You might not think it possible for a character that is pushing 80 years-old to have as much energy in his old bones as Batman does in his latest screen epic, The Dark Knight, but that is just not the case. In his follow-up the franchise re-energizing Batman Begins, director Christopher Nolan takes the Caped Crusader to places never before explored in film, and seldom touched upon even within the comics. The result is a superhero film unlike most other superhero films--a grim, often unrelenting tale of moral ambiguity about men driven by convictions so intense it compromises their sanity.

With masked vigilante Batman (Christian Bale) striking fear into the hearts of criminal throughout Gotham City, it looks like there may actually be hope for t...Read the entire review

It's been three lengthy years since "Batman Begins" clobbered the big screen, and the wait for the next chapter in this saga has been interminable. What director Christopher Nolan achieved with "Begins" was superhero tonality on an inspired, chilling scale; it was cartoon vigilantism turned into a mesmerizing metropolitan dirge, masterfully executed in a manner that made previous attempts to bring Batman to life seem juvenile and insincere.

Well, "The Dark Knight" eats "Begins" for breakfast.

As Batman (Christian Bale) lords over Gotham City, he watches his efforts to curb crime, with the help of Lieutenant Gordon (a quite reserved and quite marvelous Gary Oldman), finally bearing fruit. Into his path walks Joker (Heath Ledger), a madman who wants to rule the local crime syndic...Read the entire review

A searing lament for China and the eradication of its historic farming culture, "Up the Yangtze" is a stunning documentary that details every gut-churning step of inevitability.

The longest river in Asia, the Yangtze has nurtured China's countryside since time began; a flowing fingerprint that has come to define the hard-working inhabitants. The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric project intended to generate valuable power to the land, at the cost of repurposing the natural flow of the river. It's a contentious construction undertaking, but the real cost is found with the underprivileged citizens who live along the Yangtze. With over two million residents forced to relocate away from the rising dam waters, it's left the county perplexed and resentful, now only able to rely only on themselves while the government looks away.

Directed by Yung Chang, "Yangtze" aims to unfold a larger story of anxiety...Read the entire review

It was only a year ago when I suffered utter disdain for "Hairspray," a shrill, over-directed musical comedy that I found merciless in its unpleasantness. Turns out all it was missing was the music of ABBA; "Mamma Mia!" is the same vintage of shrill, over-directed musical comedy, yet it breaks free of self-conscious bondage to kick off a suitably electrifying big-screen pajama party of dancing, singing, and devotion to all things Europop.

Working herself into a stupor trying to hold her idyllic Greek island hotel together, Donna (Meryl Streep) is preparing for the wedding of her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), inviting her old friends (Christine Baranski and Julie Walters) down for the celebration. However, Sophie has plans of her own, sending invitations to three of her mother's past lovers (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard) to find out which man is her real father...Read the entire review

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A new standard has been set for superhero action movies. While one billionaire, the industrialist Tony Stark, has so far owned the summer, it's time the mustachioed playboy step aside and let the his much richer colleague take the stage. Iron Man was an example of pure entertainment done well, but Christopher Nolan's second Batman picture, The Dark Knight, is entertainment as high art. It's as close as you're likely to get to a perfect genre film, and a few moldy one-liners not withstanding, it barely flubs a note.

As a reviewer, there is not much left for me to say at this point. Given the hype and the near universal praise The Dark Knight has already received, I'm not sure what one more voice in the chorus is really going to do. Yes, this movie is as goo...Read the entire review

"Diminished Capacity" is actor Terry Kinney's feature-film directing debut, and it handles like the work of someone who's just getting the feel for his storytelling dimension. A gentle, agreeable dramedy, "Capacity" reveals that Kinney has a unique hold on tone and shares a palpable charm with his actors.

After suffering a head injury, Cooper (Matthew Broderick) has been left with a sketchy memory, losing loved ones and his job to his inability to concentrate. Traveling to rural Illinois at the behest of his mother to look after his mentally questionable Uncle Rollie (Alan Alda), Cooper finds a mess at home and his old love Charlotte (Virginia Madsen), who is newly single. When Rollie discloses he's the owner of a rare Frank Schulte baseball card with a desire to sell, the gang heads to Chicago to a card collectors convention to price the prize out. Looking for easy cash, Cooper instead finds increas...Read the entire review

"Space Chimps" is many things, but the one advantage it lacks is a sizable budget. If you're a respectable production that wants to be taken seriously and can't even scrounge up the coin to license Yello's 1985 hit "Oh Yeah," instead electing to use a tinny sound-alike...that should be the first clue that something is seriously awry with the movie.

Grandson to a famous simian who long ago heroically launched into space, Ham (voiced by Andy Samberg) is stuck in the circus, shot out of a cannon nightly to painful results. Recruited by the government to take part in a new space mission, Ham is thrown together with fellow chimps Luna (Cheryl Hines) and Titan (Patrick Warburton) and sent into training. Their mission is to travel into deep space, enter a wormhole, and explore an alien world. Once arrived, the situation swiftly unravels, forcing the hairy explorers to band together to battle Zartog (Jeff Da...Read the entire review

2004's "Hellboy" was a sprawling, mysterious, comical, slimy, and idiosyncratic monster movie. "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" has all of those qualities and one more: restraint. Well, at least a newfound sense of limitation; this sequel overdoses in a big way on fantasy tangents, yet, unlike the earlier picture, it clicks together with a greater, more direct geek panache.

On orders to keep his crimson mug out of the public eye, facing the domestic wrath of pyro-ready girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), and trying to console amphibious friend Abe Sapien (Doug Jones, in both body and voice this time out) as he explores love for the first time, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) has a full dance card of problems. When ancient royalty Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) rises up to seize control of a magical crown that controls the all-powerful robotic Golden Army, it's up to Hellboy and the BPRD to stop him. However, as the h...Read the entire review

Once the king of comedy, it's been a disheartening journey for Eddie Murphy recently; he's failed to remind audiences what once made him such a hot comedy commodity, only to see his mojo dissipate through a series of bad script choices and forgettable kid film diversions. I wouldn't label "Meet Dave" a reputation-revitalizing turn for the actor, but the picture is admirably competent, delightfully silly, and absent a majority of repulsions typically associated with an Eddie Murphy family film.

Sent to Earth to retrieve a planet-killing device the size of a small rock, a crew of Lilliputian aliens man a human-sized spaceship that goes by the name of Dave (Eddie Murphy). The Dave crew soon meets up with single mom Gina (Elizabeth Banks, working wonders with a thankless role) and her son Josh (Austin Lynd Myers), who has found the rock, only to lose possession of the crucial device to a school bully. No...Read the entire review

To better appreciate "Encounters at the End of the World," it's best to view it not as a scientific documentary, but as a home movie from screendom's crankiest old bastard. That's right, Werner Herzog is back with his latest non-fiction endeavor, proving again that it's not actually naturalistic poetry until it's been touched by his camera.

Asked by the National Science Foundation to travel to Antarctica and document his adventures, Herzog halfheartedly agreed, on the condition that penguins wouldn't be the focus of his efforts. Heading to the developed community of McMurdo Station armed only with some cameras, a distaste for the sun, and his boundless curiosity, Herzog wandered around the landscape looking for oddities that piqued his interest and offered his lens a glimpse of beauty in the most unfamiliar of locations.

An accomplished and prolific documentarian, Herzog's films are specialized pro...Read the entire review

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" isn't a straight-jacket adaptation of the Jules Verne classic, but a vague photocopy that eschews daring adventure for cheap, plastic thrills, tarted up with a sickly glaze of 3-D to help prop up the anemic screenplay. It's a gimmick-driven movie and it's shocking how much the final product lacks the source material's intrinsic magic.

Taking care of his distracted nephew Sean (Josh Hutcherson), scientific researcher Trevor (Brendan Fraser) is stunned to discover clues to the whereabouts of his lost brother in a copy of the book "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Taking Sean with him to Iceland for further study, Trevor meets up with Hannah (Anita Briem), a tracker and daughter of a dead scientist who held faith in a land located beneath the planet's crust. Trekking through the mountains to further unravel the mystery, the trio stumbles upon the doorway to the c...Read the entire review

The first Hellboy film, directed by Guillermo del Toro and based on the popular comic book character created by Mike Mignola, was a pleasant cinematic surprise. Hellboy had an incredible visual style, impressive effects, fast pace, undeniable energy and a great performance by Ron Perlman buried underneath a ton of prosthetic makeup, so much so that it was easy to miss the fact the film was rather light on story. The first viewing of the film was filled with a sense of "this is awesome" coolness that upon repeated viewings eventually gave way to the realization of "there ain't much story here"--ultimately it was little more than an extended chase punctuated with a f...Read the entire review

Centuries ago, man and the mystical kingdom were at war for dominance over the Earth. To wage their bloody battle, King Balor (Roy Dotrice) commissioned a mechanical army of indestructible warriors. The devastation caused by this new Golden Army was so great, however, that even the mystical folk were horrified by what they had unleashed, and so Balor recalled the troops and created a peace treaty with humanity, giving them the world above ground while retaining the world below ground for his people. As a symbol of this agreement, Balor broke the crown that controls the troops into three pieces, giving one to the humans and retaining two in his realm.

Now, after years of living in the shadows, Balor's son, Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), has decided that his people have no need to be ashamed. He is intent on reactivating the Golden Army. His hunt for the pieces of the crown attracts the attention of the...Read the entire review

The Movie:

I've spent the past six to eight months tracking down every last scrap of information that I could about The Dark Knight. I read the set visits at Batman On Film, interviews with Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer, and Christian Bale, and Nolan and Goyer's introduction to the Absolute Edition of The Long Halloween, among other articles. Against my better judgment, I looked at sneak peek pictures and clips. I participated in all the ARG viral marketing, and have tried to get my hands on all of the endless parade of posters. I've gone over each of the trailers frame by frame, just to see what little clues might be hidden there. I watched and rewatched the IMAX prologue. I read every review as they came out. ...Read the entire review

"This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

So goes the famous line from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, said in reference to cowboys and the American mythology, a tradition of tall tales involving drinking and guns and larger than life characters that I'm sure held no little fascination for Hunter S. Thompson. As a writer and a journalist, Thompson spent a lot of time chasing the American Dream in order to kick away the fa ade and show the truth. As a statement, that is partly fact and from what I'm starting to gather, partly legend. I say "so I'm starting to gather," because I have just finished watching the Alex Gibney documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson, and I've walked away suspecting that even if what Gibney has printed isn't totally legend, then he's at least mostly beholden to or enamored of it.

Hunter S. Thompson was ...Read the entire review

"Brick Lane" is a melodrama, but it's crafted with such fascinating compassion and care for moments of heart-twisting domestic compromise that it's easy to forgive a few narrative bumps and a handful of familiarity.

Pushed into an arranged marriage with a man of tradition (Satish Kaushik) at a young age, Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) was forced to leave her idyllic life in India for the cold streets of London, where her limited English and the judgment of her neighbors keeps her closed off from the world. Continuously hoping for a chance to return home to reunite with her sister, Nazneen instead finds distraction in the arms of a younger Muslim radical (Christopher Simpson). As the two embark on an affair, Nazneen finds her world permanently altered by her desires, compelling her to search within for the peace she's craving.

Based on the novel by Monica Ali, "Brick Lane" isn't bound much by plot,...Read the entire review

I'm not used to writing a statement like this, so please forgive me if I pass out from the shock of disbelief: Peter Berg's direction saves "Hancock." There, it's out on the page for the world to see. Clearly the cinema gods are pleased with me, because I just watched a Peter Berg film and I didn't want to punch the screen afterwards.

Hancock (Will Smith) is a superman who can fly, is impervious to bullets, and has staggering strength. He's also an alcoholic and a social misfit, leaving a trail of wreckage behind every crime-stopping spree. Ray (Jason Bateman) is a publicist looking to help Hancock soften his image and reverse his reputation. Instructing him to put the bottle down and start becoming a productive member of society, Ray and Hancock become close friends while the hero rises from destructive drunk to uneasy hero, much to the concern of Ray's cautious wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), who bel...Read the entire review

Will Smith is Hancock, a homeless superhero who drinks too much, is rude to passersby, and destroys more than he helps whenever he does manage to rouse himself to fight.

If you had told me six months ago, when this basic premise was all we knew about Hancock, that I would walk out of the movie loving it, I would have asked you how much of Hancock's hooch you had to down before you came to that conclusion. I didn't even want to see this movie when the teasers started to appear. It wasn't until the newest trailer premiered before The Incredible Hulk, when more about the overall story of Hancock was finally revealed, that I started to change my mind. You have to admire a marketing plan that, in this age of the overstatement, teases us slowly with the reveals, and even when we think we know it all, manages to keep a few secrets in reserve.

As we all know from the traile...Read the entire review

"Finding Amanda" could easily be lumped into the growing "awful people doing awful things" genre. It's a story of unlikeable characters forced into a position where they're expected act honorably, yet can't exactly temper their nature to destroy their own lives. Yes, it's a comedy.

A struggling sitcom writer with enough vices to make Charles Bukowski blush, Taylor (Matthew Broderick) is facing the last days of his marriage to Lorraine (Maura Tierney) due to his compulsive gambling. To save face and regain trust, Taylor volunteers to travel to Las Vegas to help his niece Amanda (Brittany Snow) get out of prostitution and into rehab. Once there, Taylor finds the lure of gambling too much to ignore and immediately snowballs into old habits, while trying to convince Amanda that her life is a total wreck.

"Finding Amanda" marks the feature-film directorial debut of writer Peter Tolan, who has spent a ma...Read the entire review

It's not the familiarity that ultimately undoes "Wanted," but its uncharacteristic reserve. A back-flipping action bonanza, "Wanted" is an adult cartoon, taking acts of death-defying stupidity to their most illogical extreme, and that's exactly where this outlandish visual buffet should stay.

Trapped in a dull life with a soul-crushing cubical job, a cheating girlfriend, and no money, Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is lost in his own life, unable to claw his way out from underneath his depression. Into his world comes Fox (Angelina Jolie), who takes Wesley to meet Sloan (Morgan Freeman), a secretive man who oversees The Fraternity: a collection of highly-trained, super-human assassins. After learning that his father's death has left him a spot on the team, Wesley reluctantly underg...Read the entire review

Pixar as a formidable storytelling machine is not an entity I'm entirely comfortable with. The studio has turned itself into a faceless animation brand name, and while I can't argue the box office numbers, I'm not buying the artistic results. "Wall-E" is Pixar's biggest creative gamble in over a decade; a genuine cinematic leap of faith. However, the ambition doesn't match the outcome, and while "Wall-E" dances whimsically, it's a plodding, frighteningly hypocritical, and forbidding film that trips over its fogged intentions at every dreary turn.

It's 800 years into the future, and Earth is left in a pile of ruins, with garbage piled as high as skyscrapers and the landscape a sickly shade of brown. The last robot left on the planet is Wall-E, a compactor machine who dutifully carries out his business cleaning up the land while he dreams of companionship, fueled by repetitive screenings of "Hello Dol...Read the entire review

"Missed it by that much!" is the classic line from the "Get Smart" television series and could easily describe the latest big screen incarnation. A woefully uneven motion picture, "Smart" is a misfire, but not entirely ineffective.

When Siegfried (Terence Stamp), the leader of KAOS, engineers a massive plan to sell nuclear weapons to all of America's enemies, it's up to the agents of CONTROL to stop him. However, almost all of those agents have been assassinated, forcing The Chief (Alan Arkin) to promote analyst Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) to spy duty as Agent 86. Paired with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), the duo partake in a little globetrotting to sniff out KAOS's plans, while a peculiar competitive/romantic chemistry forms between them. When matters go from bad to worse, it's up to 86 and 99 to thwart KAOS's evil scheme and save the world from certain doom.

Based on the marvelous 1960's Bond satire...Read the entire review

In his new movie The Love Guru, comedian Mike Myers attempts to make the lesson of his impish self-help guru Maurice Pitka a self-fulfilling prophecy: that life is too complicated, and if we stop worrying about the little stuff and laugh at the silliness all around us, we will be happier people.

Surprisingly, for the majority of the movie, he pulls it off. There are even a couple of scenes where Pitka is trying to teach his clients this very lesson, and when they catch themselves cracking up in spite of their better taste and judgment, darn if I wasn't cracking up, too.

Myers' Love Guru is a stranded orphan who grows up in India under the tutelage of Guru Tugginmypudha (it helps if you say it out loud). The cross-eyed teacher (played by Sir Ben Kingsley) sets his two prize pupils on very separate paths (no pun intended). A young Deepak Chopra (Jaan Padda) is given permission to explore a...Read the entire review

Actor Danny McBride has stumbled his way into several supporting slots in recent years, prompting the nation to cry: who the hell is this guy? "The Foot Fist Way" is to blame, folks: a low-budget wannabe cult comedy shot three years ago, only recently graduating from underground DVD circulation to a small theatrical release. It should've stayed in obscurity.

Fred Simmons (Danny McBride) is a strip-mall Tae Kwan Do teacher with serious power issues, lording over his pack of students who range from children to kick-happy adults. A self-proclaimed "King of the Demo," Simmons's world is rocked hard when he finds out his trophy wife has cheated on him. Sent into a downward spiral of shame and anger, Simmons tries to overcome his relationships woes by working his students harder, putting his faith into a big screen martial art hero, and picking fights wherever he can.

"Foot Fist Way" is one of those quie...Read the entire review

It's easy to see that "Kit Kittredge" is after family audiences. It's a harmless tale told without a lick of objectionable content, sure to offer relief to many parents unwilling to subject their children to the heated warfare of lowbrow summer entertainment. However, as generous in spirit as "Kittredge" is, it's an absolute chore to sit through for anyone not plugged into the "American Girl" franchise hoedown.

Watching her family hope to make ends meet during the Great Depression, Kit Kittredge (Abigail Breslin) remains courageous, even trying to score work with the local paper writing about matters of the unemployed. When her father (Chris O'Donnell) heads out of state to find work, it forces Kit's mother (Julia Ormond) to take in eccentric boarders (including Stanley Tucci, Joan Cusack, and Jane Krakowski), most of which have great distaste for the hobos that fill the manual labor jobs of the neig...Read the entire review

There was a character in the last "Austin Powers" film named, appropriately, Goldmember; he was a mischievous creation from star Mike Myers, performed with a goofy voice and an eye toward grossing out the room, but he ran out of entertainment steam early. "The Love Guru" is a cinematic equivalent of Goldmember: a semi-hilarious movie that corners itself too easily and grows tiresome quickly.

Offered a huge sum of cash and an Oprah appearance if he can reunite hockey star Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) with his estranged wife (Meagan Good), the Guru Pitka (Mike Myers) bursts onto the scene, preaching a message of self-love and confidence to his followers. With the help of Toronto Maple Leafs owner Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba), Pitka indulges every last lesson learned from his teacher, Guru Tugginmypudha (Ben Kingsley), as he tries to help Darren focus on his gifts and ignore his psychological limitation...Read the entire review

Mark and Jay Duplass scored a solid indie hit a few years ago with their self-financed, self-made road-trip rom com The Puffy Chair, and though I can't fault them for wanting to up their game while still staying true to their DIY roots, their second effort, Baghead, ends up being too conflicted for its own good.

Baghead begins as self-parody of the indie film circuit before quickly shifting gears into another Duplass Bros.' relationship picture. The filmmakers would probably be fine if they stopped there, but then they shift yet again, this time trying for a horror flick a la The Blair Witch Project or Return to Loch Ness. With the third component in place, the guys spend the rest of Baghead trying to give equal time to all of these things, and end up becoming too much of everything while still having nothing new or relevant to say about anything.

After ...Read the entire review

There is a scene late in Get Smart where fans of the 1960s TV show will be overjoyed that the filmmakers finally got the tone and the humor of the original spy spoof exactly right. Without revealing too much, it involves Agent 86, Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell), on a rooftop with the Chief (Alan Arkin) and 99 (Anne Hathaway), and as he is explaining something to them, the evidence he seeks is in plain view behind him, all he needs to do is turn around. They urge him to look, but he forges ahead in oblivion as they smile and shake their heads. Right then, everything I always loved about the classic comedy came rushing back.

Unfortunately, the movie was almost over. Missed it by that much.

It's too bad that Get Smart isn't funnier than it is. It's not a bad movie, per se, but it's one of those missed opportunities that we get all too often in these big screen updates of old televisio...Read the entire review

Though it plays like a diluted version of David Cronenberg's "Crash," "Quid Pro Quo" impressively maintains a bewildering mood, probing into an underbelly of cracked minds and disturbing matters of desire. It frustratingly refuses to go bonkers, but the film is a compelling sit, brought to life by two very crafty, pointed performances.

Partially paralyzed since he was eight years old, Isaac (Nick Stahl) has made a name for himself reporting for a New York public radio station. When an anonymous e-mailer sends in a tip for a story, Isaac follows the clue to an underground support group where members share and demonstrate their desire to live life as disabled people. Baffled, yet utterly intrigued, Isaac's attention is soon consumed with able-bodied Fiona (Vera Farmiga), a member of the group who probes Isaac for information about life in a wheelchair. The two embark on a sexual relationship, but the g...Read the entire review

HULK SMASH! And he does in a big way in "The Incredible Hulk," a Hollywood patch job of sorts; a production aiming to realign the comic book chi lost to Ang Lee's angst-riddled "Hulk" back in 2003. Now, instead of heavy characterization and a glum attitude, "Incredible" reinstates the basics of the big green hero: destruction and solitude.

Hiding out peacefully in South America to keep his Gamma-induced mutation in control, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is looking for help to cure his affliction, trying to keep himself out of the hands of General Ross (William Hurt), who wants what's inside Banner to create an army of super-soldiers. Heading back to America, Banner makes contact with longtime love Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), who urgently wants to help the ailing man cure himself. Hot on their tail is Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), a brutal, unforgiving soldier who encourages the General to experiment fur...Read the entire review

Ah, white people. What can't they do? "Children of Huang Shi" serves up another steaming pile of Caucasian liberation with the story of George Hogg, whose acts of heroism and benevolence saved a small army of innocent children and guaranteed him a spot as a future cinematic subject.

In 1930's China as a journalist, Englishman George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) stumbled around the countryside documenting the violent unrest between the Chinese and Japanese armies. With help from a Chinese partisan leader (Chow Yun Fat) and an American nurse (Radha Mitchell), Hogg is sent to the fringes of the combat zone, where he encounters a group of orphans desperately lacking a parental figure. Assuming the leadership role out of obligation, Hogg suddenly finds himself drawn to the boys' plight. Now, with wartime devastation encroaching on all sides, Hogg and his pupils embark on an arduous 700-mile journey to loc...Read the entire review

The opening movement of "The Happening" is a virtuoso guitar solo of alarm. It's the sharpest collection of footage writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has ever committed to the screen, launching his latest picture on a giddy note of assured doom; a chilling introduction to the human race's greatest adversary: the unknown.

When a deadly toxin is released into the air, it causes the public to lash out in violent ways, rolling out waves of suicides that officials are baffled by. When the panic hits Pennsylvania, high school science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg, miscast as a boy scout type) takes his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) and a small pack of survivors into the countryside to escape the invisible threat, finding bodies everywhere they turn. Suspecting a terrorist attack, Elliot looks for clues to support a logical explanation, but what he finds are answers that reach beyond the realm of human...Read the entire review

When it was first announced that there would be a follow up to director Ang Lee's 2003 film Hulk, it seemed like The Inconceivable Hulk would have been a more appropriate title than The Incredible Hulk. "Inconceivable" because Lee's film was a significant disappointment that brought highbrow drama to a character that is most entertaining when he is smashing things, resulting in a movie that very few people were clamoring to see more of. But because the green-skinned goliath is one of Marvel Comics' biggest characters--both literally and figuratively--it was...Read the entire review

It's strange to behold a CG-animated film that leads with a swift pace and can manage to unfurl a laborious morale without grinding the whole production to a halt. "Kung Fu Panda" is a real charmer; a lightweight, generously funny family film that benefits from simplicity and a buffet of Asian cinema influences to pick from.

Giant panda Po (voiced by Jack Black) is stuck in his role as the son of a popular noodle chef. Frustrated, Po dreams of becoming a kung fu master, marveling at the skills of his idols The Furious Five: Crane (David Cross), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogan), Viper (Lucy Liu), and their master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). When a happy accident leaves Po crowned the "Dragon Warrior," an infuriated Shifu vows to never let Po survive the first day of training. However, once word spreads that villainous Tai Lung (Ian McShane) has broken out of prison and v...Read the entire review