The debut feature from director Jason Moore (Broadway's "Avenue Q") and writer Kay Cannon ("30 Rock"), based on the non-fiction book by Mickey Rapkin, feels like a mash-up of "Glee" and "Revenge of the Nerds," with a broad soundtrack ranging from David Guetta and Bruno Mars to The Bangles and Simple Minds.
The good news is, it’s much funnier and meaner than the show that influenced it; and if you squint a little, it’s basically an all-girl remake of Revenge Of The Nerds.
Director Jason Moore (a Tony nominee for Broadway's "Avenue Q") and screenwriter Kay Cannon (a producer and story editor on "30 Rock") pretty much eschew the vulgarity that's in vogue for most campus comedies, instead favoring a sexually unthreatening sweetness appropriate for the tween girls and their sidekicks who will be the movie's most enthusiastic admirers; the result is efficient and unpretentious — an estrogenized quasi-musical that's more "Revenge of the Nerds" than "Bridesmaids."
So, in the tradition of every movie from “The Dirty Dozen” to “Revenge of the Nerds” (not to mention the hit television show “Glee”), they assemble a ragtag team of singers, including Beca, a brash Tasmanian named Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) and Lilly (Hana Mae Lee), an introvert who barely speaks above a murmur.