Jennifer's Body Reviews

People both on here and critics in general rave about how terrible Jennifer's Body is but in all honesty, I think it's a movie that is terribly misunderstood and not just about us having to admire Megan Fox's body while she kills fellow classmates here and there, as a plot. It deals with several deep topics in an intellectual way that mainly girls will exclusively understood. Boys? I don't think so. I mean, until now people are just understanding it again, especially the men that PANNED it when it was first released.

So, in conclusion of this messily written love letter to Jennifer's Body (which doesn't really provide any points, I get that), I honestly think it's a movie for girls only because we are the only ones that'll truly understand it. I also think it's worth a watch especially if you like the 'coquette' or femme fatale aesthetic. Yes, it has several flaws, but beneath that it's honestly wonderful (relatable, even), though I'll recommend it only to people who view similar movies to Jennifer's Body.

7/10

In my opinion, this movie shows how pretty hopeless Megan Fox has become as an actress. I mean, the whole thing was obviously taylor-made for her, I don't think she will ever find something more suitable for her but, even so, I thought she was quite underwhelming here. To be honest, I have to admit that she wasn't really the biggest issue in this movie. In fact, the biggest problem was that the whole thing was in my opinion rather poorly written. Indeed, apparently, it was supposed to be some kind of erotic satiric horror feature but it was a failure in all these departments. Basically, it was never funny, never scary and the whole erotic angle was barely developed. It wasn't really surprising that this flick was written by Diablo Cody who became the latest overhyped writer after winning an Oscar for 'Juno' which was enjoyable but still rather overrated in my book. Coming back to Megan Fox, sure, she should take advantage of her impressive plastic, why not? But at least , she should try to play someone who is not so clueless and/or obnoxious otherwise she will never be taken seriously as an actress. Anyway, to conclude, even though the whole thing had some potential, I thought it was pretty weak and I don't think it is really worth a look.

I didn't read the description of this movie before viewing it. I thought it was a vampire movie but I wasn't too disappointed, it was a good movie.

JENNIFER'S BODY tries to be three things at once: (1) a horror movie, (2) a depiction of the emotional hardships of the high school years, and (3) a comedy. The film fails miserably at the first of these things, does a so-so job at the second one, and (occasionally) fares decently well at the third one. Screenwriter Diablo Cody (who won the best original screenplay Oscar for 2007's JUNO) brings us yet another story that includes an unlikely friendship between the popular cheerleader and the geeky girl. Unfortunately, the results are entirely different here: JUNO may have been imperfect, but it was still a delightful coming-of-age story, whereas JENNIFER'S BODY is a mixed bag of awkwardness, bad horror, and the occasional instance of wit that reminds us of the screenwriter's prior effort.

As I mentioned, JENNIFER'S BODY sort of tries to tackle three genres at once, and the second one I mentioned (the social difficulties of the high school years) initially SEEMS like it'll be the film's main focus, from the voiceover we start getting from Needy (Amanda Seyfried) at the beginning of the film. Once we get into the actual plot, though, this aspect is sort of pushed aside to give more way to the horror/comedy elements, and it only resurfaces whenever we hear other voiceovers from the geeky and insecure Needy. If the filmmakers had wanted to give more weight to this, they should've had more scenes in which we got to witness Needy's frustrations towards her friendship with cheerleader Jennifer (Megan Fox), who always makes it a point of being the "hot one," and the two of them have an implicit agreement that Needy will never "upstage" Jennifer in terms of looks. This would've been wonderful material for the film to explore on an emotional level, and it may have given way for at least a glimmer of the dramatic effectiveness we saw in JUNO, but sadly, it's given very limited importance here.

The majority of JENNIFER'S BODY consists of some oddly-conceived scenes that mix horror with dark comedy. When I say "oddly-conceived" I don't mean it ALL in a bad sense: some of the film's lines are funny (after all, Cody can't have just LOST all her talent, right?), but the horror aspect of the film is, well... pretty horrible. There are two moments in particular that are great evidence of this distinction between the levels of success at each genre that is tackled. The first involves a scene in which Needy is having sex with her boyfriend Chip (Johnny Simmons), while intercutting with an instance of Jennifer having, um, a different kind of intercourse with another guy. The editing here is very weak and the paralellisms are completely lame (we don't even SEE the gory moment: we just see the shadow of it), BUT the comedic punchline is great: "Did I hurt you? Am I too big?" (said with a smile) The second moment comes during the climax of the film, when we get a terribly unexciting and poorly-realized "fight sequence" of sorts in a dirty, swamp-like pool. There's nothing creative about this climax, EXCEPT for a brilliant moment of irony involving pepper spray that will certainly make the audience laugh. This is exactly my point: JENNIFER'S BODY should've focused more on being a comedy than on being a horror film, because there's no doubt that it would've been way more successful at the former than it is at the latter. There are several other funny lines scattered throughout the film. My only complaint about the comedic aspect is that there are a few too many Jesus jokes (no, it's not because I'm religious and was offended; it's because there were just too many, and they got a little old after a while).

Megan Fox is hampered here in terms of getting a chance to show acting range. People thought that since she had no chance to show any range in TRANSFORMERS, this would be her chance to do so, but they might have to wait longer (or forever). At least she gets a chance to do more here than she did in TRANSFORMERS, but it's far from a career-defining role, which is what it should've been. She's even more hampered by the fact that co-stars Amanda Seyfried and Johnny Simmons actually give solid performances. Seyfried hasn't been bad in anything I've seen her in, and in the case of Simmons, you have to give credit to the casting people for picking such an innocent-looking guy (which fits the character of Chip perfectly). I should also mention here (though I suppose everyone knows it) that the film features a French kiss between Fox and Seyfried. I guess that the fact that it's a kiss between two girls and Megan Fox is one of the two girls will make guys salivate over this and want to watch it over and over again, but for the rest of us, not much to see. Two girls French kissing in a movie was revolutionary 10 years ago when CRUEL INTENTIONS came out, but not so much in 2009.

Remember that scene in JUNO during which Ellen Page and Jason Bateman are sitting on a couch watching a horror movie and discussing their tastes in the genre? It's hard to imagine that Juno and Mark would be too pleased with this, though they might find it enjoyable on a "laughably bad" level, thanks to its occasional success in the humor department. Overall, though, JENNIFER'S BODY is an awkwardly concocted, unscary piece of filmmaking that becomes terribly ridiculous during its final moments.

I decided to watch Jennifer's Body for the same reason as the latest two Twilight films: to just see how awful it could get! People have already said to me 'why watch it if you knew it was going to be awful?' Simple answer: because watching an awful film can be fun so you can just see how pathetic things can go and I just start laughing my head off AT it. This was a 'Ohh f**k it!' film and that's all it really is. Pretty much every single thing in this film was just dreadful! There were quite a lot of 'uhh... what the f**k?' moments that just made me laugh with pity.


Megan Fox stars as a cheerleader who's taken over by a demon and starts eating the local boys. Megan Fox is officially the most overrated woman alive who is like an instant turn-on for its audience (like Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner in New Moon and Eclipse) and she cannot act AT ALL. Now they are the things that those three actors have in common. I mean, a demon who is a cheerleader and only eating boys?! What was the point? If it has showed us anything, it has showed us that Megan is an awful actress who can just play a so-called attractive prostitute which is what she was like in this film! She was just as awful and an instant turn-on like in the two Transformers films. Amanda Seyfried, what were you thinking? I began to grow fond of her until she starred in this film! She didn't even save the film!


My oh my and we thought the directing couldn't have got any worse?! It was like a director like Uwe Boll or Michael Bay had directed it. I mean, Karyn Kusama has already shown after this (and presumably after Aeon Flux) that she is a poor filmmaker and just doesn't catch its audiences attention without turning them on with the leading female actress in the role.


Overall, Jennifer's Body is an absolutely appalling film that I just find an absolute disgrace and embarrassment to the horror genre and to cinema in general.

Hell is a teenage girl.

Ho-hum. From the outset, I knew that despite the fact that the award-winning writer of Juno was the one who penned this film, this would be a disaster. The one thing which awed me was the acting of Amanda Seyfried. I liked her in Mean Girls, raised my eyebrows a bit in Mamma Mia!, but here? *claps slowly* She definitely portrayed a geeky best friend to the "hot" Megan Fox, and was the only element in the film which I liked.
Jennifer Check (Fox) is the hottest and most popular girl in Devil's High, while Needy Lesnicky (Seyfried) is a geek. Despite their huge difference in high school status, the two are BFFs, although Needy's boyfriend, Chip Dove (Simmons) insists that Needy seems to do everything that Jennifer asks her to do. While watching an indie rock band, Jennifer and Needy are caught in a fire in the club, after which Jennifer is taken by the band to some unknown location. Hours later, Jennifer shows up in Needy's house, and there is something definitely wrong with her. As the days pass, Needy notices a drastic change in her best friend, and when she learns the horrible truth, Needy is forced to do the unthinkable.
yawn. Yawn. And wait... let me yawn some more. It's like a high school horror film gone badly wrong. At least THAT'S over and done with. :p

Needy: "You're killing people?"
Jennifer: "No. I'm killing boys."

A more apt title for Jennifer's Body would be Megan's Body, as the physical attractiveness of star Megan Fox is the sole reason why anyone would spend their hard-earned dollars to view this tosh. Horror, comedy and teen angst are the genres explored by the picture, yet it unfortunately fails at all of them - and the word "fails" is probably too kind. It's not scary enough to be an effective horror film, nor satirical enough to work as a comedy, nor insightful enough to serve as a commentary on teen angst or men's fear of female sexuality. As a matter of fact, the scariest thing about this movie is that this is the second script written by Diablo Cody, whose screenwriting debut, Juno, earned her an Oscar. Cody takes a gigantic leap backwards with this phenomenal disaster - there are so many things wrong with the film that it'd be easier to pinpoint the limited number of positives.

To sum up the plot: Needy (Seyfried) is a typical nerdy high school girl whose best friend is the popular, hotter-than-hot Jennifer (Fox). They are complete opposites, but they've been close since childhood. On the evening of a local concert, a fiery disaster strikes, leaving Jennifer alone in a van with the emo band that was performing. During the course of the night's events, Jennifer is transformed into some blood-sucking vampire, and begins killing off young men from her school to quench her hunger. Needy notices the sudden change in her friend, and suspects Jennifer may be possessed by a demon. And not one named Michael Bay...

Jennifer's Body is only skin deep, and never manages to capitalise on the ideas and themes it hints at. According to producer Jason Reitman, the film was designed to speak of female empowerment and explore friendship. Unfortunately, it's not interesting enough to succeed on any count. There's also some impressive underlying symbolism here, but that can't excuse the downright illiterate filmmaking. Clever shit is still uninteresting shit, and symbolism means nothing if the film is not in the least bit enjoyable. The concept of a local high school girl being a genuine man-eater is also bursting with both horrific and comic potential, yet Cody and director Karyn Kusama never properly exploit it. In addition, several plot elements are left unexplored - law enforcement officials, for instance, are either too inept or too non-existent to collect DNA from the blood-spattered crime scenes to identify Jennifer as the serial killer.

Diablo Cody struck gold with Juno, and for Jennifer's Body the screenwriter refused to tone down her trademark smart-alecky dialogue. Chock full of sharp zingers spoken by wise-beyond-their-years teens, the script is marred by a false confidence - lines strive to be clever and hip, but more often than not feel contrived and shallow. Also, whereas Juno was populated with real characters, Jennifer's Body is entirely devoid of them - the film instead features mouthpieces devoid of personality that exist to utter Cody's self-consciously quirky dialogue. Director Karyn Kusama's last film was the disastrous Aeon Flux, so her directorial credentials are already questionable, and therefore she may be guilty for more than a few of the feature's flaws. Both Kusama and Cody were inexperienced in the field of horror prior to Jennifer's Body, and they should not be allowed to tackle the genre ever again.

The central attraction of Jennifer's Body (and, arguably, its only attraction) is Megan Fox. The casting of Fox is almost oddly appropriate since, up until now, people know her almost exclusively as the fetishised, empty object of Michael Bay's leering camera lens in the Transformers movies. Alas, her acting in Jennifer's Body is as plastic and one-dimensional as her prior work. If you plan to see this movie to ogle Megan Fox for 100 minutes, you should be aware that she never gets naked. There isn't even a tits shot. Ho-hum. Interestingly, pairing Fox with Amanda Seyfried was an unwise choice, because Seyfried can act, and her abilities make Fox's deficiencies far more glaring. And what of the much-hyped make-out session between Fox and Seyfried? There's plenty of tongue-lashing in the scene, but it's so random and unjustified that it underwhelms. As for the rest of the supporting cast? None of the males are even slightly memorable, though J.K. Simmons appears briefly in a fun minor role.

Jennifer's Body would have at least been enjoyable had it been a terrible movie one could laugh at, but instead it's an excruciating genre flick unable to produce both intentional and unintentional laughs. Lacking a creative spark, the movie mostly bores with its monotonous foolishness, turning genre ingredients into agonizingly over-scripted, appallingly-handled tosh that's truly a trial to sit through. There are far better horror-comedies available, such as Sam Raimi's recent Drag Me to Hell, so do yourself a favour and avoid Jennifer's Body.

2.7/10