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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Aca-awful story with some fun but familiar a cappella singing from characters you probably love if you’re here for a 3rd installment. Not a very good movie but it has its moments if you’re a fan of the series.

When you end up with John Lithgow with a terrible Australian accent singing Chicago’s “Hard for Me to Say I’m Sorry”, you know something has gone terrible wrong with the plot. Enter Pitch Perfect 3, the 3rd installment of the Pitch Perfect series which features the Bellas now 3 years after the end of Pitch Perfect 2 (which if you told me it was about the Bellas saving the world from a natural weather phenomenon with their singing, I would probably believe you) and graduated from college. It looks like the entire cast was signed on to return but honestly, I didn’t pay enough attention to the first 2 to know the names of anyone beyond Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld and Brittany Snow. Sorry. Thanks to a convoluted plot, the only thing going for Pitch Perfect 3 is nostalgia and some good a cappella singing that keeps the movie entertaining when not trying to tell us a story we don’t really care to follow. Just give us more singing. Seriously.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Lots of great music and an occasionally fun piece of fiction that is entirely too rushed… too bad it’s supposed to be based on the true story of P.T. Barnum.

It’s tough to evaluate a film like The Greatest Showman without factoring in the true tale it is portraying. It’s expected for all films based on true events to take liberties but it’s another thing when the film adds or subtracts tales of fiction that skew the overall depiction of the subject matter. That’s very much the case for the often fictional tale featuring the real life P.T. Barnum as a character. Hugh Jackman stars as Barnum in this original musical which took over 7 years to find its way to the big screen. Jackman was attached to the project from the beginning but the risky proposition of an original musical (the original plan to release came about pre-La La Land) kept the film from seeing the light of day longer than expected. The result though leaves a little bit to be desired and while the music is fun and the cast is game, there’s a bad taste left by how often the film veers from the facts and presents an alternate reality for Barnum, his entrepreneurial endeavors and the people around him. Read More →