One of the things that makes Po, the eponymous hero of the animated Kung Fu Panda franchise, so endearing is that he doesn’t take his skills in stride. As voiced once again by the excitable gravel that is Jack Black’s speaking instrument, Po takes a childlike delight in being able to defy gravity and dispatch… Read More »
KUNG FU PANDA
In the grand tradition of the DRUNKEN MASTER series, the one in which the hero could only wage righteous martial arts warfare when in an advanced state of inebriation, comes KUNG FU PANDA, about a bear that can only wage righteous martial arts warfare when, well, that’s the problem. Po is the unlikely eponymous panda… Read More »
THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX
THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX is as bold, as brave, and as charming as its eponymous mouse hero. Adapted from the book of the same name by Kate DiCamillo, this is an animated film for both kids and adults that is vibrant, complex, and fearless in its depiction of the good, the bad, and the careless… Read More »
CONDFIDENCE
Like many great noirs, CONFIDENCE is told in flashback, narrated, as is also a convention of the genre, by a corpse. How he came to be lying in a gutter with several slugs in him makes for an intricately plotted little tale of crosses, double-crosses, and cons that you wont see coming. As you watching… Read More »
RUNAWAY JURY
With RUNAWAY JURY we are deep into classic Grisham territory. Based on his novel of the same name, it pits evil big business against an idealistic do-gooder with the moral lines firmly drawn. The bad guys are the gun manufacturers and their creature, Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman), a whiz of a jury consultant whose… Read More »
STRANGER THAN FICTION
In STRANGER THAN FICTION, Will Ferrell bravely sets aside the manic side of his personna in favor of that personna’s innate sweetness. It’s a bold move and one that is not without charm, but it’s also one that should have been better served than it is by a script that takes far too long to get… Read More »
PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER
The first image in Tom Tykwer’s PERFUME is of a nose in close-up emerging from the twilight. The first sound is of its drawing a deep breath. It is stark, it is simple, and it is perfect. Smell is the point of this decadent gothic tale, and it is the driving force of the nose’s… Read More »
MR. MAGORIUM’S WONDER EMPORIUM
In MR. MAGORIUM’S WONDER EMPORIUM we discover that neither bright and shiny sets nor silly socks a fun film makes. Sprung from the sadly underfevered imagination of Zach Helm (STRANGER THAN FICTION), this fable is like something imagined by Turgenev during what would have been even for him one of his more bleak interludes. The plot… Read More »