Though the first installment never fully captured this guy‘s attention, Kung Fu Panda 2 actually had me yearning for more. When taking that feeling into account, the only true disappointment to note here is that the flick barely runs 90 minutes.  Every animated-action engagement felt climatic from the get-go. The landscape this adventure was placed upon will give audiences an eye-gasm.

With all that praise being said, there isn’t a ton of laughter that will be flying out of one’s mouth. Chalk this up to a personal preference, but there should be multiple laugh-out-loud moments when looking at the make-up of this product. First off, it’s an obese Panda that does Kung Fu. And Jack Black is voicing this man-child. That combination alone should induce a lot more than a soft-smile. In reality, it doesn’t; but this is something the viewer will not dwell on after this story wisps through the screen.

Using a different type of animation within the modern 3D CGI, a back-story is projected to the audience regarding an evil Peacock in Lord Shen (voiced by Gary Oldman). Shen was banished from the great kingdom by his parents, stemming from the horrors he committed against a race of Pandas, based on a foretold prophecy that he will meet his demise from a “black & white” warrior. After he received the boot, he took his army of wolves and vowed to return and rule China.  And the bird lived up to his words. Shen has created a weapon that can counter-act any Kung Fu style. Unleashing this new found fire power (remember it’s ancient China), he begins to destroy all the cities until there are no longer any threats to his reign of terror.

Of course, Po (voiced by Jack Black) and the Furious Five are not just going to sit back and let this happen. So he, Tigress (voiced by Angelina Jolie), Mantis (voiced by Seth Rogen), Monkey (voiced by Jackie Chan), Crane (voiced by David Cross) and Viper (voiced by Lucy Liu) travel from the Valley of Peace and battle Shen across rivers, towns and a great fortress. During these exciting battles (that will have people clamoring for the videogame), Po discovers that Shen holds the key to unlocking where he truly came from.

The story is pretty fundamental and obvious (this product is aimed at the kiddies after all), but the execution and environments on-hand create a worthy cinematic experience. Every area Po and his fighting companions explored in this tale brings a sense of wonderment for all ages to engage in.

For those that are just getting introduced to the Kung Fu Panda crew, think of this piece as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ story – with Po representing the immature Michelangelo – being fused with an epic storytelling pattern found in any notable fantasy/adventure flick. The script and the characters are playful and vibrant, and there’s enough moments where the right amount of heart and substance enter in. Seeing young Po as a baby in the recurring hand-drawn animated flashback moments is easily the cutest thing seen on screen this year. (And that’s coming from a wannabe rock star who patterns a portion of his life after Steven Tyler).

When the story does get serious – or even mildly dire at times – the writers are quick to lighten up the mood through the dialogue. Stealing the show in the dialogue department is Gary Oldman as Shen.  The evil, sarcastic Peacock had the perfect balance of being comical one minute and insanely cruel the next.  Oldman found the right amusing tone in his voicing of this arrogant and bitter bird.

So there’s not a ton of laughs, or more specifically, not a ton of NEW laughs on display in this light-hearted piece.  The choreography of a few scenes are set-up to get the younger people giggling.  In the end though, it’s the splendid animation and warm-touching moments that will keep one fully attentive to this adventure.

Overall, Kung Fu Panda 2 trumps the first one and will be pleasing to all audiences. That’s all a sequel of this caliber can ask for. Go in peace…And do not feel guilty about splurging on the 3D.

RATING: 4 out of 5

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Paramount has released a new full trailer for Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom. This trailer features new scenes, new gags and finally gets round to explaining the story.

Watch below:

The sequel sees the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu. It is up to Po and The Furious Five to journey across China to face this threat and vanquish it. But how can Po stop a weapon that can stop kung fu?

Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross and James Hong have once again provided their voices, as have newcomers Victor Garber, Michelle Yeoh, Gary Oldman, James Woods and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom will be released May 26th.

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Paramount has released the Super Bowl TV spot for Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom. Releasing these things early kills the anticipation somewhat, but trailers are made to be seen so they might as well.

Watch below

The sequel sees the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu. It is up to Po and The Furious Five to journey across China to face this threat and vanquish it. But how can Po stop a weapon that can stop kung fu?

Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross and James Hong have once again provided their voices, as have newcomers Victor Garber, Michelle Yeoh, Gary Oldman, James Woods and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom will be released May 2011.

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DreamWorks has released a new TV spot for Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom. It only lasts 16 seconds, but it’s worth a watch as it contains new footage and promises “Awesomeness”.

The sequel sees the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu. It is up to Po and The Furious Five to journey across China to face this threat and vanquish it. But how can Po stop a weapon that can stop kung fu?

Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross and James Hong have once again provided their voices, as have newcomers Victor Garber, Michelle Yeoh, Gary Oldman, James Woods and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom will be released May 2011.

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This has been said in previous columns, but it needs to be put out there once more. When it comes to fam-friendly flicks, Twentieth Century Fox can do wrong according to audiences. And box office receipts solidify this. So no matter which path this review of Gulliver’s Travels takes, it really doesn’t have any influence when it comes to the above mentioned tag-team.

With that being said, we’re going to give it our best shot to guide you – the reader – down the right path in that quest for finding quality entertainment. Here’s how much one will get out of this 88 minute adaptation.

Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) is a dreamer with no dreams. He’s stuck working in the mailroom for the New York Tribune and has absolutely nothing on the horizon. The guy lacks the desire to put himself out there, as noted by his new boss (T.J. Miller), who was promoted over Gulliver after just one day on the job. Gulliver does have one desire in mind though. He fawns over travel editor Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet). He lacks the courage to ask her out but comes up with a plan to grab her attention. After plagiarizing a bunch of travel related articles, Darcy becomes impressed and gives the grunge looking guy a chance. She sends him on assignment into the Bermuda Triangle. Spoiler alert, Gulliver disappears.

He ends up in a land where he is literally the big man on campus. In the kingdom of Lilliputian, Gulliver is a giant. He is eventually embraced by the King (Billy Connolly) and forms a strong friendship with a peasant Horatio (Jason Segel). The one person who becomes insanely jealous upon the big guy’s arrival is General Edward (Chris O’Dowd). Gulliver quickly becomes an idol of sorts, as he tells his new little friends about his past life. Which is essentially a bunch of lies taken from Star Wars and Titanic lore. The once popular General becomes enraged and it only gets worse when his reluctant bride to be in Princess Mary (Emily Blunt) also takes a liking to Gulliver and his pal Horatio. General Edwards resorts to a plan by siding with the sworn enemy of Lilliputian, in the hopes of ridding this world of the “beastly” Gulliver.

Although the story keeps the prevalent theme found in Jonathan Swift’s original 18^th century novel, the way it projects the meaning out to the viewer slightly misfires. It seems that director Rob Letterman realizes this toward the end of the flick, for they haphazardly piece together a cookie-cutter sequence – complete with half-hearted dialogue – in a poor attempt to project the intended message before the credits roll. There’s absolutely no feeling for any of the characters. Compassion is not on this menu. What is available for selection are a few pop-culture shenanigans/references. Don’t get me wrong, these are funny moments. Yet there are only a handful of them. If there were more “live guitar hero” sequences, then this might have ushered in fresh comedic vibe to an already fabled story. Instead, it becomes too commercialized and negligible.

Stories such as Shrek found the perfect blend of mixing pop culture into a fairy tale setting. The hip nature of the script landed precisely where it should have in Shrek. By doing so, it didn’t have to worry about overshadowing the escapism from the fairy tale angle. With Gulliver, the flick can’t make up its mind. Of course the script was geared toward working in a modern perspective with a game Jack Black. Just seems the creativity couldn’t reach a high enough level to continuously entertain an audience. It won’t bore you, but it fails to truly get the an audience involved.

There are moments though. Chris O’Dowd’s take on General Edward is the crowd pleaser. Think of his character as the Sherriff of Rottingham from Mel Brooks’ Men in Tights. Jack Black is doing the same shtick again, but he eventually gets one to smile. The guy gave it his all. Too bad the writers did not. Everyone else gets into their roles and perform well enough to keep the younger viewers engaged. Speaking of those younger viewers, do not succumb to the pressure of them wanting to see this flick in 3D. There is not one scene where the 3D enhances anything. Nothing flies at you and the environment can be thoroughly appreciated in a normal 2D setting.

Overall, Gulliver’s Travels will not offend anybody. It may not entertaining anyone unless this is their first introduction to a Jack Black movie. The atmosphere is fun to explore and the special effects (besides the 3D) are interesting to see. Younger crowds (single digits in age) will be all about exploring this. The rest of us will probably never visit this one again.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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DreamWorks has released a teaser trailer for Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom, the sequel to DreamWorks’ most successful non-Shrek film Kung Fu Panda. Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross and James Hong have once again provided their voices, as have newcomers Victor Garber, Michelle Yeoh, Gary Oldman, James Woods and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Watch the teaser below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LaYnU0AIWU

The sequel sees the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu. It is up to Po and The Furious Five to journey across China to face this threat and vanquish it. But how can Po stop a weapon that can stop kung fu?

For those wondering, Gary Oldman will be voicing a peacock and Jean-Claude Van Damme will be voicing a crocodile. I’m in.

Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom will be released May 2011.

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Earlier this week we got the first official poster for Gulliver’s Travels, and now 20th Century Fox has released the first trailer. The film, directed by Monsters vs Aliens director Rob Letterman, stars Jack Black as Lemuel Gulliver, a travel writer who, on an assignment to the Bermuda Triangle, suddenly finds himself a giant among men when he washes ashore on the hidden island of Liliput, home to a population of tiny people.

It doesn’t look that good. Maybe it’s due to how the trailer is presented, with half of it just showing Jack Black in an office, although there are hardly any laughs to be had so it may just be the film. It’s a shame Emily Blunt had to make this due to contract obligations from her Devil Wears Prada days instead of playing Black Widow in Iron Man 2.

Gulliver’s Travels also stars Jason Segel as Horatio, and Billy Connolly as King of Lilliputia. It has a release date of December 22nd in 3D (for those interested).

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20th Century Fox has released the first official poster for their modern take on Gulliver’s Travels. The film is directed by Monsters vs Aliens director Rob Letterman and stars Jack Black as Lemuel Gulliver, a free-spirited travel writer who, on an assignment to the Bermuda Triangle, suddenly finds himself a giant among men when he washes ashore on the hidden island of Liliput, home to a population of tiny people.

Gulliver’s Travels also stars Jason Segel as Horatio, Emily Blunt as Princess of Lilliputia and Billy Connolly as King of Lilliputia, and will be released on December 22nd in 3D.

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Year One is the newest movie directed by Harold Ramis, who comedy lovers (and, hell, just about anyone) probably know as the director of Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, Multiplicity, Bedazzled, Analyze That and under-watched character film, The Ice Harvest. Ramis isn’t too shabby at coming up with compelling comedy scripts either, with writing credits on Animal House, Stripes, and Analyze This, among other things.

Things that involve “busting” and ghosts for one. Yeah, Harold Ramis, AKA Egon Spengler wrote Year One with two of the creators of NBC’s The Office, Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eiesenberg. This could be important to you, because these are the guys who are currently holed up in some Los Angeles room-without-windows pounding out the script that will hopefully see The Ghostbusters return to the big screen, pending Columbia and Sony’s approval of the script and signing of the check that will see the original four ‘Busters, channeling their much younger selves.

I went into Year One with hope that I might see some glimmers of genius that would make me feel better than I currently do at the prospect of a Ghostbusters III. After seeing Jack Black eat bear poop, Michael Cera pee on his face and Oliver Platt insist that being hairy and gay is somehow funny in its own right, I started making excuses. Excuses like: “Well, Ghostbusters hinges on plot and character while Year One doesn’t,” and “Maybe they’re just getting all their fart jokes out of their system,” even: “Maybe Harold Ramis was really against this scene, but they put it in anyway.”

I spent the last 20 minutes of Year One trying to figure out where the film lost me, but I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself. If you’re getting pissed off at my allusions, I’ll simplify it for you: When you go to the beach or the pool, does your towel have a cartoon character on it? If so, go ahead and see Year One, it’s probably aimed right at you. If you were never alive at the same time as Kurt Cobain, bring your bros to the theater, get someone older to score you some booze and have a freakin’ blast.

On the flip side, if you’re a big fan of The Life Of Brian and History of the World: Part I, you’ve seen this premise before. If you like both of those movies and CAN’T STAND the Jack Black or the Michael Cera schtick, then this movie is going actively piss you off.

Jack Black plays Zed, who eats the Forbidden Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and is cast out of his tribe. Micheal Cera plays Oh, who is relegated to the sidekick role, and leaves the tribe because Jack Black burned his hut down. Whenever I refer to these characters again, I’m going to use the actor’s names, because the characters and plot don’t matter, and I felt like I was watching Jack Black and Michael Cera hang out rather than playing characters. This is going to be what alienates audiences from this movie, because Jack Black does his best Jack Black all the way through and Michael Cera does his best Michael Cera.

Which is fine, if you know that’s what you’re going to see.

I’m a fan of Michael Cera’s comedic timing, his mumbled punch lines and self-conscious sincerity still work for me. I don’t always get Jack Black’s near-Vaudevillian craziness, but on occasion it fits. The important thing is that I don’t actively avoid these actors. The poster for the film perfectly sums it up: Jack Black, Michael Cera as cavemen.

Good. By now you should know if this movie is aimed at you.

I know that there are multiple cameos and characters by Judd Apatow-friendly actors you probably like or trust, such as Paul Rudd, David Cross, and Bill Hader, but believe me it doesn’t matter. It’s like each actor was given a card with a single, broad joke written on it and told to improvise using that card in every scene. David Cross’ Cain is always a selfish asshole, Paul Rudd’s Abel exists only to get bludgeoned to death in a physical comedy piece and Bill Hader is virtually unrecognizable in black makeup. When Hank Azaria’s one-note, foreskin-obsessed Abraham returns for the climatic sequence, my head was in my hands when they didn’t give him a joke.

Year One could have been called The First Road Trip and might have benefited from some people who thought it was a Road Trip prequel and got suckered into buying a ticket. Ramis has said in multiple interviews that if you condense the timeline of the book of Genesis, it becomes a road trip film. Ramis said it, so I know that’s the structure he thinks he’s following, but when I walked out of the theater, I honestly felt like I had spent an hour-and-a-half watching HULU and Funny Or Die clips.

The unifying plot point is Jack Black’s feeling that he was chosen by God and must save his sister and the slave girl he’s in love with, both have been moved to Sodom, which was chosen over Gomorrah, because you can’t make as many ass-sex jokes over yonder. Otherwise, the movie seems to actively avoid having a linear plot, becoming a series of sketches.

For example, very early on in the film we TWICE cut away from a scene where Michael Cera should logically be dead. Under the tree of knowledge the obligatory snake appears, begins to constrict Michael Cera, then…we cut to the next scene.

Double-you, tee, eff, Ramis.

A few scenes later, a mountain lion is in a tree, spots Cera and LEAPS…

…we cut to the next scene.

All of this would be fine if there was something funny about it, and I have to blame the script because I know these comedic actors and if they got to improv something funny, they would. Take Gabriel Sunday, an actor I highly praised in his debut indie, My Suicide. Here, he’s given a retarded character to play, because it’s that kind of movie. He has one scene with Michael Cera, a scene where I was ready for some damn comedy, and it’s 95% fart noises. Then he asks Michael Cera: “You wanna hear a story?,” and I think: “Ah yes, dry and subtle humor, here we come.”

…we cut to the next scene.

There are a few jokes that actually made me laugh. Michael Cera has a very charming habit of muttering a punchline right as the scene ends. I’d say this might be a good example that there was – at one point – good things in the script, but then I noticed that the three Cera interjections I laughed at (example: “Yes We Can!”) were ADR work done when Cera’s mouth isn’t on screen.

Year One plays like a loosely-assembled group of outtakes from a really funny film that uses dry humor to discuss the origins of religion, why we should question the power that rules us and the role of sex in modern day society, but what we get are fart, poop and sodomy jokes. I want to see the missing film. When Jack Black delivers his climactic speech, I heard his words and they resonated, it’s just too bad they weren’t funny and didn’t really apply to anything that had happened in the previous 80 minutes.

Let’s hope that I’m not too far off and Year One ends up being all the rejected jokes for a new Ghostbusters script, because if it’s a sign that Harold Ramis has gone off the deep end, we might see Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman dealing with the terrors of elderly fecal incontinence, which he can’t control when excited.

And that would be shitty in so many ways beyond the obvious.

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A lot of movie studios are using the Super Bowl to debut new footage from movies we haven’t even got trailers for yet, and that is the case with Year One. The rather funny TV spot features Jack Black, Michael Cera, Paul Rudd and David Cross having a confrontation over hunting bulls.

When a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers (Jack Black and Michael Cera) are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world in Columbia Pictures’ comedy “Year One.” Harold Ramis directs. The screenplay is by Harold Ramis & Gene Stupnitsky & Lee Eisenberg (“The Office”) from a story by Harold Ramis. The film is produced by Judd Apatow, Harold Ramis, and Clayton Townsend. In theaters June 19, 2009,

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