Bryan Cranston

Kung Fu Panda 3

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Kung Fu Panda 3
  • IMDb: link

Kung Fu Panda 3Building on the epilogue of Kung Fu Panda 2, the latest sequel introduces Po (Jack Black) to his father Li (Bryan Cranston) and an entire tribe of Pandas hidden away in a secret valley deep in the mountains. Along the way Po will also struggle with passing on his knowledge of Kung Fu in the role of teacher, first to the Furious Five and later to his Panda students, when an old threat returns and begins stealing the chi of Kung Fu masters across China.

While not as good as the first film, Kung Fu Panda 3 stands up pretty well against Kung Fu Panda 2 – even if it ignores the most intriguing subplot of the first sequel involving Po’s evolving relationship with Tigress (Angelina Jolie). J.K. Simmons proves to be a good choice for the film’s villain Kai: Oogway‘s (Randall Duk Kim) one-time friend who escapes the spirit realm in his search of ultimate power.

And the film introduces us to an entire village of thinly drawn but (mostly) entertaining Panda characters while still finding time to deal with Mr. Ping‘s (James Hong) jealousy and insecurity at Po exploring a relationship with his “real” father.

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KCFCC’s 50th Annual James Loutzenhiser Awards

/ / Announcements

Mad Max: Fury Road

Yesterday afternoon the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, the second oldest film critic organization in the country, gathered together to award the best in film of this year. It turned out to be a good year for sci-fi/fantasy as Mad Max: Fury Road and Ex Machina took home a combined five awards. You can find the full list of nominees and winners inside.

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Trumbo

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Trumbo
  • IMDb: link

TrumboBorn out of fear, the Hollywood blacklist and the subversion of American values by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Cold War is far from one of America’s prouder moments. Director Jay Roach‘s new film looks back at the Hollywood Ten, Hollywood screenwriters blackballed out of the studio system for their alleged involvement with the Communist Party. As the title suggests, the film primarily focuses on Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) and the struggles he and his family faced during the Red Scare.

Despite a prison sentence followed by being unable to write under his own name, Trumbo continued to secure work under a variety of pseudonyms and two of the scripts he wrote, but wasn’t given credit for, went on to win Oscars for Best Picture. John McNamara‘s script is a bit by-the-numbers in its depiction of events, but Roach gets a terrific performance by Cranston and surrounds his star with a first-rate supporting cast that includes Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., Alan Tudyk, John Goodman, and Elle Fanning as McNamara’s script follows the bizarre professional journey of Trumbo’s career.

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Godzilla

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Godzilla (2014)
  • IMDB: link

GodzillaGodzilla returns to the big screen in an American film for the first time since 1998. Although better than Roland Emmerich‘s much despised film, while outdoing the director known for CGI disaster porn, the new version of Godzilla isn’t without its own issues. As a summer popcorn flick the new Godzilla may satisfy in the short term but it’s unlikely to entice me to return to its story anytime soon (if ever).

Opening in 1999 in the Philippines where an ancient monster is awoken before it makes its way to Japan unseen (this happens more than you’d expect in the film) and destroys a nuclear reactor to feed on the radioactivity for the next 15 years, the film jumps forward to present day where the scientist in charge of the facility (Bryan Cranston) still struggles with what really happened. Although much of the extended opening centers around Cranston (which could be trimmed considerably), the movie’s main character is the scientist’s son Lieutenant Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a bomb disposal expert whose skills will come in quite handy before the end of the film.

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Argo

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Argo
  • IMDb: link

argo-movie-posterSome stories are so unbelievable they must be true. This was the case with Charlie Wilson’s War, one of my favorite films of 2007, which examined the absurd series of events that led a relatively unknown Congressman from Texas to lead the charge to bring down the Soviet Union.

Argo, the latest from director Ben Affleck who also stars in the adaptation of CIA Agent Tony Mendez‘s account of what became known as the “Canadian Caper” involving the extraction of six American diplomats from Iran during the Iran Hostage Crisis, is a similarly astonishing, and certainly well told, tale that’s so crazy it must be true.

Affleck stars as Mendez, a CIA extraction expert who comes up with a plan to safely smuggle out six Americans who escaped the seizure of the American Embassy in Iran on November 4, 1979. His idea is to pose as a film producer scouting locations for a new sci-fi movie in Iran and to pass off the six diplomats (Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Christopher Denham, Scoot McNairy, Kerry Bishé, Joe Stafford) as other members of the movie project.

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