All of these play out through a whistlestop tour of European locations, costume changes and tightly choreographed song-and-dance numbers. Those proceedings include the emergence of Fat Amy’s long-lost father (John Lithgow, whose attempt at an Australian accent might best be described as “transpacific”), Beca’s friendship with a handsome, sensitive young music producer, bouts of “we’re a second family” bonding, innumerable minor Bella sub-subplots, and the sniping Greek chorus of commentators Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins, who are following the Bellas for a documentary. At this point, Pitch Perfect’s entire raison d’être threatens to collapse like an overcooked soufflé, but this instalment realises the music was only ever really secondary to proceedings. When they throw down the riff-off gauntlet, the other bands prove to be better at everything – mashing up cover versions, writing their own songs and playing instruments. The Bellas’ tour rivals include a country band, a hip-hop outfit and an all-girl guitar band (brilliantly named Evermoist). Photograph: Allstar/Universal Picturesīut things don’t go quite as expected. Teamwork … Rebel Wilson and Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect 3. Suddenly Fat Amy (Wilson) comes crashing through the skylight, hoses the men with a fire extinguisher, and they all jump overboard before the yacht explodes. The opening set-up is literally explosive: the Bellas are on a luxury yacht, performing another of their choreographed, beatbox-backed cover versions for the delectation of three unknown men. In the process it throws out all semblance of plausibility, but by this stage, who really cares? It assumes we all know the drill, then has a whale of a time subverting it. How many more “riff-offs” did we need to see? How many more big competitions were left to enter? How many more slightly over-extended Rebel Wilson one-liners could we take? But this third – and surely final – outing basically explodes its own formula. Second time around, the premise of competitive a capella already seemed to have exhausted its possibilities. F ew viewers came out of Pitch Perfect 2 thinking, “this franchise will run and run”.
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