Everyone can agree that the exceedingly spry “Kung Fu Panda” film series have been certified exquisite and adventurous productions from day one. It is no surprise that the third installment, Kung Fu Panda 3, continues to carry the mantle by being a gorgeously stylish and visually arresting computer-animation film exuding a vibrant cheekiness that shines. More important…
If there was ever a case of “too little, too late,” it would be Goosebumps, released by Sony Pictures Entertainment under its Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation labels. And, not unlike “The Simpsons Movie” in 2007, this picture should have come out at least 15 years earlier. “Carpe diem” or “strike when the iron…
You can say Po, the lovable panda of “Kung Fu Panda” and “Kung Fu Panda 2” is a lot of things, smart just isn’t one of them. Apparently, it isn’t a strong suit of his birth father’s either. In this third installment aptly titled Kung Fu Panda 3, Po (voiced again by Jack Black) now…
In the opening shot of Richard Linklater’s Bernie, our eponymous protagonist (played by the infectious Jack Black), who is an assistant funeral director and mortician, warns that, “You can’t have grief tragically becoming a comedy.” Ironically, this dramedy based on a 1996 murder that shook the small town of Carthage, Texas does just that. Written…
Who, in their right mind, would have thought a film about the enthusiasm for the frankly boring occupation of birdwatching would make for such a fun experience? Apparently 20th Century Fox did, as their newest release, The Big Year, while not drop dead hilarious, is nonetheless a very decent time at the cinemaplex. Evidently, for…
If not for anything else, the upcoming movie The Big Year should be entertaining just because it has a fantastic cast supporting it. It’s about three guys, each with a separate crisis — mid-life, work-life and no-life — that compete with each other in everything they do. It culminates — imagine it — at an…
The premise for 2008’s Kung Fu Panda was conceptualized by a DreamWorks Animation executive, Michael Lachance, and has been around since the early ’90s. When it finally released, the production (directed by John Wayne Stevenson and Mark Osborne) slowly became a financial and critical success for the studio. In fact, the story of Po (voiced…
