aka Megan’s Body

Rated: R | Review date: 11-Nov-2009

Every red-blooded American male is more than familiar with the name Megan Fox. The Transformers beauty is without a doubt one of the most popular sex symbols and up-and-coming stars today. The big question is whether her popularity is solely based on her looks, or does she actually have some talent?

After watching Jennifer’s Body, directed by Karyn Kusama and written by Diablo Cody (Juno), the above questions still yield few answers. Ms. Fox looks glorious as ever and provides plenty of humorous dialog. However, this type of movie simply did not have enough substance that required much heavy-duty acting. Overall, I found the movie to be both visually stimulating and quite entertaining.

Aside from Fox, the film stars the already proven Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls). Equally stunning in my opinion, Seyfried plays Needy, the best friend and more normal counter to school hottie Megan. I really enjoyed the character of Needy, especially in the opening and closing scenes, and Seyfried was thoroughly enjoyable. As mentioned, the concept of the film did not require extremely talented performances. A non-actor could have been thrown into the mix and would have made little difference. Even so, I believe the film was well cast, as the actors all were tolerable and very funny with their lines.

I found the concept to be fairly original and entertaining. The story revolves around a series of mysterious and brutal murders taking place after a local bar is burnt to the ground. The focus is turned on Jennifer and her body as it goes through various changes – as does her behavior. The story becomes fairly predictable, but is still carried well by the humorous dialog.

The problem a lot of reviewers have with this film is their inability to classify it. Is it a comedy, horror, thriller, or combination of all of the above? Well, it is indeed hard to place, but to me it does not matter. What matters at the end of the day is whether or not you were entertained. Cody’s witty and original writing is really what carries the film. Along with the generous eye candy (and one kissing scene that will be sure to live on in every young man’s fantasies), the film provided to be more than entertaining and fairly original.

It’s not a scary horror movie and isn’t quite a typical teen horror comedy, but it is fresh and exciting. If classifications need be made, I’d call it a dark comedy. It takes a lot of teen comedy, puts a new spin on it, and throws in some cool horror mythology and effects. Though I agree that if it were made a bit more realistically it could have been more successful and been taken more seriously, I still found Jennifer’s Body to be a lot of fun when taken for what it is.

Official site/trailer

IMDb

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