Someone Great (2019)

There's something about Gina Rodriguez that I don't like. It's not her fault, it's just that she reminds me of a person I know and don't like much and that person basically ruined Gina for me. She is a great actress though — I loved her in Jane the Virgin — so, despite me not being the biggest fan of romantic comedies and the trailer basically screaming "I'm a terrible movie", I checked out Netflix's newest original film, Someone Great. 

Set in New York, the story focuses on Jenny (Gina Rodriguez), a nearly 30-year-old music journalist who has just landed her dream job as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco. Not even contemplating the idea of a long distance relationship, her boyfriend of nine years, Nate (Lakeith Stanfield), breaks up with her. To nurse her broken heart, she decides to have one last, outrageous night in New York City with her two best friends, Erin (DeWanda Wise) and Blair (Brittany Snow).

Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

Genre

Comedy | Music

Director

Elizabeth Banks

Country

USA

Cast

Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, Alexis Knapp, Hana Mae Lee, Ester Dean, Chrissie Fit, Kelley Jakle, Shelley Regner, Skylar Astin, Adam DeVine, Katey Sagal, Anna Camp, Ben Platt, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Flula Borg, Reggie Watts, John Hodgman, Jason Jones, Joe Lo Truglio, John Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Banks, Snoop Dogg, David Cross, Keegan-Michael Key, Shawn Carter Peterson

Storyline

After a humiliating command performance at The Kennedy Center in front of the President, the Barden Bellas are taken out of the Aca-Circuit. In order to clear their name and regain their status, the Bellas take on a seemingly impossible task: winning the World Championship, the competition no American team has ever won.

Opinion

Hollywood loves two things: money and pointless sequels and remakes. So what a better way than making a sequel to such a successful film like Pitch Perfect to make people pay to watch crap?

Disappointing on so many levels, Pitch Perfect 2 is an unfunny, boring and highly offensive comedy.

The plot is so predictable, hopeless, and lame, it's an insult to the audience's intelligence, and the hundreds of sub plots are completely pointless and go nowhere. Beca's job at the recording studio, for example, just fills some time, and ends with her boss saying I like your stuff but basically every single teenager with a computer can do that nowadays, so you are not that special. Also the Benji and Emily's romance is completely nonsense.

I don't even know why I'm trying to give a meaning to this, but how is the original song supposed to make them win the World Championship? If I don't go wrong, a cappella's only do cover, at least that's what they say in the film. And the Germans, Das Sound Machine, were way better than the Bellas.

The characters are even worse. Fat Amy basically takes over, and Beca is downgraded to supporting character. Emily, the new Bella, has no reason to exist, and what did they do to Bumper? How did the arrogant jerk become a love puppy dog?

When it comes to offensive humour and jokes, this film somehow manages to be even worse than its predecessor. The racist stereotypes are extended to Hispanics, with new entry Flo, whose jokes about her homeland make you feel sick. Homophobic, and fatphobic like the first installment, this film is also misogynist: sexist comments are all over the place.

The most disappointing thing is that this film was directed by Elizabeth Banks, a woman, and written by Kay Cannon, another woman, yet the dancing is a lot more sexualised, and there are pointless slow-motion sequences of the girls pillow fighting, and like Anna Kendrick says in the film, this sets women back like 30 years.

Anna Kendrick looks like she'd rather be somewhere else - but we can't blame her, can we? - and Rebel Wilson is trying to hard the fat girls have fun formula. I am sorry, only Melissa McCarthy is entitled to use that.

I wonder what did Obama do wrong to be in this film.