plot line is trying to impress DJ Khaled who is portrayed as the epitome of music is laughable. Looking forward to number four where Beca begins work on her first album and brings the Bellas back in to help with vocals... because that's how predictable these films have become, but Brittany Snow will continue to bring me back.