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Demons sure have a large appetite. Oh, and they like
sex or at least the idea of sex. “Jennifer’s Body” writer
Diablo Cody’s latest film (“Juno” and the Showtime TV show
“The United States of Tara”)mixes titillation, murder and
cannibalism in a satirical style that recalls her work in
“Juno” but actually harks back to an earlier flick about
cliques and werewolves “Ginger Snaps” one of the few werewolf
movies in the last thirty years to bring something new to
the table) in terms of its “spirit”. ***
Jennifer (“Transformers” Megan Fox) ends up being the
sacrificial virgin killed by a rock band Low Shoulder who
use Satan to further their career. The only problem is that
she isn’t a virgin and that complicates things meaning that
the Succubus spirit they were trying to use to make their
career fly high takes bonds with Jennifer’s spirit bringing
her back to life. Zombie Jennifer (so-to-speak) needs regular
infusions of blood and human flesh to look her best this,
of course, concerns her BFFL “Needy” (Amanda Seyfried of
“Mama Mia”); it also makes Needy’s boyfriend Chip (Johnny
Simmons who, perhaps, because of his mullet haircut looks
much younger than both of them) believe his girlfriend has
gone off the deep end. ***
All of the dialogue driven cynical humor that was a
highlight of “Juno” slips through the cracks of the supernatural
script here as well but they fall surprisingly flat. Although
Cody’s approach to the material is unique, the dialogue
seems like a third-rate knock-off done by somebody else.
Director Karyn Kusama does the best she can in setting up
the film but only manages to get predictable and often stiff
performances from her cast. Her directorial approach is
fairly static servicing the story but there isn’t much story
here; Jennifer gets hungry, takes out a boy for munchies
and munches on the boy until the next time. The element
of satire here isn’t explored which is a surprise given
the rich environment of high school. Perhaps Cody avoided
exploring this arena because it has been done so well in
films like “Heathers”, “Mean Girls” and “Ginger Snaps”.
Perhaps she felt she couldn’t bring anything new to the
material either way the one area that might have redeemed
the weakness of the dialogue and the performances is missed.
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Image & Sound:
Unfortunately we received a watermarked DVD-R screener
copy to review so I had to wait for release date to get
this on Blu-ray and give you an idea as to how the film
looks and sounds. My apologies for this being so late but
I didn’t want to review yet another lame Fox screener and
tell you that you’d have to take your own risk on the quality.
***
The Blu-ray looks extremely good with a nice, vibrant
transfer that pops especially during many of the night scenes
(and there are plenty of those) with detail and clarity.
Flesh tones are strong throughout. ***
Audio sounds quite good with an extremely sharp 5.1
mix that favors dialogue throughout most of the movie but
we get plenty of ambient sounds as well. ---
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