PITCH PERFECT Review

It's too easy to call Jason Moore's "Pitch Perfect" a hyper-blend of "Mean Girls," "Bring It On" and "Glee" -- although it very much is a hyper-blend of those three and then some. But, like I said, that's too easy. What this surprise smash hit out of left field really is is a high-energy, impossible-to-hate tale of collegiate a cappella that is heartfelt, hilarious and just weird enough to have a strange fascination with projectile vomiting. Witness the movie's pre-credits opening scene, and tell me I'm wrong.

The always reliable Anna Kendrick plays Beca, an attractive yet introverted girl entering her first year of college at Barden University. She's less than enthused about going to school and would rather jump ship to Los Angeles to begin her career as a DJ. Her father (John Benjamin Hickey), however, is a professor at the university and isn't about to fund that before she gives school a try. This also means she has to find a way to get involved. Lucky for Beca, the campus' all-girls singing group, the Bellas, is looking to regroup after a disastrous loss last year at the finals. Chloe (Brittany Snow) and Aubrey (Anna Camp), the figureheads of the Bellas, are tired of staying in the shadow of the rivalry all-male singing group led by the insidiously brash Bumper (Adam DeVine). And as a perfect cameo by Christopher Mintz-Plasse reminds us, this is not high school glee -- hint, hint.

The movie owes its peppy attitude to a wealth of young talent across the screen and its writer, Kay Cannon whose credits include 22 episodes of "30 Rock" and some "New Girl," and you can see that irreverent humor peeking through in every line. Take, for example, the punchy one-liners from the competition commentators (John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks). Headlining the young cast is Rebel Wilson, the vivid Aussie who made a claim for herself as the weirdo in "Bridesmaids" and has taken off since then. She plays the self-proclaimed Fat Amy who gives herself that name so skinny girls don't have to behind her back. If anything, "Pitch Perfect" provides Wilson the role that'll make her a star. The casting across the board is admirable with a playful chemistry between the rivaling a cappella groups. This comes to a head during a "West Side Story" style showdown where song improvisations are thrown back and forth in battle.

"Pitch Perfect" is fueled by the engine of its music, which is constant and flat-out great. In between bouts of musical numbers, catchy mash-ups and exciting hooks, a lot of the movie does model itself off teen comedy tropes and harkens back to the movies of John Hughes as did "Easy A." The movie plays into the whole a cappella craze that already excists and does so without ever taking itself too seriously painting the extra-curricular activity as equal parts nerdy, sexy and silly. And it wouldn't be complete without a love interest for Beca. He arrives in the form of Skylar Astin (best known for his stage role in "Spring Awakening" and most recently appeared in an episode of HBO's "Girls"), playing the relentlessly charming Jesse who Beca for some reason has a hard time being wooed by. For us, however, Astin is an absolute delight.

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING Review

When it comes to "What to Expect When You're Expecting," what you end up failing to expect is how bad the whole affair turns out to be. Based on Heidi Murkoff's bestselling 1984 self-help book of the same name, the thing about this fictional adaptation is that even the title is a sham. This doesn't even begin to prepare expecting mothers at all for what to expect when they're expecting. Unless their life is, well I don't know, a Hollywood movie.

Director Kirk Jones seems to be channeling his inner Garry Marshall as this clearly will remind audiences of his big ensemble rom-coms "Valentine's Day" and "New Year's Eve," but this time with pregnancy. Instead of watching glamorous A-list stars fall in love, we're watching them take the next step of childbearing. Still glamorous, and still coated in swift manufacturing and a shine of high-gloss. It's all so overly produced that you'll wonder if you're watching mannequins instead of real people.

The screenplay gives us every type of expecting mother. Not to mention every type of unique and colorful job imaginable perhaps required to not confuse one character with another. We begin with Jules (Cameron Diaz), a tough-love weight-loss TV guru who just won a celebrity dance show with her boyfriend, Evan (Matthew Morrison). Next is Holly (Jennifer Lopez), a famous photographer who, wouldn't you know it, does underwater scuba photo shoots. She and her husband, Alex (Rodrigo Santoro), plan to adopt a baby from Ethiopia.

Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) is perhaps the most down-to-earth with her husband Gary (Ben Falcone). A bookshop owner and renowned breast feeding advocate, she and her hubby have been trying to conceive for years. All unsuccessful attempts -- until now. But, of course, there's more. Gary is constantly having to put up with his overly competitive dad (Dennis Quaid) who is, wouldn't you know it, having twins with his much younger blonde bombshell of a wife, Skyler (Brooklyn Decker). Overshadowed by his dad yet again.

Then there's the youngest couple with the competing food trucks. After playfully betting over who gets the most business from an event at which they're both vending, Rosie (Anna Kendrick) and Marco (Chace Crawford) have a one-night stand and, wouldn't you know it, she gets knocked up. Interlaced between these five couples is the "Fight Club" styled baby daddy group who banter over stroller outings. It's meant to bring in the laughs, but it mostly falls flat as hard as Chris Rock, the ring-leader of the group, may try.

The Jennifer Lopez storyline comes across as a recycled version of "The Back-Up Plan," or whatever that was. That and the celebrity couple scenes become painfully uninteresting, like a pick your poison of predictable story arcs. It's all sugar-coated and sweet, mostly light and reassuring. There are flutters of dark moments, but they're never warranted. It's too superficial with nothing genuine, every character exaggerated into a caricature. There have to be more honest movies about pregnancy out there like perhaps Jessica Westfeldt's "Friends With Kids."

What keeps it from being flat-out excruciating is the highlight of a pregnant freak-out exhibited by Elizabeth Banks, the movie's only moment of real humor. She teams up nicely with two small-role players from "Bridesmaids," Rebel Wilson and Ben Falcone. Also appreciated is the low-key effort from Oscar-nominated Anna Kendrick and Chace Crawford who make their relationship the most real.

Still, though, much like the upchucking of the featured mothers-to-be, each storyline here is regurgitating the same tropes and end moral; that is, being pregnant sucks, small children are an inconvenience, but it becomes all worth it in the end when, as a new parent, you're holding that little bundle of a miracle in your arms.