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Kung Fu Panda 3 Review

Excellent

This animated trilogy concludes on a very high note with this smart, involving and often hilarious adventure. Both the writing and the animation are especially strong this time around, drawing in bigger themes while still keeping things both thrilling and very silly. But it's the endearing central characters who make it resonate.

As the Dragon Warrior, the panda Po (voiced by Jack Black) is struggling to rise to the challenge to become a teacher, coaxed by his master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). He'd rather be out fighting battles with his five warrior pals Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper and Crane (Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu and David Cross). Then he meets his long-lost father Li (Bryan Cranston), who tells him of a secret homeland for pandas, where Po might be able to find himself. Meanwhile, the power-mad warlord Kai (J.K. Simmons) has broken through from the spirit realm, determined to collect the chi of every master in the mortal world. So it's rather urgent that Po discovers his own chi before Kai finds him.

This is far more than the usual story about discovering your place in life. It's a complex exploration of how our backgrounds and communities contribute to who we are, and why each of us has a distinct role to play. These themes emerge naturally through the snappy, sometimes exhilarating story and characters. In voicing Po, Black finds the perfect balance between goofiness and honest emotion that often eludes him in live-action roles. His interaction with all of the surrounding characters bristles with humour and insight, with sharply funny one-liners peppering every scene. Most of the side roles are spread very thinly, but both Cranston and Simmons register strongly, while Jolie and Hoffman get some solid scenes all their own. And Hudson's riotously flirtatious ribbon-dancing panda easily steals her scenes.

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Kill Your Darlings Trailer

Allen Ginsberg is a Beat Generation writer, with no idea that his venture to New York to attend Columbia University will hold more than just a promising future career-wise. It's there that he meets Lucien Carr; a slightly unhinged but ambitious, intelligent and extremely good looking fellow student who enjoys wild partying with his wealthy friend William Burroughs and, later, Jack Kerouac. As Allen and Lucien become closer, the latter's much older friend - a professor named David Kammerer - becomes increasingly jealous, threatening Allen who discovers that he has been following Lucien from city to city over a few years. Although Allen insists that they must find a way to prevent this incessant stalking, he is deeply shocked when David's body is discovered in the Hudson River, with Lucien held as prime suspect for stabbing him to death. Allen now faces a dilemma; to either use his skills in writing to make sure his friend is liberated, or reveal what he now believes is the truth to all.

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Amber Tamblyn's Dress Steals The Day At Her Wedding To David Cross

By Contributor in Lifestyle / Showbiz on 10 October 2012

Amber Tamblyn David Cross Questlove Ryan Reynolds Blake Lively America Ferrera Alexis Bledel Amy Poehler

Amber Tamblyn's dress was the real star of the show as the American actress and poet tied the knot with comedian and actor David Cross at a wonderful looking ceremony at the weekend. There was no press photography there, but who needs them when you've got DJ and music producer Questlove around to go snap-happy for you. The 41 year-old couldn't seem to help himself and on his Instagram, among other photos, there are a couple of glorious pictures of Tamblyn looking resplendent in a bright yellow, non-traditional dress.

In a classy looking location - pictures show Tamblyn stepping out of a boat with a lake and a lush-looking wood behind it - the couple were wedded with others in attendance including recently married Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively (also snapped by the ever reliable Questlove), whilst E! Online reports that Tamblyn's other 'Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants' co-stars America Ferrera and Alexis Bledel were also there, as was Amy Poehler, who recently split from her husband Will Arnett. American rock band Yo La Tengo provided the music.

Questlove really got pretty close up to the bride and groom, with one very intimate shot showing the moment when the pair of them cut the cake. With a man like him around, the paparazzi should be looking over their shoulders.

Amber Tamblyn And David Cross: Was It The Coolest Celebrity Wedding Ever?

By Michael West on 09 October 2012

Amber Tamblyn David Cross Questlove The Roots Yo La Tengo Ryan Reynolds Blake Lively

Amber Tamblyn and David Cross' wedding may well be up there with the coolest celebrity nuptials ever after details of their big day surfaced online. We say 'details', we were actually treated to an Instagram album thanks to The Roots musician Questlove, who documented the day on his smartphone!

The ceremony - dubbed The Wedding in the Woods in an Instagram hashtag - took place on Saturday (October 6, 2012) and played host to a plethora of celebrity guests including Ryan Reynolds and his wife Blake Lively, comedienne Amy Poehler, Jason Ritter and Kristen Schaal. But that's not all; it seems the booked entertainment for the evening was equally as high profile, with rock filmmaker Lance Bangs sharing the details online, saying, "Yo La Tengo playing Superchunk, Mission of Burma, and Pixies covers at David and Amber's wedding." Cross' representative later confirmed to MTV News that Questlove also served as the evening's DJ.

Tamblyn, who next stars in Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained', accepted her husband's marriage proposal in 2011 after the pair had dated for several years. Cross is currently working on the highly anticipated 'Arrested Development' reunion series and movie.

Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked Review

By Rich Cline

Good

It's impossible to be critical of a movie like this, since it's not trying to be anything other than ridiculous. And indeed it does manage to make us laugh, mainly because it's so relentlessly corny.

Dave (Lee) takes all six mischievous Chipmunks on a cruise-ship holiday before their big performance at the International Music Awards. Of course, Alvin (Long) is immediately in trouble, taking his pals Simon and Theodore (Bugler and McCartney) and the Chipettes (Poehler, Applegate and Faris) with him. But Alvin's next stunt strands them all on a deserted island, including Dave and former manager Ian (Cross). On the island they meet treasure-hunting nutcase castaway Zoe (Slate), just as a volcano is about to blow.

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Kung Fu Panda 2 Review

By Rich Cline

Very Good

Jack Black's cuddly alter-ego is back for another epic adventure in this lively, colourful sequel. It pretty much has the same plot as the final act of the 2008 original, and it's not quite as funny, but it's beautifully animated and thoroughly engaging.

Now that Dragon Warrior panda Po (voiced by Black) has joined the Furious Five (Jolie's tigress, Rogen's mantis, Chan's monkey, Liu's viper and Cross' crane), there's peace in the valley again. But in a distant kingdom, the villainous peacock Lord Shen (Oldman) has developed a secret weapon with which he plans to take over China and put an end to kung fu. Although he's been rattled for decades, since his soothsayer (Yeoh) told him he'll be conquered by a panda.

And he knows the Dragon Warrior is on his way.

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Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom Trailer

What more can come for the Panda who has it all? Since gaining the respect of his heroes - Master Shifu and the furious five - and defeating the evil snow leopard Tai Lung, Po's life in the Valley of Peace is perfect but it isn't to last.

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Megamind Trailer

Every super-villain needs an arch nemesis, and generally they come in the form of a superhero! Megamind and Metro Man have that exact relationship. Megamind is the worlds most famous super-villain and for the past 20 years Metro Man has shattered all his efforts at world domination.

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Kung Fu Panda Review

By Chris Barsanti

Very Good

It's surprising that Hollywood has taken until 2008 to come up with Kung Fu Panda. Taking your factory-issue period-piece martial arts plot -- wherein schlubby protagonist finds his inner warrior as a means of expressing filial piety and ensuring the harmonious survival of his village -- and combining it with supercharged computer animation, PG-friendly combat, and a flurry of cute animals just makes good business sense. One could argue about the logic of surrounding Jackie Chan (voicing a monkey who's also a kung fu master) with a Hollywood stew of A-list talent eager to scoop up some easy voice-actor money, but when the film's star is an overweight panda voiced by Jack Black, such kvetching is almost beside the point.

Blazing across the screen with eye-popping, sublime artwork, Kung Fu Panda sets itself apart from the modern domestic animation trend with its sheer beauty. From an opening dream sequence whose abstract style seems culled straight from a modern manga, the film enters instant classic status as some of the most gorgeous animation Hollywood has produced since the golden age of Disney. Eschewing the cold and severe art of Dreamworks' Shrek films, the makers of Kung Fu Panda fill the screen with painterly backdrops of mountain vistas and fluttering leaves that give Zhang Yimou a run for his money. It somehow makes it all the funnier to have the titular panda, Po (Black), come huffing and wheezing through the impeccable and non-specific ancient China landscapes like a less-active relative of Hurley on Lost.

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Scary Movie 2 Review

By Rob Blackwelder

OK

Technically speaking, "Scary Movie 2" is a real mess. The editing is pathetic, mostly because the script -- if you can call it that -- is just a series of unrelated horror movie japes put in almost random order and tied together by about two minutes of plot.

Characters disappear completely from the story without explanation and blatant continuity errors abound because some gags where left on the cutting room floor while the follow-up jokes were kept. In one scene a character is lying in a pool of blood, then a second later the blood is gone. Then it's back, then it's gone again, then it's back again. No attempt whatsoever is made to cover up this sloppy, choppy, rushed-into-production total lack of cohesion.

But comedically speaking, "Scary Movie 2" is an almost constant laugh riot of extreme gross-out humor and surprisingly limber lampoonery -- and this is coming from a guy who didn't think much of the first "Scary Movie" and was pretty irritated when the Wayans brothers (director Keenen Ivory and stars Shawn and Marlon) broke their promise not to make a sequel.

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Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Review

By Rob Blackwelder

Very Good

Having dabbled in John Malkovich's mind in "Being John Malkovich," then delved into his own neurotic noggin in "Adaptation," ingeniously idiosyncratic screenwriter Charlie Kaufman wraps his head around themes of lucid-dreaming and lost love in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," and once again hits the Freudian jackpot.

A melancholy metaphysical romance about how human beings are the sum of their experiences, this distinctively surreal, meditative fable takes place largely inside the rapidly dissolving memories of a dejected sad sack named Joel Barish (Jim Carrey), who hopes to end a crippling case of heartbreak by having his ex-girlfriend (Kate Winslet) electronically expunged from his cerebellum in a makeshift CAT-scan procedure performed by a dubious back-alley doctor (Tom Wilkinson) and his nerdy house-call technicians.

To augment the film's sublimely disorienting narrative -- parts of which run backwards as Joel's discordant recent memories are boiled away before his more melodious earlier ones -- director Michel Gondry opens with an unsteady shot of Joel wobbling out of his unfolded sofa-bed on Valentine's Day 2004, the morning after his selective lobotomy.

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