Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)

Directed by Trish Sie. Starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Hailee Steinfeld, Anna Camp, John Lithgow, John Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Banks, Guy Burnet, Matt Lanter, Hana Mae Lee, Ruby Rose, Andy Allo, Ester Dean, Chrissie Fit, DJ Khaled. [PG-13]

Once more unto the breach, dear Bellas, once more. Whatever novelty this concept once had is gone, dead and beaten in a ditch, resulting in an illogical assembly of recognizable faces and one-note personalities, all of them stuck to the flypaper of computerized pop songs and inane shenanigans that waved bye-bye to dignity long before the girls land in Europe. That’s where they go this time, performing on a USO tour with DJ Khaled (who plays himself without a hint of self-awareness of how much of a cartoon character he already was long before signing on to appear in the third chapter of a polyphonic choir comedy franchise), and as superficial and crassly commercial as the song performances are, by the time the “story” spirals into a kidnapping sub-plot, even the prospect of hearing Kidz Bop wouldn’t seem so awful. Kendrick goes through the routines halfheartedly, Higgins and Banks’ commentators are forced awkwardly into the movie and struggle to land even one quality wisecrack, and there’s way too much of Wilson in this one (practically a co-lead), whose intentionally dumb quips wear thin immediately, and whose storyline leads to that inane kidnapping business. A soulless and unfocused retread that makes the original Pitch Perfect look like a near-masterpiece of comic construction. Mike White co-scripted.

22/100