Starring Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfreid, Johnny Simmons, and J. K. Simmons
Directed by Karyn Kasuma
Release Date: September 18th, 2009
When "Juno" hit the world, its use of hipster dialogue from the mind of screenwriter Diablo Cody was touted by large as fantastical, the sort of language rarely seen since Kevin Smith in "Clerks". However, many people found Cody's unconventional quips to be too tongue-in-cheek, that the conversations about adoption too self-aware for its' own good. Soon after, word of Cody working on a comedic horror film began to buzz and people were excited to see her next work after winning an Academy award for Best Screenwriting. The critics were divided to say the least.
After a small concert, Jennifer (Fox) starts a little differently, at least that's the way Anita "Needy" (Seyfried) sees it. Soon, Jennifer starts behaving more and more aggressive to both Needy and the other students around campus. When local boys start disappearing and Needy discovers the horrible truth about Jennifer's new behavior, she'll have to stop her ex-BFF from killing Needy's boyfriend (Simmons).
At the very least, I had higher expectations than how the movie turned out. I never expected "Jennifer's Body" to be the next "Evil Dead 2", but the finished film is a deplorable mess of high school cliches, bad storytelling, and a lack of both horror and comedy in the story.
First of all, Diablo Cody needs someone to review her use of high-school slang in all of her future films; the terms she uses here, including such lovely phrases as "tragedy boner", are face-palmingly stupid and sound forced and stilted coming from the actors. Speaking of forced and stilted, Megan Fox is horrendously wooden as Jennifer. Fox is a terrible actress and can barely emote; she looked great on the poster, and that must have been good enough for the producers of this movie. Thank goodness for actors like Seyfried and Simmons, who are at least trying to pick up the slack that Fox dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Finally, there is the movie's lack of either comedy or horror in the film. First and foremost, the film should be somewhat frightening to the audience, otherwise why make the movie? I never, for the entire 90 minutes, felt one ounce of fright or terror from when the movie tried to scare me. Even when they try to make Jennifer look monstrous, the CGI the filmmakers used is headscratchingly awful. Call me a purist, put maybe it's time to put away the computers and bring back the latex and fake blood to the special effects department. Then there's the comedy: see my paragraph on Diablo Cody's dialogue.
Jennifer's Body: dull, pretencious, and neither frightening nor comedic.
Rating: * 1/2 of 5
Click here to buy
Jennifer's Body
Jennifer's Body (+ Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]
Directed by Karyn Kasuma
Release Date: September 18th, 2009
When "Juno" hit the world, its use of hipster dialogue from the mind of screenwriter Diablo Cody was touted by large as fantastical, the sort of language rarely seen since Kevin Smith in "Clerks". However, many people found Cody's unconventional quips to be too tongue-in-cheek, that the conversations about adoption too self-aware for its' own good. Soon after, word of Cody working on a comedic horror film began to buzz and people were excited to see her next work after winning an Academy award for Best Screenwriting. The critics were divided to say the least.
After a small concert, Jennifer (Fox) starts a little differently, at least that's the way Anita "Needy" (Seyfried) sees it. Soon, Jennifer starts behaving more and more aggressive to both Needy and the other students around campus. When local boys start disappearing and Needy discovers the horrible truth about Jennifer's new behavior, she'll have to stop her ex-BFF from killing Needy's boyfriend (Simmons).
At the very least, I had higher expectations than how the movie turned out. I never expected "Jennifer's Body" to be the next "Evil Dead 2", but the finished film is a deplorable mess of high school cliches, bad storytelling, and a lack of both horror and comedy in the story.
First of all, Diablo Cody needs someone to review her use of high-school slang in all of her future films; the terms she uses here, including such lovely phrases as "tragedy boner", are face-palmingly stupid and sound forced and stilted coming from the actors. Speaking of forced and stilted, Megan Fox is horrendously wooden as Jennifer. Fox is a terrible actress and can barely emote; she looked great on the poster, and that must have been good enough for the producers of this movie. Thank goodness for actors like Seyfried and Simmons, who are at least trying to pick up the slack that Fox dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Finally, there is the movie's lack of either comedy or horror in the film. First and foremost, the film should be somewhat frightening to the audience, otherwise why make the movie? I never, for the entire 90 minutes, felt one ounce of fright or terror from when the movie tried to scare me. Even when they try to make Jennifer look monstrous, the CGI the filmmakers used is headscratchingly awful. Call me a purist, put maybe it's time to put away the computers and bring back the latex and fake blood to the special effects department. Then there's the comedy: see my paragraph on Diablo Cody's dialogue.
Jennifer's Body: dull, pretencious, and neither frightening nor comedic.
Rating: * 1/2 of 5
Click here to buy
Jennifer's Body
Jennifer's Body (+ Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]
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