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FILM DETAILS

Certificate 15

Cast Megan Fox Amanda Seyfried Adam Brody .

Directors Karyn Kusama.

Screenwriters Diablo Cody.

Running Time 102 minutes

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Jennifer's Body
Beverly Hills, 90-666

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Plot
Megan Fox stars as a cheerleader who's taken over by a demon and starts eating the local boys.

Review

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Splicing horror with comedy is not an easy thing to get right. For every Shaun Of The Dead, there’s a Lesbian Vampire Killers. Undaunted, Jennifer’s Body arrives with two names attached that guarantee interest, and they’re both female.

The first is Diablo Cody. Thanks to indie hit Juno, the stripper-turned-Oscar-winning screenwriter is now considered hipper than Mad Men, Bat For Lashes and the garden bar at the Chateau Marmont put together. Juno was spiky enough to not make it too jarring when Cody’s next script turned out to centre on a demon-possessed cheerleader.

The second is Megan Fox. She’s trodden this turf before, as a bitchy high-schooler in 2004’s Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen, but since becoming an A-lister she’s been stuck in bland, pretty-girl roles. If the frank, fresh-talking actress, who recently compared Michael Bay to Hitler, has been pining to be bad, here she gets her wish. As the owner of Jennifer’s bodacious body and the flirty, dirty villain of the piece, Fox purrs, “You give me such a wetty”, pukes up torrents of blue gunk and becomes a literal maneater, sinking her teeth into unfortunate jocks. Optimus Prime would be appalled.

Both ladies, who share a passion for tattoos and thrash-rock, clearly have a blast with the material. Cody hasn’t toned down her trademark smart-alecky slang-talk (or the pop-culture licks — the curse is put on Jennifer not by a gypsy, but an indie band desperate to be as big as Maroon 5), while Fox looks more at ease aiming her “smart-bombs” (breasts) at “salty morsels” (cute boys) than she ever did learning life lessons from sentient trucks. When she’s chewing on Cody’s words, it’s silly, campy fun, though there’s occasional over-quirk — “It’s freak-tarded!” is the new “Your eggo is preggo!”

A bigger problem lies with the scares. As Jennifer rampages and Needy (Amanda Seyfried) realises something’s taken control of her friend — it takes a while as, oddly, Jennifer’s personality doesn’t change much despite the fact her body has a new, satanic tenant — there’s a series of scenes which are supposed to be actually frightening. We know this because there’s spooky music on the soundtrack, but director Karyn Kusama (veteran of oestro-pics Aeon Flux and Girlfight) resolutely fails to deliver any tension. It doesn’t help that Jennifer’s jaws are stretched open with shoddy CGI, or that one death scene involves reaction shots from forest animals, or that the grue’s been toned down from Cody’s original script. One victim is described as looking like “lasagne with teeth” after falling for Jennifer’s siren call; some of that nastiness on screen would have given the film some real sting.

As is, we’ll have to make do with this well-meaning but muddled movie, where earnest stabs at real emotion rub uneasily against the generally snarky vibe. Jennifer’s Body has a cool score, Wikipedia gags and a handful of fun set-pieces, including a sex scene with supernatural interruptions and an ace punchline. It’s just not the biting high-school satire/bugfuck-crazy zombie film we were hoping for.

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Average user rating for Jennifer's Body

woeful

Not scary. Not funny. Not sexy. Not smart. No wit. Not even well made. Boring as hell. ... More

Posted by tysmuse at 15:47, 04 September 2010 | Report This Post

Jennifer's Body

Wankers. That is what this film is for. People who drool over pictures of girls in magazines and have one arm muscles bigger than the other. A movie made solely on the attention Megan Fox was getting at that time. Fortunately that cloud has come to pass, at least for now but I feel with a film like this she should have either went out and made a porn or just a playboy photoshoot as this was dribble. I asked a guy on my college course "what is the story line, the plot, what happens?" an... More

Posted by mymatebone at 16:21, 08 May 2010 | Report This Post

Absolutely atrocious

This film is absolutely atrocious. Megan Fox is extremely attractive but lets be honest she can't act for toffee. So using her as a foundation for a film was always going to be a risk. Sadly it's a risk that has not paid off. I expected this to be a black comedy. But all I got was a group of 20 something's trying to act like teens. Every character is a stereotype, the plot is predictable. There is nothing remotely scary, funny or vaguely entertaining about this pile of garbage. And please, the d... More

Posted by nelmes69 at 15:52, 29 April 2010 | Report This Post

Absolutely atrocious

This film is absolutely atrocious. Megan Fox is extremely attractive but lets be honest she can't act for toffee. So using her as a foundation for a film was always going to be a risk. Sadly it's a risk that has not paid off. I expected this to be a black comedy. But all I got was a group of 20 something's trying to act like teens. Every character is a stereotype, the plot is predictable. There is nothing remotely scary, funny or vaguely entertaining about this pile of garbage. And please, the d... More

Posted by nelmes69 at 15:52, 29 April 2010 | Report This Post

Initially interesting but loses itself gradually

Jennifer's Body starts out as a pretty decent horror comedy but Diablo Cody's writing just ensures that it misses the mark and fails to be taken seriously. Megan Fox fails to convince her audience that she can act worth a damn, and the fact that she pales in comparison to Amanda Seyfried's decent performance definitely doesn't help matters. Overall, this film isn't quite as bad as some would make it out to be, but I really don't recommend you giving it a go as hardly any beneficial results will... More

Posted by djphilips at 22:57, 08 April 2010 | Report This Post

i just found

Amanda Seyfried was the best thing ... More

Posted by vdjfrancis at 00:51, 02 April 2010 | Report This Post

Jennifer's body--fun but what a waste

My god what Sam Raimi could have done with this? Fun, but there was so much more potential there. ... More

Posted by lynnshep at 22:42, 29 March 2010 | Report This Post

Generous rating from empire

what a limp excuse for a "horror comedy". this promised to deliver sex, gore and humor but there really was none of any to be found. Similar movie Ginger snaps was not great by any means, but a hell of a lot better than this. And Empire? three stars? really? Friday the 13th only got two and it did exactly what it said on the tin. ... More

Posted by strangeone at 12:04, 11 March 2010 | Report This Post

It was not bad but nothing special. ... More

Posted by Bighousewill at 12:47, 07 March 2010 | Report This Post

Rubbish And Hardly Funny.

I thought this film was over the top, hardly funny at all and didn't root for any of the characters. Ran on for too long, wasn't sexy at all and not scary. Megan Fox was her usual self, Amanda Seyfried was complety different from Mamma Mia and the story wasn't intresting. Waste of my time altogether. ... More

Posted by joanna likes films at 17:13, 27 February 2010 | Report This Post

Gash

The only thing that helped me justify the time I spent watching this movie was the twenty seconds of girl on girl action. The rest of it was truly terrible. It's so middle of the road, so bland and boring it almost made me scream. But then again I had a pretty good idea this would be the case. O only watched it because it had Megan Fox in it - as did a lot of other people I imagine. ... More

Posted by Smootle at 15:55, 02 December 2009 | Report This Post

RE: Better than your average

It was pretty enjoyable. The primary problem for me is that Diabolo Cody isn't nearly as sharp or funny as she's hailed to be. As with Juno, the reference-laden dialogue fell flat - not funny enough to pass as good comedy and not authentic enough to overcome its lack of bite. Every character still sounds like a late-twenties / early-thirties hipster making a vague attempt to sound ten years younger.   As a brainless horror comedy, i've seen a couple of hundred worse... More

Posted by JessFranco at 09:38, 23 November 2009 | Report This Post

RE: Better than your average

I found this pretty enjoyable throughout, and FAR more entertaining than the vastly overrated Juno. As a gorehound it's a shame the carnage was cut back on, but for a trashy night out you could do far worse. ... More

Posted by skeletonjack at 12:40, 21 November 2009 | Report This Post

Better than your average

I found this film absolutely hilarious. I watched it back in September in San Fran and have seen it again the other week. It's randomly funny and I haven't seen such a quotable film as this all year! The best part for me was the make out scene between Megan and Amanda when a guy cried out 'this is better than Transformers'! Megan and Amanda play off each other well, I agree that Amanda grounds the film emotionally. But I'm gonna have to say I found Megan hysterical. A tad weak in parts but o... More

Posted by for.the.love.of.film at 16:50, 19 November 2009 | Report This Post

RE: Jennifer's Body

I found this pretty enjoyable. Not as good as it could have been maybe and it seems it may have been toned down by the studio a bit to reach a wider audience. We know Cody likes her old-school horror but that might not have gone down too well with the suits and it's true it never really delivers any scares which I found suprprising. There is one scene where Needy sneaks around her house looking for an intruder which was nicely tense but other than that not much else. On the plus side it... More

Posted by scary_ice at 23:22, 17 November 2009 | Report This Post

Jennifer's Body

Following Juno many of us were eagerly anticipating Diablo Cody's next move (i know i was). Jennifer's Body is a mostly successful teen horror/comedy but its not without its flaws. Director Karyn Kusama fails to rack up any tension and the casting never quite works. Its nice to see that Cody knows her horror and has produced a well written script packed with plenty of laughs. Maybe next time her material will be in better hands. ... More

Posted by Soprano168 at 14:43, 15 November 2009 | Report This Post

RE: I Go Both Ways...

In a word....gash! Only Seyfield stops it from being a complete stinker. On this evidence it's unbelievable to think this was written by an Oscar winner. 2/5 (but only just...) ... More

Posted by Qwerty Norris at 22:36, 12 November 2009 | Report This Post

Not trashy enough.... We were promised Jennifer's Body.

Not trashy enough.... we were promised Jennifer's Body, we got to see a little bit of cleavage. The film wasn't gory enough or sexy enough to deliver. I must say though that seeing an posing Emo boy being eviserated was quite fun and most indy bands probably have sold their souls to satan.... how else do you account for their success. ... More

Posted by tt904 at 23:19, 05 November 2009 | Report This Post

Zzzzzz

Fell asleep during this, megan fox can't act for toffee, there was no tension and the humour fell mostly flat! Good concept shoddily executed!! Megan fox is hot though!! I'll watch it again with the sound on mute next time ... More

Posted by Moronifighter at 10:32, 05 November 2009 | Report This Post

Optimus Prime Would Be Horrified

A good old-fashioned slice of saturday night escapism with Seyfried providing a brilliant foil for Fox's hot, dirty raven-haired minx. Optimus would be outraged at this well-written, witty, saucy horror-com. ... More

Posted by CIRVIRUS64 at 15:42, 03 November 2009 | Report This Post

RE: I've seen Jennifer's Body........very nice.

Surprisingly enjoyable. Loosecrew is right about Seyfrieds character, she provides realism & the emotional grounding of the film. Brody also plays an excellent bastard as the band leader. 85% ... More

Posted by spamandham at 14:44, 02 November 2009 | Report This Post

RE: I've seen Jennifer's Body........very nice.

They may as well have just called it "MEGAN FOX OMGZ MEGAN FOX!!!!!" ... More

Posted by Drone at 09:32, 02 November 2009 | Report This Post

I've seen Jennifer's Body........very nice.

This is Amanda Seyfried's film. Yes Megan Fox and Diablo Cody will be grabbing the headlines but if the role of Needy had been in any way annoying or laughable this film would have sunk without a trace. Thankfully Seyfried is a safe pair of hands to give this job to and she carries it off with aplomb. A welcome alternative to the waste of space Saw franchise. Well written, well acted, nicely shot flick that is actually about something with a sprinkling of gore to finish it off. Nothing ove... More

Posted by Loosecrew at 12:59, 01 November 2009 | Report This Post

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