“Kung Fu Panda 2”
Po’s (voiced by Jack Black) new life is threatened by a formidable villain.
Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson faced the daunting task of trying to make “Kung Fu Panda 2” as fun and exciting as the original 2008 film. Nelson kept the superb voice work of Black and Dustin Hoffman (as Shifu), but adds to the brilliant vocal cast with Gary Oldman, Dennis Haysbert and Victor Garber.
Sequels are notorious for being little more than pale copies of the original. There’s nothing pale about the dazzling “Fu 2.” It rocks.
Grade: A
“Fright Night”
A teenager discovers his neighbor is a vampire.
Director Craig Gillespie opted for a different approach with his remake of the 1985 thriller “Fright Night,” and the new version is as much fun as the original. And, in the biggest shock of the movie, it’s actually scarier because it goes a camp route.
Colin Farrell is the perfect vampire, with the dark good looks to charm victims who fail to see that the glint in his eye signals a lunatic deep inside. It would have been easy to go over the top with this character — as Chris Sarandon did in the original — but Farrell’s serious commitment to the role generates an intensity that’s off the spooky charts.
Grade: A-
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
James Franco plays a scientist who creates a formula that makes monkeys and apes smarter. He never expected them to get smart enough to go from pets to protagonists.
Director Rupert Wyatt offers a slow-moving look at the events that set in motion the switch of monkeys, apes and chimpanzees ruling the world instead of people.
It takes forever for the film to get to the big battle scenes and that conflict is so pedestrian, it’s not worth the wait.
Grade: D
Also coming
“Steve Jobs: One Last Thing”: A look at the creative genius through interviews with colleagues and others.
Rick Bentley, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.)
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