My Money's Worth on: Kung Fu Panda 2

photo taken from:

http://www.shockya.com/news/2011/05/21/

kung-fu-panda-2-partners-with-zynga-for-the-first-ever-integration-in-cityville/

Caught the 2:30pm show of Kung Fu Panda 2with the girlfriend at Shangri-La Cineplex Cinema 3. I have to say that it is one of the most entertaining movies that I've seen in while. This was the most I laughed during a movie in a while. I mean, there were times when we were both laughing at parts that the other audience members - majority of which were kids - weren't laughing at.

The film takes place some time after the first one, and Dragon Warrior Po (voiced by Jack Black) has a new quest, and a new enemy to vanquish - Shen (voiced by Gary Oldman). He is still with the Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Monkey (Jackie Chan). Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) is still in the movie, but with lesser screentime. New characters introduced in the movie are the soothsayer (Michelle Yeo) and other kung fu masters Ox (Dennis Haysbert) and Croc (Jean-Claude Van Damme), while a third - Master Rhino (Victor Garber) is seen for a short while.

Po's story continues and takes a similar form to Spider-Man 2 in the Sam Raimi helmed trilogy: the hero has to come to terms with who he is. Po's past is

Blast from the Past! MMW Rewind

Haven't gotten the chance to watch the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie yet. I just checked back on my old movie reviews and ran across this one...


My Money's Worth on Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (originally posted on my multiply site)

photo taken from celebritywonder.ugo.com

The World is Flat!

At least that’s what the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End proved. I just watched it last night. This makes me three out of three in making reviews about the Pirates movies. I started with the first one a couple years back, then made another about the less than satisfying sequel, and I complete the hat trick with this one.

Let me just say, to start it all off, that I was more than satisfied with the way this movie was played. I heard a lot of people complain about the length of the movie but, personally, I did not notice it. It hardly had any of those long sequences with nothing but dialogue like the Lord of the Rings movies (though I’d still watch those even if they took nine hours long each.)

The Dark Knight... and the Man Who Breaks Him... Rises

Meet Bane, the venom-charged villain who put Bruce Wayne in a wheelchair

photo taken from http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_dark_knight_rises/pictures

Around this time next year, people will be wildly anticipating (if they aren't already) Chris Nolan's third installment to his ever-wonderful take on the Batman story.

Speed, Action, and a Lot of Eye Candy

Caught the latest Fast and the Furious movie, entitled Fast Five, with the Dorm Barkada at Shangri La Cinemas this past weekend. We were spurred on to watch some fast-paced action after a very underwhelming Pacquiao-Mosley fight (A quick run-through of fight highlights: Pacquiao won via unanimous decision after dropping Mosley in the third round and referee Kenny Bayless misjudged a push by Mosely as a knockdown).

I have to admit I was not really a fan of the Fast and the Furious franchise. I only saw the first one and probably bits and pieces of the second, and that was all. I must say, though, that this fifth installment really did it for me. From the first car stunt that they pulled, the movie got me hooked to the action.
photo taken from http://www.rochellesychua.com/2011/05/fast-five-movie-review.html

From the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard...

Went out with Team Brit last night and saw the latest Marvel movie to come out in the big screens, with one of my favorite British (coincidence?) actors Kenneth Branagh telling the story of the Norse god of thunder Thor.

My familiarity of Marvel's version of the thunder god is limited to a small spattering of Thor appearances in the comics that I've bought (the most recent one being Civil War, where Thor was apparently already dead and was replaced by a robot) and the cartoon series put up by Marvel years ago where they had cut outs from comics "move" around.

This version of Thor is pretty cool. In Marvel fashion, the Asgardians are depicted not really as gods but rather as an alien race of warriors. This is coincidental since recently I've been  watching this series on the History channel where they propose that aliens had visited Earth thousands of years ago and were interpreted by the inhabitants as gods.

The movie is a sort of origin story regarding how Thor grew up from a war-hungry champion of Asgard into a wise heir-apparent to Odin, the king of Asgard. It also is an origin story for the Asgardian god of mischief and deceit Loki, Thor's brother in Asgard and the one who would in Norse lore bring about the death of the most beloved Asgardian Balder and be Thor's arch-nemesis. It also features the start of the love between Thor and Jane Foster, played by the ever-beautiful and adorable Natalie Portman. Though in the comics Jane Foster is actually in a relationship with Thor's mortal alter-ego Donald Blake (who gets mentioned as an ex-boyfriend of Foster), in this version the romance is with the hero himself.