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Mania Grade: D+

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Info:
  • DVD: Jennifer's Body
  • Rating: R
  • Starring: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody
  • Written By: Diablo Cody
  • Directed By: Karyn Kusama
  • Distributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
  • Original Year of Release: 2009
  • Extras: See Below
  • Series:

Jennifer's Body DVD Review

Megan Fox’s body is not enough to overcome lame script.

By Tim Janson     December 17, 2009


Megan Fox Can’t Save JENNIFER'S BODY(2009).
© 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

 

I’m guessing that the planning for Jennifer’s Body went something like this: 
Executive #1: “Megan Fox is smoking hot!  We need to get her into a film now!”
Executive #2: “Right!  Who can we get to write the script?”
Executive #1: “What Script?  She’s smoking hot!  Who needs a script?”
Look this isn’t meant to be a slam Megan Fox review.  She is what she is…an attractive woman with, at this point, limited acting skills.  Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that.  A lot of actors have made a career out of being a pretty face.  You can’t lay the blame of this film at her doorstep.  No, the credit for this mess falls squarely on the shoulders of Director Karyn Kusama and writer Diablo Cody.  Cody is best known as the Oscar winning writer of Juno but clearly those skills didn’t translate over to horror.  In fact, one of the major failings of Jennifer’s Body is that Cody could not seem to decide whether this was a comedy or a horror and ultimate it did not succeed as either.
Jennifer is the hottest girl in school…the cheerleader who can get any boy she wants.  Her best friend Anita, aka Needy (Seyfried) is the polar opposite.  She’s intelligent but nerdy.  Kusama plays the “Clark Kent” card by implying that putting glasses on a character automatically makes them unattractive and a geek.  Cody attempts to give Jennifer some semblance of insecurity by making her demand Nerdy look good but not too good, when they go out to see an up and coming band called “Low Shoulder” fronted by Nikolai (Adam Brody) at a local club. 
When a fire breaks out at the club, the girls escape although several patrons are killed, calling up a tasteless and unnecessary comparison to the real life fire at the Station Club in Rhode Island in 2003.  Despite Needy’s protests, Jennifer leaves in the Low Shoulder’s party van. When the band’s Satanic ritual (which they got off the Internet!) goes awry Jennifer is killed but returns as a hungry demon-possessed succubus who has a taste for teenage boys…literally.  Soon high school boys are turning up dead, mauled, and chewed up.   
Cody’s script is painfully laughable with terms such as “freaktarded” spouted off as an apparent example of valley girl jargon for the new millennium.  Where does Cody spend her time where she thinks kids actually talk like that?  The whiny, insipid music and lyrics of the film’s “band” is exhibit A on why so much of today’s rock music is horrible.  I’d pay to see Blackie Lawless chew up Adam Brody and spit him out.
Jennifer’s Body is filled with holes…no pun intended…If Jennifer wasn’t a virgin then why did the band’s ritual work and turn them into headliners?  Why exactly did Jennifer become possessed?  What was the point of the fire at the club?  Don’t beat yourself up trying to figure it all out.  It’s not worth it.  The one redeeming quality to the movie was Amanda Seyfried who CAN actually act and did the best with what she was handed.  And give her props to having to endure being made into the ugly duckling for most of the film.  Even when she’s allowed to dress up for a formal school dance she’s put into an ugly dress that looks like it was purchased on clearance at a Salvation Army store.  She and even Fox, deserved better.
Extras
The standard DVD version comes with two audio commentaries. Director Karyn Kusama and Writer Diablo Cody handle the theatrical version while just Kusama is on for the extended version. But seriously, if you made it through the film once, why would you want to endure watching it two more times for the commentary?
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COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

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1 
themovielord 12/17/2009 4:49:39 PM

Really Tim? A D ? Hmmm...

Alobar 12/18/2009 7:43:41 AM

A D, really, I think they are only C's....

spiderhero 12/18/2009 8:40:16 AM

You are wrong, Fox does not deserve better than this.

tjanson 12/18/2009 12:30:36 PM

well if she had shown off couple of D's maybe i would have given this a C

ultrazilla2000 12/22/2009 2:36:05 AM

Tim, maybe you should actually WATCH the movie you review next time?  Yes?  Needy very point blankly told us that if a girl is sacrificed who ISN'T a virgin, then the effect is the same (the band got what they wanted), but the body would become posessed by a demon.  Maybe if you weren't so busy hating on movies that are actually a lot of fun, you'd have more of those so called "plot holes" filled in!  Oh yeah, and besides the hilarious prom dress, Needy was hardly portrayed as an "ugly ducking".  More of an everyday kind of girl, who just happens to look very plain next to her over sexed best friend.  If that's your idea of "ugly duckling", then I really feel for all the wonderful women you've over looked in life.

As for the movie itself...I'd rate it a B.  I was pleasantly surprised by both actresses, as well as the fun banter they had (which for some reason Tim hated as well...).  The dark humor was actually funny too, something most horror movies these days try, but fail to achieve. 

TheStormrider 12/22/2009 6:38:39 AM

Fu(ktard is a very common word actually.

wallyrus 12/22/2009 8:07:42 AM

 This should have been direct-to-DVD.  Horrible movie.

wessmith1966 12/22/2009 5:16:14 PM

The movie wasn't all that good, but I think D is too harsh. I think the movie had a few good moments and a little grooming could have made it a good movie. I agree that the movie seemed to hover between horror and comedy without landing in either camp. As for Fox's acting...there are moments in the movie she delivers. The one scene where she's sitting in front of the mirror is an example. She conveyed a range of varied emotions in her face without saying a word. It reminded me of Glenn Close at the end of Dangerous Liaisons although not to the degree of Close. Fox is young and when she matures a little I think she could make a fine actress. Her problem will be getting people to look past her physical beauty and for her to stop leaning on that beauty and elarning her craft.

tjanson 12/27/2009 2:01:51 PM

Ultra...hating had nothing to do with it...I try to review every DVD subjectively and this film was dog crap.  The film tried frightfully hard to make Needy an ugly geek even saying she wasn't allowed to show off cleavage since "tits were Jennifer's department" or something to that effect.  The banter was exactly what it was...written by an older person trying to sound young...kind of like when white guys try to write urban slang. 

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