Pitch Per­fect 2

The Bar­den Bel­las bounce back, or rather, after an unfor­tu­nate, pres­i­den­tial­ly observed wardrobe mal­func­tion, find nation­wide ignominy. They lose all the trap­pings of suc­cess gar­nered from their 2012 ven­ture, and, in the tor­rid world of a capel­la song bat­tles, are sent right back to square one.

Back then, the proud lega­cy of Bel­las was wan­ing – they were stuck with old ideas that didn’t work. The mis­fit bunch had tal­ent, but couldn’t quite hit the mark required for col­le­giate a capel­la great­ness. Enter Anna Kendrick’s aspir­ing DJ Beca, her EDM influ­enced mash-ups and cut­ting edge chore­og­ra­phy help­ing the troop to embrace the new and pull togeth­er for a nation­al victory.

In 2015, after gain­ing back their under­dog appeal they’re now up against pan­tomim­ic Ger­man vil­lains, Das Sound Machine, DSM for short, or ​“Deutschbags” in the ver­nac­u­lar slang of Pitch Per­fect 2. Deprived of their title, they’re set to com­pete against the world’s best a capel­la groups on the inter­na­tion­al stage while redis­cov­er­ing their dis­tinc­tive voice once more.

So far so Glee – it’s all sug­ary grist for the sequel mill and it tru­ly doesn’t mat­ter if it’s one lump or two. Rev­el in its unal­loyed campy gloss and you’ll find a for­mu­la­ic but fun­ny film with two extreme­ly like­able female leads in Kendrick and Rebel Wil­son. For­mu­las are for­mu­las because they work. And Pitch Per­fect 2 is packed to the rafters with gen­uine­ly uproar­i­ous moments.

Some jokes don’t land. In par­tic­u­lar, those of Lati­na char­ac­ter Flo Fuentes who seems to exist sole­ly to recount sto­ries of her moth­er try­ing to sell her for cig­a­rettes, hav­ing diar­rhoea for sev­en years or the prospect of dying when attempt­ing a bor­der cross­ing when she’s inevitably deport­ed. Are they using it as a comedic vehi­cle to high­light the inequal­i­ties Mex­i­can peo­ple face in the US, or just spout­ing unfun­ny stereo­types for cheap laughs? It’s often hard to tell which way the ham­mer is falling.

As a fran­chise entry, Pitch Per­fect 2 isn’t the under­dog any­more, less like the Bar­den Bel­las and more like the sleek­ly auto­mo­tive accom­plished DSM. It may be cal­cu­lat­ed, but it gets the best out of a tal­ent­ed cast. And with a sur­feit of charm and some killer wit mud­dled in, it’ll sure­ly win you over by the first big number.