KUNG FU PANDA 3 Is Kung Fu Awesome

KUNG FU PANDA 3 Review:

- The Kung Fu Panda movies are pretty much awesomeness on a stick. Each entry in the Dreamworks Animation series has been full of fun, joy, humor, heart, and visual fireworks - and the third entry is no exception. For a long time, Dreamworks was very much considered off-brand Pixar. But films like How To Train Your Dragon, Megamind, and Kung Fu Panda helped to, rightfully, change that perception. The Panda films may not be especially deep or profound, but they hit a sweet spot in terms of packing in just the right amount of adult-pleasing action and humor with kid-friendly characters and themes. While the formula wears perhaps a tiny bit thin in the third film, KUNG FU PANDA 3 still entertains with a steady and kung fu grip.

KUNG FU PANDA 3 follows up on Part 2's reveal of there being other pandas out there, hidden away in a secret city. Now, Po's father (voiced to great effect by Bryan Cranston), has gone in search of his long-lost son - with an aim to bring him back to be among his own kind. However, Po's family reunion comes just as an ancient evil - Kai - has resurfaced after an extended imprisonment in the spirit realm. Kai's powers allow him to absorb the chi of his enemies, turning them into glowy green ghost slaves that do is bidding. And the only way to stop Kai - because he is a spirit being - is to use the power of chi against him. Only problem is, there's no one around who has that power. Chi master Oogway is himself confined to the spirit realm, and the pandas - who were once adept at manipulating chi - have forgotten how to wield it. So of course, it's now up to Po and his friends to figure out how to stop Kai and his plans of conquest.

Jack Black is once again ridiculously fun as Po. Black makes his panda alter-ego both lovable and hilarious - mixing real heart amidst the rapid-fire jokes. In this movie, Po seemingly starts things off having not grown up too much from the previous movies. He's now a bonafide hero - the "Dragon Warrior" - but he mostly spends his time traipsing around the village and basking in his adulation of his fans. However, the movie then proceeds to give Po a real hero's journey - not only must he reconcile his life as he's known it so far with the way his fellow pandas live, but he also must finally become a true leader. The movie frames Po's character arc with surprising elegance. Also handled with surprising elegance: the relationship between Po, his adoptive dad Ping, and his actual, newly-reunited-with dad Li. Give credit to Cranston and James Hong (as Ping) for their great voice-work. But also give credit to a script that somehow makes you care about the relationship between a giant panda and a duck, and may even get you a bit misty-eyed.

This franchise has always had a pretty ridiculously-stacked bench of voice actors. Aside from Black as Po, you've also got a returning ensemble of Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, David Cross, Lucy Liu, and Jackie Chan as his kung-fu compatriots. Plus Dustin Hoffman as curmudgeonly mentor Master Shifu. Kate Hudson also gets to have fun as Mei Mei, an awkward female panda who comes on a bit strong towards her latest crush, Po. Basically, the voice acting here is pretty excellent - and it's no surprise that always-funny guys like Cross nail their jokes and provide great comic relief. Kai is voiced by J.K. Simmons, and he's suitably big, bad, and menacing.

In terms of action, well, this is where the franchise has always really excelled. Part 3 delivers - with some truly spectacular visuals and set pieces. What I really like is that the KUNG FU PANDA movies playfully pay homage to classic kung-fu films - though they also show a real respect for them, and for the elaborate fight choreography that is their trademark. There's a lot of Jackie Chan-style use of props and other objects in the action, which is cool. And, bigger picture, the overall visuals of the film are just plain eye-popping. Like the other entries in the franchise, the use of color here is fantastic. Plus, there are really cool interludes that are animated in the style of ancient Chinese scrolls. Very cool.

The only real knock against this one is that, in some ways, it's a bit same-y vs. the previous movies. A lot of the big themes (Po's lack of maturity, his directionless, his fraught relationship with his adopted father and friends) have been covered before. But there are some nice new twists (Po re-learning how to live properly as a Panda), and the mythology of the franchise feels satisfyingly expanded.

At the end of the day, these films are just incredibly fun. Perfect movie-going comfort food. I don't know that a KUNG FU PANDA movie will ever be held in the same high regard as the likes of Wall-E or Toy Story. But you know what? Maybe they should be.

My Grade: A-

GOOSEBUMPS Is A Charming, Old-School Kid-Adventure Movie

 GOOSEBUMPS Review:

- How to take dozens and dozens of Goosebumps books and make them into one movie? The creative minds behind the GOOSEBUMPS movie have found a fun way to do it. Casting Jack Black as real-life series author R.L. Stine, the movie posits that the creepy creatures of Stine's books would magically come to life if not sealed tight within their original manuscripts. This leaves Stine and his now-teenage daughter perpetually on-the-run, fleeing whatever small town they've settled into when a monster accidentally gets loose and suspicions begin to get raised. But now, just as Stine thinks he's found a nice, quiet place to settle into and raise his daughter, the boy next door befriends her, sneaks into Stine's house, and, next thing you know ... monsters, ghouls, and evil talking puppets are running amok.

I really dug Goosebumps. It's squarely in the tradition of classic 80's and early 90's kid-adventure movies - a genre that largely gets ignored these days (with the occasional standout film like Sky High to the rescue). But for people of a certain age, there's a definite nostalgic charm in seeing a new film that calls to mind the likes of E.T., The Goonies, The Monster Squad, etc. All the markings are here - small-town suburban kids thrust into a big adventure, a crush-worthy girl next door, adults who just-don't-understand, and geeky sidekicks who might just have their big hero moment coming.
alike without ever becoming too cheesy or groan-worthy. This really feels like a labor of love made
What makes Goosebumps work is that it's got that classic 80's-style Amblin vibe, but it's not just coasting on nostalgia. The humor is smart and genuinely funny, and the dialogue often had me laughing out loud. It's also got just enough big, dumb, goofy charm to win over kids and adults by smart, funny people as opposed to something just slapped together to make a quick buck.
Jack Black is a ton of fun as R.L. Stine. He's in completely over-the-top mode, doing a weird accent and looking perpetually vexed at the kids who've unleashed his collective works upon the hapless citizenry. But you've also got to hand it to the cast of teen actors who are supremely likable and do a good job of bringing both humor and heart to the table. Dylan Minette is a capable everyman as Zach, Ryan Lee is really funny as Champ, the nerdy friend with a big heart, and Odeya Rush is excellent as Hannah - Stine's daughter, who has more to her than meets the eye.

There's also a who's-who of talented and funny actors in the supporting cast. Amy Ryan as Zach's mother, Jillian Bell as his overbearing aunt, Ken Marino as the very Ken Marino-ish coach at Zach's school. These are the kind of actors who can land jokes like nobody's business, and that only adds to the on-point humor.

Where the movie falters a little bit is with the actual monsters. The Goosebumps books provide no shortage of terrifying creations for the film to utilize, but overall there aren't that many memorable baddies to speak of. The standout is Slappy the Dummy - a wise-cracking, sadistic ventriloquist's dummy who leads the attack of unleashed-from-the-books antagonists. Slappy is fun and suitably nasty, but the other monsters are mostly just background noise. And only at the very end of the film do we see them attack en mass, so there are minimal scenes of them truly causing chaos on an epic scale. What's more, the creature design is a bit underwhelming, with a lot of the monsters looking a bit bargain-basement.

Even if the movie doesn't quite deliver the sort of memorable monsters that Goosebumps fans may have hoped, there's plenty to like here. Director Rob Letterman and his team of writers nail enough of the comedy, characters, and overall sense of fun to make this one a pleasant surprise - a just-spooky-enough adventure that will likely charm moviegoers with its old-school sensibilities and smartly-done humor.

My Grade: B+

BERNIE Is Clever Comic Satire

 BERNIE Review:

- Bernie is a really cool little movie from Richard Linklater, a director whose work I always admire and who never fails to take chances and dare to be different. With BERNIE, Linklater re-teams with his School of Rock star Jack Black, but this time, Black plays very much against type. Black is Bernie Tiede, a sweet, soft spoken, kindly, beloved pillar of his community - the tight-knit community of Carthage, Texas. This darkly comedic film - based on a true story - explores what happens when Bernie, Carthage's favorite son, is accused of murdering bitter, mean old Marjorie Nugent, its most hated woman. Linklater weaves a meticulously-crafted, pitch black, Southern-fried satire here - crafting a memorable morality play that also bursts at the seams with local flavor and detail.

Bernie is shot in a blend of styles. We see the action play out in a series of flashbacks to various points in Bernie's life in Carthage, but the entire narrative is framed with mockumentary-style talking heads, used as a Texas-sized Greek chorus of commentators. As the revolving cast of Carthage locals provide their recollections of Bernie, we'll flash to those moments and see them play out. What makes this work so well is just how authentic-seeming it all is. The characters are over-the-top and exaggerated, sure, but there's also a lovingly-specific quality to them that brought to mind the eccentrics of Christopher Guest's various mockumentary films. It doesn't hurt that all of the actors that portray the interview subjects are just fantastic. I'm not sure to what extent any of them are locals, but it sure feels like most of them are.

As for Black, he helps make Bernie into a fascinating character. Essentially, Bernie is this very odd, almost asexual guy who helps run the local funeral parlor. But he also leads church choir, directs and stars in local theater productions, and essentially devotes his life to improving the community. He's nice to everyone, and even if he's a little eccentric, everyone loves him and admires all the good that he does. Bernie even makes it a habit to visit the homes of the recently-widowed and present flowers and gift-baskets personally. It's in this way that he meets Marjorie - a mean, nasty woman who rejects Bernie's friendly gestures at first, but gradually warms up to his kindness and offers of companionship. Suddenly, the two become an unlikely pair of friends. But the friendship evolves into a weird, master-slave sort of relationship, as the ever-demanding and controlling Marjorie pushes the eager-to-please Bernie to his breaking point.

Back to Black though, he really is fantastic as Bernie. There's an amazing scene that opens the movie that really sums up the character, with Black demonstrating to a room full of students the proper way to dress a corpse for burial. Things that might gross out an ordinary person don't faze Bernie, and he meticulously attends to every detail of the dead body as if working on a painting for a gallery. Immediately, we realize that Bernie is sort of a strange fellow, but at the same time, you've got to admire his dedication to his craft. Soon, we begin to realize that that same dedication extends to everything that Bernie does.

A couple of other actors really stood out to me in this one. Aside from the amazing bit players who fill out the cast as interview subjects, a real highlight is Matthew McConaughey as Danny Buck, the smooth-talking lawyer who becomes a controversial figure when he becomes the man hired to prosecute Bernie. McConaughey is great here - and subtley hilarious. Buck, the alpha-male Texan, seems a bit baffled by Bernie's effeminate good-naturedness, and that makes him even more determined to see him put away. Meanwhile, as Marjorie, Shirley MacLaine is also excellent. Marjorie is a darkly comic character - just a horrible woman who only gets more horrible the nicer Bernie is to her.

Linklater crafts a quirky but very clever film here. So many movies are black-and-white moral exercises ... I found it fascinating to watch this story that poses the question - what if a man commits murder, but nobody could possibly blame him? Directed with a sharply satirical comic flair, and with a meticulous eye for detail, BERNIE is another fine film in Linklater's storied career.

My Grade: B+