Author: Ian D.

In the 1980’s and 90’s kids in the movies went on adventures. In retrospect many of said adventures were hysterically low stakes, usually avoiding getting in trouble with your parents. Some protected nice, green aliens with an affinity for green M&M’s, other searched for treasure with a cave dweller while another group tried to rescue a baseball from the vicious dog next door.

Ummm…wow. So that is what a summer movie can be. A movie that uses it’s massive, unencumbered budget to elevate a visionary’s imagination to heights rarely reached. It’s so scarcely seen in the modern blockbuster landscape that when one comes along the sheer dodo-like quality can elevate it.

The original Pitch Perfect may have been a product of the Glee-revolution but was shockingly much more than that. Gone was the ridiculous melodrama of the Fox-sitcom replaced with gleeful comedic mayhem – led by a diverse cast of women embracing the bizarre world of underground, college a capella groups.

I’ve written copious times about superhero fatigue. It’s a plague upon our cinemas that the machines at Marvel (and most recently DC) have cultivated with furious vigor. Each templatized cape and tights follows a similar path; achieving domestic and cosmic bliss until a post-credits scene gets us revved up for the next installment.

Russell Crowe still commands the screen. As his waistline has increased so has his ability to carry material of varying degrees of quality. There are few actors working at his level that can do this and Crowe still possesses the unique ability to elevate otherwise shoddy filmmaking.