Jackie Chan

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
  • IMDb: link

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been rebooted so many times over the years it’s hard to keep track of the number of times they’ve changed since they first appeared on comic shelves in the mid-1980s. The latest iteration of the group found in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is neither the best nor worst version we’ve seen. Presenting a grungier animation, likely in hopes of pulling in comparisons to the Spider-Verse movies (it is not on that level), the script takes various aspects of the Turtles origins, altering and updating them slightly for a familiar and fresh feel for the foursome.

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The LEGO Ninjago Movie

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The LEGO Ninjago Movie
  • IMDb: link

The LEGO Ninjago Movie movie reviewFor years LEGO has released video games, television shows, and straight-to-video movies centered around LEGO characters. The successes of The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Batman Movie at the box office seem to have emboldened the company to try their hands at more theatrical releases. Maybe they should have stopped with Batman.

For those unfamiliar, Ninjago is a LEGO line centered around a group of young ninja heroes protecting the realm of Ninjago and fighting off various enemies including the brother of their instructor Sensei Wu (Jackie Chan), the evil Garmadon (Justin Theroux).

There are several changes to the early seasons of the Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu which introduced these characters. Lloyd (Dave Franco), the youngest of the group and son of their arch-nemesis, has been aged to fit more closely with his peers. Meanwhile the rest of the ninjas have all be de-aged to put the entire group in high school. Everyone has also become far less ninja-like with none of our heroes having mastered the elements tied to their powers (something the show dealt with seven or so seasons ago).

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Kung Fu Panda 2

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Kung Fu Panda 2
  • IMDB: link

Three years ago DreamWorks Animation put out a little film called Kung Fu Panda about a Panda with a destiny to learn Kung Fu and save his village from a shadowy warrior. It turned out to be one of my favorite films of 2008. While it might not be as good as the original (a film which I love to no end), the sequel brings plenty of awesome back to the screen.

Kung Fu Panda 2 fills in Po’s (Jack Black) back story as an attack on his village will lead him on a quest to discover where he comes from. Also back for the sequel are Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and the Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Crane (David Cross), and Viper (Lucy Liu).

The film also gives us a deadly new enemy in a deranged peacock (played with malevolent glee by Gary Oldman) who wants to rule all of China by the force of a new deadly weapon which could mean the end of Kung Fu. We also get a few new characters voiced by the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme as a Kung Fu crocodile (admit it, that’s pretty awesome), and Michelle Yeoh as the Soothsayer who holds all the answers to both Po’s past and future.

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The Legendary Awesomeness of Kung Fu Panda

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Kung Fu Panda
  • IMDb: link

“Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose Kung Fu skills were legendary.  His enemies would go blind from over-exposure to sheer awesomeness.”

The son of a noodle making goose (James Hong), Po (Jack Black) the Panda dreams only of Kung Fu.  His wishes are granted when Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) names him the Dragon Warrior.

The pronouncement is met by skepticism by the Furious Five, the best warriors of the valley who include Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross), and sheer incredulity by their teacher Shifu (Dustin Hoffman).

Despite his large size, and even larger heart, the Panda is destined for greatness and possibly the only one who can stop the evil Tai Lung (Ian McShane) who has broken out of prison and is returning home to face the newly proclaimed Dragon Warrior and take the Dragon Scroll (which holds the secret of ultimate skill in Kung Fu) for himself.

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The Forbidden Kingdom

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Forbidden Kingdom
  • IMDB: link

“I’ll kill you witch!”
“Not if I kill you first orphan bitch!”

forbidden-kingdom-poster

Based on one of the four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Journey to the West, this new adaptation tells the story of a Jason (Michael Angarano) a young boy from Boston who finds himself thrust into a magical world and charged with returning the golden staff to the Monkey King (Jet Li) thus freeing him from his stone prison and freeing the land from the tyranny of the man who turned him into a statue, the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou).

Along the way to seek the wizard, um, I mean Warlord, Jason encounters companions who journey with him to help him on his quest including a drunken master (Jackie Chan), a beautiful girl hell-bent on revenge (Yifei Liu), and a monk (Jet Li).

Together this small band of rebels travels through forests and deserts across the yellow brick road to reach the fortress, take on the Jade Army, led by the Warlord’s assassin (Li Bing Bing), and defeat Cobra Kai, um, I mean release the Monkey King.

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