Kung Fu Panda 2

Alice and I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 today.  We had enjoyed the first movie and this movie was somewhat different.  There was less emphasis on the things that the Po could not do and was instead a focus on his surprise that he was adopted as a child by his father who happens to be a goose.  Later in the movie when Po reveals his surprise the tiger character says, “You didn’t know this?”

The point, however, is not so much on the adoption as it is on the fact that he loves the father who raised him.  The evil Peacock (!!!) has a plan to conquer China and Po and his Kung Fu friends are left with the task of thwarting this plan.  It involves cornering all the metal possible to construct an evil and deadly gun.  Despite the excessive fighting and fight scenes, it is interesting that there is no blood and I’m not sure more than two “people” die.  That, I suppose would make the movie too heavy.

The ending with Po telling his father he discovered the answer to his question, “Who am I?”  He answered, “I am your son.”  That little revelation was worth the price of the movie.  One shameless anticlimactic scene after that poignant scene was Po’s biological Panda father realizing that his son was still alive.  It sets up the sequel.  It didn’t have to do this.

Hey, we loved the part about the relationship between Po and his father and that was a nice close to this sweet movie.  Forget the last 20 seconds of the movie.

Mr. Popper's Penguins

After seeing this movie, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, as I was getting ready for this review I checked a couple of review and found them scathing and mean spirited.  I was surprised that many people just can’t stand Jim Carrey.  I must confess that he’s not always my cup of tea but I couldn’t believe how nasty some of the reviews were.

Tom Popper (Jim Carrey) is a divorced realtor who while growing up regularly communicated with his father via short wave radio.  On his deathbed his father decides to send Tom a penguin and then through a series of miscommunications Tom ends up with six in his posh New York apartment.  Tom finds that his estranged wife and children like the penguins and he spends his time hiding them from snoopy tenants, a money grubbing doorman, and a zookeeper who wants to claim the penguins and advance his zoo “fortunes.”

The premise is scarcely profound but the bits with the penguins, their bathroom habits, and their growing loyalty to Tom keeps the viewer smiling.  One review said the movie was “predictable.”  That may well be but that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad movie.  Tom manages to “rescue” the penguins and reclaim a building and restaurant that his father used when Tom was a child.  It’s fun to see Angela Lansbury as the owner who likes and remembers Tom, despite Tom’s many faults.

When one of three eggs laid by the penguins does not hatch, it provides the belated “aha” moment for Tom.  It is sweet to see in the closing scene, the penguins back in their natural habitat rather than confined to the zoo.

Preachy?  Not really.  Sweet?  Yes, at times.  Funny?  It has its moments.  Worth seeing?  I think so.  You could do so much worse.

X-Men 4

I confess.  Alice and I do not follow the "X-Men Universe" and we weren't really too sure about the characters that we saw in this fourth X-Men movie which was, technically, a "prequel" to other X-Men movies.  We liked this movie very much and especially like the unique "handicaps" that the mutants had and how they dealt with them.  Though the movie was violent at times, it's message was one of care and concern in how these young characters learned to support and lean on each other.  Added to this was the scenario of the Cuban Missle Crisis.  Alice commented that both the Russians and Americans were acting the exact same way in how they were responding to this crisis.  There was no underlying evil intent on either side, it seemed.  That was quite refreshing.  We found it unusual that we could enjoy this movie even though we didn't know what these characters were capable of doing and how they became so-called super heroes.  Ultimately, it was not a movie about super powers but about dealing with being different.  It is definitely worth seeing.