My Review: Kung Fu Panda 2 (6/10)

¨ My fist hungers for justice! ¨

Po has returned to save China once again in Kung Fu Panda 2; with the same writers (Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger), but a different director (Jennifer Yuh). Many consider that the original Kung Fu Panda is DreamWorks’s best animated film to date; in my opinion their best one is How to Train Your Dragon, but Kung Fu Panda was still a great movie. I had my concerns with the sequel because I knew it was going to be hard to meet expectations. Cars 2 failed in this respect for Pixar, but Kung Fu Panda 2 worked a little better. This film isn’t nearly as good as the 2008 original, but for a sequel it works really well; it probably won`t win an Oscar (Rango seems to have it pretty much locked up this year, although I didn`t like it), but it is still very entertaining and the entire family will have a good time with this movie. The best thing about the film is the animation. Guillermo del Toro was brought in as the creative consultant for the Art Department and it really paid off because the look of the film is impressive and so are the visuals. The story is actually the weakest link, but it works mostly thanks to the characters we grew to love in the first film. There is also an interesting villain, voiced by Gary Oldman, so that was also a plus, but the story was really predictable. After the first 15 minutes you knew exactly what was going to happen at the end. Jean-Claude Van Damme also has a small role as the Master Croc, and it was fun to hear him.

Po (Jack Black) is living in the temple with the five kung fu warriors he has always idolized since he was little: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Crane (David Cross). They seem to be training very hard as we hear Po breathing very heavily, but they are actually all staring at how many breads Po can fit into his mouth. Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) calls for Po and tries to teach him about finding inner peace. Po is more of an action kind of Panda and is waiting to show off his kung fu skills as the Dragon Warrior (title which he achieved in the first film). His opportunity comes when the Village where his father Mr. Ping (James Hong) lives is attacked by a group of wolves who are stealing all the metal from the village. The wolves are gathering metal in order to create a secret weapon that will put an end to Kung Fu. They all work for the evil White Peacock named Shen (Gary Oldman) who is threatening to conquer China with this new powerful weapon. There is something about Shen that bothers Po and reminds him of his forgotten past. Po begins to have flashbacks about his childhood and discovers that Mr. Ping is not his actual father. Along with his friends, Po begins a quest to stop Shen before it`s too late, and at the same time discover the truth about his past.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is not as fresh and fun as the first film, but it still was a lot of fun. Po is really a fun character and one can`t help but be reminded of Jack Black when watching Po trying to do his kung-fu stunts. Po is not only voiced by Jack Black, but he seems to be inspired by that character. In the same way there is a scene where we see Master Croc (voiced by Van Damme) do one of his singular moves from his action films. Jack Black is an incredibly funny actor and we find some of that comedy in Po`s animation. Gary Oldman also brought a lot of things to his new character, and he is always great at playing the villain. Kung Fu Panda 2 might not be as good as the original, but that doesn’t mean you won`t have fun with this family friendly film. My only complaint relies in the story, but the animation and visuals make up for it. Kung Fu Panda is a fun film you can enjoy with the family, but not much more than that.

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My Review: The Spy Next Door (4/10)

¨I've brought down dictators. How bad can three kids be? ¨

The Spy Next Door is a family movie that actually won`t be enjoyed by the entire family. I can imagine kids having a good time with this film, but adults won`t find any of the material entertaining since they`ve laughed at the same jokes a long time ago. I don`t understand how Disney Pixar or DreamWorks can make animated films adults and kids enjoy alike (such as Toy Story, How to Train Your Dragon, and Shrek for example), but somehow no one has come up with a solution to making an entertaining live action family movies (Marmaduke, Cats and Dogs, and now this). We have seen these kinds of movies before where the villains are really dumb, and the hero can do just about anything except raising kids. Since we`ve been bombarded with so many remakes in the last years, I even thought this might be a remake of The Pacifier which starred Van Diesel as a marine who had to babysit a couple of kids. The only difference was that Jackie Chan was playing the role of Diesel. Even director, Brian Levant, had made a similar movie before this, starring Ice Cube in ¨Are We There Yet? ¨ I guess this was a similar version for white folks. Levant is also the man responsible for bringing us films like Beethoven, The Flintstones, and Jingle All the Way; the writers haven`t done anything better either: Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer are responsible for writing the script for such movies as Just My Luck and Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector. Gregory Poirier was also hired to help improve the script, but he was the director of Tomcats, so as you can see there wasn`t much talent behind the making of the film, except perhaps the actors.

Jackie Chan is Bob Ho, a Chinese Spy who is working for the CIA. His partner is Colton James (Billy Ray Cyrus) who really doesn`t do much except let Bob do all the work, and their boss is Glaze (George Lopez). They are on a mission to arrest Poldark (Magnus Scheving), a Russian spy who has broken into an American oil refinery. Once Bob makes the arrest he decides to retire because he wants to propose to his girlfriend, Gillian (Amber Valleta), who happens to be his next door neighbor. Gillian is a single mother who is very much in love with Bob, but her three kids aren`t very fond of him so she isn`t ready to commit. They don`t know he is a spy and actually think he is a boring guy who makes a living as a pen importer. Bob will have to find a way to befriend the kids: The oldest is Farren (Madeline Carroll), an adolescent teenager who wants to dress as she pleases, next is Ian (Will Shadley), a very smart kid who gets beat up in class and tends to lie a lot, and the smallest is Nora (Alina Foley), a very cute and adorable four year old girl who likes pink very much. When Gillian has to travel to take care of her sick father, Bob realizes it’s the perfect time to bond with the kids so he decides to take care of them. Little does he know that the kids are planning on making his experience a nightmare, and at the same time Poldark has escaped from prison and wants something from Bob.

The only entertaining value I got from this film was from Jackie Chan, whose stunts are always fun to watch. The opening scene where we got clips of Chan`s previous movies was actually the best part of the film with the ¨Secret Agent Man¨ song in the background. The rest of the movie is very predictable, the characters are one dimensional and stereotypical, and the dialogue is pretty bad. The kid actors were actually pretty good and I thought Alina Foley was very cute in the film (too bad they didn`t have the right material to work with). I have to admit that I watched this film dubbed in Spanish so that did affect the film quite a bit since some of the performances are missed in the translation. The movie was pretty bad and was very similar to The Pacifier and Are We There Yet? so it losses some more points there. I wouldn`t recommend this film, although I know some kids might enjoy the silly comedy, and Jackie Chan fans might want to check it out as well as he plays his usual self. Before watching this movie I had just seen The Godfather Part I and II, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo`s Nest, so that was probably a little unfair on my part to critique this movie right after watching those masterpieces. Anyways, I don`t recommend this.

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My Review: The Karate Kid (6/10)

“Sometimes the most important fights are the ones you avoid.”

The Karate Kid, which should be called The Kung Fu Kid, is based on the famous 80`s movie starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita although this time the story takes place in China and the plot is a little different. Jaden Smith is the Ralph Macchio of this generation but he is much younger and Jackie Chan has a similar role to the one Pat Morita made famous as Mister Miyagi. I really couldn`t imagine these two actors playing these similar characters, but they did a great job and had great chemistry together. Chan was funny and at the same time he showed the wisdom his character needed to have. The famous chopstick and fly scene from the original Karate Kid is also used in this film, but with a nice twist. These sort of nostalgic elements that were introduced in the movie worked very well, and it was hard not to sympathize with Chan or Smith. Harald Zwart did a decent job with the direction of this movie, although at 140 minutes I felt it was too long. The other issue I had with the film is that it tries to preach against non violence, but it does it by using violence, and the main problem is that this time around the kids are even younger, they are twelve year olds. The scene where Chan has to defend himself from these kids who attack him just felt too awkward because you can`t help but think how a grown man would fight off these boys. Even though he never actually hits them, it still felt weird. Christopher Murphey did a decent job with the screenplay and brought us a more modern version of The Karate Kid without leaving out important details from the original.

Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) is a twelve year old only child living with his mother, Sherry (Taraji P. Henson), ever since his father passed away when he was younger and the film opens with Dre saying goodbye to his friends in Detroit because he is moving to China with his mom. Dre isn`t very excited about traveling to this new country and he isn`t interested in learning Chinese either. Once they arrive in China Dre meets a sweet girl from the neighborhood named Meiying (Wenwen Han) who happens to be a very talented cello player. But not everyone is as nice to Dre as Meiying is and he gets bullied by a group of kids who happen to know kung fu. The leader of the group is Cheng (Zhenwei Wang) whose sole purpose in the film is to make Dre`s life miserable. One day, when Dre is getting beat up by these bullies Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), the maintenance man from the apartment building Dre lives in, shows up and fights off the kids. Mr. Han befriends Dre who wants him to teach him Kung Fu. Mr. Han declines at first because he says Kung Fu is a way of life and not meant for violence and fighting, but after meeting the Kung Fu master (Rongguang Yu) where Cheng gets his training Mr. Han decides to sign Dre for the tournament in order for the kids to stop bullying him in school. Cheng promises to leave Dre alone so he can prepare for the tournament, Mr. Han begins training him and together they learn important lessons.

Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith are great together and they are the reason why the movie is above average because otherwise this is just a formulaic predictable film. One of the main differences this movie has with the original is that it takes place in China, which makes things all the more interesting because the scenery is beautiful. There are some great scenes of the Great Wall, of some temples in the mountaintops, and of the impressive National Stadium (the Bird`s Nest) constructed for the Olympics that just took place in Beijing. Zwart does a great job introducing us to the major touristic attractions in Beijing. The climax of the movie is also great with a very entertaining championship that takes place (which tops the original one). Fans of the original will be pleased as well as younger audiences who weren`t familiar with it. The main problem I had with this film is the age difference between the stars of the film. In the original Ralph was in his twenties, while in this movie Smith is a twelve year old so some of the fighting and training scenes seemed a little extreme for someone so young. I can`t help but remember a scene where Dre tells an old man who is beating him at ping pong “C`mon, man. I`m twelve.” That is what I kept on thinking when I saw this kid train so hard and fighting. The movie is still worth it because of the scenery and the great performances from Chan and Smith.

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