Jennifer's Body review

In 2007 there were two main female talents that became overnight successes. One was a Megan Fox due to the massive success of 'Transformers' and her being nearly absurdly hot. The second was a former stripper turned Oscar winning writer of a multi-award winning dramedy about teen pregnancy called 'Juno', Diablo Cody. Speed it up two years and we find them together for B-horror comedy in the vein of many 80's horror films involving hot girls, blood and guts.

"Jennifer's Body" is a near perfect double feature sister to Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell" from earlier this year. Both films are filled with horror nods, laughs and know how to clock in around 100 minutes so we never get overwrought with the absurdities. However I say NEAR perfect because "Jennifer's Body" has a flaw. Not something so bad as to make the movie bad, it's actually a solidly fun horror comedy. The flaw is that it's only a solidly fun horror comedy. Throughout almost every frame there is an infinite amount of potential. It has moments that strike me of "An American Werewolf in London" in it's dark humor and horror mixture. It has emo boy's ripped limb from limb and even a stabbing with the murders joyfully singing Rick Springfield. That's funny stuff. But it's not as great as I feel it could be.

Right off the bat this isn't a normal horror or horror comedy, it's a character piece. On the one end is Megan Fox as Jennifer Check and on the other is Amanda Seyfried as her BFF Needy Lesnicky. A good healthy portion of the movie contains their dynamic together before and after things start to get nasty. And it's all interesting. Needy isn't the hapless nerdy girl in school most movies would make her out to be. She has a fairly long term boyfriend, steady friendships and is simply normal. She's not pushed at lunch or made fun of for the purposes of making us feel sorry for her, she's just normal. Jennifer on the hand had been drooled over for years by every guy in school and knows it and likes it. It's part of her world. Within that world however lays the insecurities of the popular hot chick. They must be the best looking girl in the room. They must be able to have any man they want wrapped around their finger. They must be the alpha. And while Needy and Jennifer's friendship is good, there is still some of that within it all. Which is simply how it is in life and Cody knows how to draw out those tiny details and make them part of the grand scheme.

Diablo Cody knows her horror also. I urge people to read some of her interviews where she's talked about horror films and what not. She's got good taste and she writes quite well to boot. Hopefully one day she'll take up the director's chair.... which I feel perhaps she should. This is definitely her story, dialogue and characters created to a tee. She makes you care for the big and small characters while still knowing how to place ones in for scare-humor fun like J.K. Simmons as the one handed teacher. It's cheesy and hilarious for those familiar with the 'Juno'/'Thank You for Smoking'/Jason Reitman clan. I will say some of her quirky, teen dialogue was toned down, but not on a 'I'm trying to appease my critics' level. Beyond that it's also well acted out by everyone big and small.

Fox has needed something to show case more than just her looks and while she definitely gets to do that in spades here , she also delivers Cody's words perfectly. Fox's caviler attitude plays into the character and when certain moments come up her timing and pitch are spot on. Amanda Seyfried from 'Mama Mia!' also knows how to land her pieces. She never plays Needy like the wimpy nerd friend. She takes many different, fairly logical as well as movie logical paths during the rough parts of the film that seem to point to her best friend killing and eating boys. And while a lot of that IS movie logic, it's funny and somewhat plausible to what a real friend might do. In fact seeing her in this makes me really disappointed she couldn't join Zack Snyder's female cast of "Sucker Punch". Seyfried honestly is beginning to strike me as someone who will become a name and a face in the film world, especially if she continues picking diverse roles. Also I can't forget the highly underused Adam Brody as a lead singer and agent of Satan who's fantastically menacing and funny at the same time. I really wish he got more roles like this that show him off this well.

Okay enough pussy-footing around, here's my beef. This could've been a 100 proof awesome horror flick that I would scream to the heavens see it, BUT the movie tends to settle. What I mean is it's never super gory. It never launches into scare mode and it never causes tearful laughter. And constantly this is a possibility in the film. I would've loved to have seen an overly violent feasting for a few frames instead of an aftermath shot and Megan Fox taking a couple of sips of blood. I would have loved to hear Fox and Seyfried have a full blown, uncut conversation in Cody speak. Hell she even seems like the type who might toss in a layer of self parody with it. But these things never happen. Who's to blame? I don't really know. Director Karyn Kusama of 'Girlfight' and the out and out awful 'Aeon Flux' did what I'd say is her best work yet, but it still left a lot to be desired. This is why I think Cody should start (if she hasn't) mulling over the prospect of directing her own scripts. I could easily see this film being amazing under her eye.

But I mean don't get wrong the film is fun and more than earns it's passing grade as far as these types of films go, but it could've been a big deal picture. Every year horror films come out in early fall, staying away from the far over the hill 'Saw' pictures (which I pray every night stop getting made) Halloween release date and I always find one or two that could directly fight 'Saw', but never come out even near the same time which baffles me. After six crappy yet sadly mildly successful films I would think someone could destroy it on it's opening weekend and end this horrid cycle of regurgitated, mindless torture porn. I think in it's current state "Jennifer's Body" could've taken on Jigsaw... or Rip off Jigsaw or whatever the hell he is at this point and faired well, but I know if it were more over the top... it would have fucking killed it. End of story.

"Jennifer's Body" *** out of ****


SIDE NOTE! I'm an idiot. In 2007 there were THREE main female talents that came about. The third was 'Juno' star Ellen Page, however I'll talk more about that in a few weeks when I see her new film "Whip It".