Can Diablo Cody get a mulligan?
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So, there are a few critics out there who liked “Jennifer’s Body,” but I kind of wonder if they’re just Diablo Cody’s friends. Diablo Cody — which is a pen name, by the way — wrote “Juno” and Showtime comedy series “United States of Tara,” both widely regarded as clever, funny and cutting-edge. “Jennifer’s Body” reviews indicate this film is anything but.
It seems even America’s favorite sex kitten of the moment, Megan Fox, wasn’t enough to save this movie. It’s supposed to be a sexy horror/comedy, but if the most seasoned film critics in the country are to be believed, it is not scary, not funny and thus not sexy.
‘Jennifer’s Body’ movie reviews
James Berardinelli of Reelviews says “Jennifer’s Body mixes, matches, and crosses three popular genres: horror, comedy, and teen angst. Unfortunately, it fails at all of them – and ‘fails’ might be too kind a term.” Ouch. Maybe if Cody gets some same day loans she can buy her reputation as a great writer back? Berardinelli goes on to say that writer Cody and the film’s director Karyn Kusama should never be allowed near the horror genre again.
That is pretty rough criticism for Cody, who won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for “Juno.” So did she write “Jennifer’s Body” for the money? Despite the horrible reviews for this horror film, I predict this movie will do just fine at the box office and contend with the number five box office earner this week, “The Final Destination,” which got horrible reviews. In fact, I think it will knock number four “All About Steve” — which got really horrible reviews — right out of its spot.
Awkward teen dialogue
One of my favorite, always funny critics, Nick Pinkerton from The Village Voice says in his “Jennifer’s Body” review that it “forces awkward teen dialogue,” the decor is dated and the film overall is trite and annoying. However, he finds a message hidden beneath this “excruciating to listen to” script: High school girls shouldn’t get in vans with strange boys, even if they are in a band.
You know, I have another prediction for this film. Have you seen “Showgirls”? How about “The Room” which is widely regarded as the worst film ever? I think 10 years from now this film will be showing at small, independent, art house theaters at midnight solely for the purpose of film snobs making fun of it and laughing at how bad it is rather than the actual attempts at comedy in the film.
A green lining
That’s where “Jennifer’s Body” will make the real money — as a cult “so bad it’s awesome” film. People will rent it to be ironic, go see in in a theater to mock it and tell their friends “You have to see it; it’s awful. And did you know it was written by Diablo Cody?”
I’ll leave you with one last quote, from Variety’s Justin Chang: “Even with Megan Fox ideally cast as a sharp-fanged succubus with a lusty appetite for young male (and sometimes female) flesh, this high school horror romp tackles its bad-girl-gone-really-bad premise with eye-rolling obviousness and, fatally, a near-total absence of real scares.” For more “Jennifer’s Body” movie reviews, check out Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.
