Everybody Was Kung Fu Animating - ****1/2

Shark Tale was brewed in lukewarm waters and Shrek had enough meat in it for two sequels, but the world was yet to see a truly original, digitally sophisticated entertainer from Dreamworks Animation.

That film has arrived, and it is called Kung Fu Panda.

It's an underdog story, predominantly, with predictable finger wagging at those who underestimate the power of the unconventional hero. But what makes this movie such a brilliant piece of work is the fact that it takes both kung fu and underdogness very seriously, without the film becoming a drag. The film does poke some healthy fun at Zen philosophies that are so integral to the genre, but does so without being irreverent.

In a peaceful valley in China, Po (Jack Black) the panda secretly dreams of becoming a kung fu master while working in his goose father's noodle restaurant. Master Oorgway, a tortoise and head of the kung fu school at the top of a rather formidable mountain, has a premonition that the evil snow leopard Tai Ling, a former student of Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), will escape from prison and come to the mountain to steal the mysterious and sacred Dragon Scroll. Everyone assumes that one of the Furious Five (also Shifu's students), comprising the Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), Monkey (Jackie Chan) and Crane (David Cross), will be chosen for the scroll. However, because of some unusual slapstick circumstances, Po gets chosen instead, much to the chagrin of both Shifu and the Five.

How Po manages to win their hearts, trains to fight Tai Lung and tries to become worthy of the Dragon Scroll forms the rest of the story, and what a laugh riot it proves to be. Black is brilliant as the overweight, but determined Po, whose wide-eyed fascination for kung fu allows him to endure his teacher's and friends' dismissal and insults. There are moments where the film very convincingly raises doubts regarding Po's ability to succeed at this daunting task, and even arouses a mild fear as Tai Lung draws nearer to his goal, and seems unstoppable because of his skill and strength. These aspects form fantastic ground for the final, highly inspired, original and entertaining battle between Po and Lung, that becomes the final plank in the bridge this film builds between animation and kung fu.

Dreamworks has shown its ability to create memorable characters in the past, but none have been as much in character as Kung Fu Panda. If this is a sign of things to come from Dreamworks, Pixar finally has a really strong contender.

Hulk Smash Records - ***1/2

One of the questions on everyone's minds when the 2008 version of The Incredible Hulk was announced was "How is this going to be better than the last one?" (or some variant thereof, such as "Why would you take a failed film and make it again five years later?")

The answer is that the Hulk is not just an angry green monster with a very soft heart. Ang Lee may have delved too far into the depths of the gargantuan CGI alter-ego of mild-mannered Bruce Banner, but in the hands of Louis Letterier and Edward Norton, it becomes a big, impressive fighting machine, cleverer than the older one, and less prone to fits of depression.

Norton's Banner is both practical and resilient, shown fleeing from the Culvery University laboratory where the experiment went horribly wrong, dodging the overzealous General Ross (played with adequate stubbornness by William Hurt), and trying to keep his temper in check, lest it unleash the monster within.

Banner finds refuge in a small town in Brazil, where he gets a job at a bottling company, learns Brazilian martial arts and a sort of meditative breathing, and tries not to pick fights with the local hooligans. Here, under the pseudonym "Mr. Green," he begins corresponding with a mysterious "Mr. Blue," who offers to help him find a cure.

A freak accident results in some of Banner's blood ending up in one of the bottles at the factory, and ultimately in the hands of an ill-fated consumer in the U.S. It also helps Ross trace the bottle back to Banner, and the General sends a special team led by Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), a Russo-British operations expert, to capture him. The resulting chase produces some of the most spectacular visuals of South America, made all the more brilliant by the fact that they are shown on a large screen. When the team corners Banner in the bottling factory and the hooligans he has so desperately tried to avoid also jump into the fray, the Hulk finally comes alive and enables Banner's escape.

Blonsky, whose encounter with the Hulk leaves him more curious than frightened, learns of Ross' experiments, and expresses a desire to be a test subject for the next version of the supersoldier serum that made Banner into the Hulk. Spoiling for a fight with the creature that gave him inspiration, Blonsky gets increasingly stronger with each encounter, and this culminates in a showdown in the middle of New York City.

It is part Bourne, part King Kong, and much of the real enjoyment comes from watching the real actors (particularly Norton) rather than their CGI counterparts which don't really bear much of a resemblance to the human versions anyway. Fortunately, the actors carry the film very well on their able shoulders, and the CGI doesn't give you as much of a headache as other films with similar fight sequences might. Finally, the surprise appearance of a certain character at the end makes you wonder what might happen if he happened to bump into the Hulk, and manages to stir up enough curiosity for a sequel.

Good one for the summer.

Dr. Jones Is In - ***

For a new generation of movie-goers, whose knowledge of history, mythology or even archeology is almost completely second hand, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull might be a blast from their parents' generation, and a little less timeless than Star Wars.

There have been other movies in recent times, some entertaining, yet unabashedly exaggerated period dramas, like Zorro or the Mummy films. But the trouble with this film is, there doesn't seem to be much passion left to carry it as the really big adventure it claims to be.

In 1957, the Soviets, led by a very emasculated-looking Cate Blanchet, capture Indi (Harrison Ford) and ask him to direct them to a certain special wooden crate containing something highly magnetic. Indi does so reluctantly, and is foiled in trying to prevent them from actually procuring the mysterious object, by his treacherous friend, Mac (Ryan Winstone). Narrowly escaping from the Russians (and later a nuclear test facility), Indi is interrogated by the FBI, who eventually force him to escape from Marshall College on motorbike with a young man named Mutt Wilson.

Mutt, as it turns out, is the son of Indi's old flame, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), and has come to Indi to ask for his help, since both Marion and their mutual friend, Harold Oxley have gone missing since Oxley discovered a crystal skull during an archaeological dig in Peru. Indi and Mutt travel to Peru and follow clues left by Oxley to find Marion and Oxley and embark on a quest to return the elongated, magnetic skull to its long lost resting place, with the Russians close on their tail.

It is an adventure to be sure, but certainly not an exhilarating one. The hallmark attention to detail or the relevance of the character's quirks or circumstances to the plot are all conspicuous by their absence. To be fair, Harrison Ford isn't as young as he used to be that doesn't mean he lacks energy -in fact he performs at least a few of the stunts with more than enough agility. But while the exhaustion may not show in his body, there is a tiredness, a lack of the old spark in his eyes, that make him fade a little bit into the background.

Nevertheless, the moment you see Ford's old swagger and the rugged smile, the minute you hear the first whip crack, or find just how attached Indi is to his old hat, nostalgia takes over to allow for some good old fashioned movie fun. Even Spielberg's most obvious obsession seems less forced in the face of Indi's ability to crack ancient Mayan code and make his traditional escape from collapsing or exploding buildings. If this is the last Indiana Jones movie with Ford in the lead, it falls a little short in its tribute to the famed archaeologist and treasure hunter, but transfers it to Ford himself, who, without doubt, deserves it.

What It Feels Like For a Girl - Sex and the City - ****

It's a mark of the impression four women from New York city have made on the minds of audiences worldwide that this movie begins with a brief history of what happened to each of the characters over a period of six seasons, with a "you already know all this, but.." tone.

Indeed, establishing Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte is quite unnecessary, even to those who have not followed the TV show (including the men who religiously avoid it). It is a credit to the fantastic acting prowess of Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis that they bring such a sense of familiarity to their characters. In other words, there are universal qualities and flaws about them that form the basis of their humanness in general, as well as their gender in particular.

The movie begins where season six ended, with Carrie (Parker) and her on-again, off-again, but very much The One boyfriend, Big (Chris Noth) hunting for an apartment in the Big Apple to move into. After much searching, they find the perfect place, and despite the fact that it is well outside their already large budgets, they immediately decide to take it. When Carrie expresses anxiety about what might happen to the place if they were to break up again, Big suggests that they get married.

While Carrie plans the wedding of her dreams and is asked to do a photo shoot for Vogue in bridal gowns designed by the biggest names in fashion, Miranda (Nixon) struggles to keep her marriage to husband, Steve (David Eisenberg), alive, as the demands of her job and motherhood
take a toll on their sex life. At the rehearsal dinner for Big and Carrie, Miranda bitterly lets slip her frustration with marriage, thus instantly freezing the bridegroom's feet, and resulting in Carrie being left at the altar on the day of the wedding.

A broken-hearted Carrie, accompanied by her four friends goes to Mexico on what would have been her and Big's honeymoon, to recuperate. While there, Samantha expresses her frustration with being in a committed relationship with Smith (Jason Lewis), an actor turned model who helped her get through her battle with cancer, and the tediousness of having to travel between Los Angeles and New York frequently. Of the four, only Charlotte seems happy, but worries when she gets her next piece of happy news that it is all only too good to last.

Those with high expectations from the movie might find at one point that it just seems like one really long episode, for all the individual struggles of each of the characters seem to demand attention. Even Jennifer Hudson, who appears in a brief role as Carrie's assistant, has problems that demand some screen time, but frankly, for an actress of her caliber, it is well deserved.

However, setting whatever tediousness one might feel aside, it is again the familiarity of the characters, their unique distinguishing quirks and mannerisms, and the universality of their struggles that make this film something that is bound to be rented at every sleepover and girls' night out for several years to come.

As for explaining what makes the film special to the reluctant men who worry their masculinity will be questioned if they watch this film, here's a line you could try that I used on my husband - you know how they say, men will be boys? Well, this is educational, because it shows you that women will be girls.

Zohan - Messy, But Fun - ***

Somehow, even when you walk to the ticket booth and shell out ten dollars to watch an Adam Sandler movie, and wonder how in the world you got talked into this, you know that there are going to be at least a few moments of lukewarm humor.

That is certainly the case with Zohan, a kind of Barbershop set in a Middle Eastern block in New York, instead of a black neighborhood. In fact, although Zohan is very much an Adam Sandler movie, and features the usual silly humor, it also has some improbable feats, fake accents and an exceedingly powerful crotch, much of which I can't say I have seen in a Sandler film before.

Sandler plays Zohan, a top Israeli soldier, who specializes in capturing a slippery Palestinian terrorist known as the Phantom (John Turturro) by yawning his way through dangerous situations. A veritable superman in a Mariah Carey t-shirt, he catches bullets like bugs between his thumb and forefinger (like a certain South Indian actor I know), swims the butterfly with enough speed and agility to make the most capable dolphin hang up its fins in shame, and doesn't mind too much if a piranha is flopping around in his swimming trunks.

But Zohan is bored with all this, and wants to hang up his holster in favor of a hair dryer. Seeing that his parents and comrades won't understand his ambitions, he fakes his own death and escapes in the luggage compartment of a plane to New York, his fellow passengers, two dogs named Scrappy and Coco, whose names he adopts as his alias. Clutching a 1980s Paul Mitchell style magazine, Zohan tries his luck at finding employment as a hairdresser at the legendary stylist's salon, but is shown the door both there and at other salons. Finally, with the help of a fellow Israeli who recognizes him but vows to keep his secret, Zohan lands a job cleaning up at a Palestinian salon in New York's Little Middle Eastern neighborhood.

After successfully giving a haircut and some sex as a bonus to one of the elderly female customers at the salon, Zohan earns a promotion from the salon's beautiful Palestinian owner (Emmanuelle Chriqui) and becomes a highly popular hairstylist and gigolo to the old women who go there. As business booms, trouble arrives in the form of Wallbridge, a ruthless executive who wants to replace the neighborhood with one of his malls, and a Palestinian cab driver with a personal grudge against Zohan (played with some surprising conviction by Rob Schneider), who brings the Phantom back into the mix.

Sandler is in his element as the droopy, yet sexually charged Zohan, and his deadpan casualness works in his favor in this particular role, especially in the first half hour or so when Zohan's soldier skills are on display. There are a few good one-liners that various characters deliver, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more than sufficiently oversimplified to look as though it's actually a couple of brothers wrestling off and on in the playground; even the sexual humor is treated with a certain laziness that allows the viewer to crack a lopsided smile. And despite some messy accents and rather too much hummus, there is a sense that things are going to be all right in the end which allows you to sit through the film.

In other words, if you have done your Adam Sandler homework, your expectations are adequately low and you're looking to just kill some time, this movie even manages to exceed those expectations a little bit.

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - ***1/2

The Pevensie children have all grown up - that much is certain. Peter has a certain swagger and conceited air about him, Edmund is quieter, more docile, Susan is worthy of being wooed, and that leaves little Lucy, who is more grown up than the others, but is more endearing because she has all the sincerity, faith and charm that the others lack.

This, of course, is only partly what The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is all about. Ben Barnes, who plays Caspian the Tenth, is the quiet, conflicted teenage fugitive who is also the rightful heir to the throne of Narnia, which has been usurped by his scheming, evil uncle, Miraz (Sergio Castellitto). Caspian and his uncle belong to a race known as the Telmarines, who occupied Narnia some time in the thirteen hundred years that have passed since the Pevensies ruled the land.

Called back to Narnia by Susan's magical horn as they are about to board a train to back to school, the Pevensies encounter and rescue Trumpkin, a dwarf who has offered to help Caspian take back his throne, from a group of Telmarine soldiers. They then follow the dwarf to a camp in the woods, where Caspian is in the midst of planning his strategy with the hitherto dormant armies of the forests, the centaurs, mice (led by Lewis' legendary character, Reepicheep), badgers, dwarves and other creatures. Despite differences of opinion, particularly between Peter and Caspian, and some dangerous temptations along the way (including the recurrence of the White Witch from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe), everyone unites to battle the Telmarines.

Despite the glut of characters and the rather vast lapse in time, Narnia as a land is as endearing as it was in the first film, and will seem that way even to those not familiar with the books. The main actors (Moseley, Popplewell, Keynes, Henley and Barnes) carry the film well on their young shoulders, and in spite of Barnes' affected accent and predominantly confused expression, he has a grace and wisdom about him that make for a credible prince. The elusive Aslan appears only towards the tail end of the movie, but his absence is not as strongly felt, and his role not as significant in the grand scheme of things. Director Andrew Adamson understands that this is a movie about the coming of age in a time of war, and does not force magic on that experience.

As a family entertainer, Caspian is most certainly a rung above The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe for the sheer visual quality and polish that it brings to the screen. The story itself is brief, and any producer or director who put faithfulness to the books top of mind would have been able to tell that story in less than an hour fairly effortlessly. But Adamson seems to have taken a few leaves out of Peter Jackson's books on Lord of the Rings and whittled those lessons into palatable shape for younger audiences, making for some very clever and truly stunning battle sequences.

Narnia is no Harry Potter, and Disney may already know that it cannot really achieve a cult following for the films, but since they fit Disney's wholesome family film criteria, as long as they are entertaining, I for one, have no complaints.

Iron Man - Underrated Actor, Meet Underrated Superhero - ****

There are many reasons why one could be excused for being skeptical about Iron Man. If, like me, you said, "Iron Man who?" or worse, "Robert Downey Jr.? Really??" you might be as pleasantly surprised as I was to see that both the superhero and the actor are quite a treat to watch in what promises to be quite a magnum opus (with a few sequels already being planned). Perhaps it is because expectations were so low that the movie seemed quite refreshing, not least because it didn't try to elbow its way into the jam-packed summer schedule and try to compete with The Incredible Hulk or The Dark Knight. Whatever the case may be, the movie definitely brings into sharp relief that which may have been seriously lacking in other superhero movies - some real humor.

Robert Downey Jr. is alternatively cocky and conscientious as Tony Stark, billionaire inventor and owner of Stark Industries, which manufactures and supplies weapons to pretty much anyone who wishes to buy them. Acting more as the poster boy for the company than anything, Stark doesn't realize the full repercussions of his creations until he is kidnapped by members of an Al Qaeda-like terrorist group, and ordered to build a Jericho missile for them. Here, with the assistance of fellow captive, Dr. Yinsen, he builds himself a fully armed suit of armor, powered by a small but powerful electromagnetic battery attached to his chest, which also keeps his injured heart beating. Using this iron suit, he escapes, returns to the United States and announces to the world that Stark Industries would no longer manufacture weapons, thus incurring the wrath of his father's friend and business partner, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges, who looks appropriately threatening). Stane wants sole 0wnership of Stark Industries and is, of course, willing to go to any lengths to get what he wants.

Added to this mix is Terrence Howard, who plays Stark's good friend and loyal US pilot, Lt. Colonel James Rhodes, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark's adorable (and thankfully not dimwitted) secretary and love interest, Pepper Potts. The awkward, almost adolescent interaction between Stark and Potts makes for the best humor in the movie and allows Downey Jr. to be in his element. But the actor's brilliance lies as much in the seriousness with which he views terrorists and the genuineness with which he has (both literally and metaphorically) a change of heart, as his ability to feign ignorance and innocence about a burgeoning romance.

As for the superhero side of it, Downey Jr. owns every part of the action, and director Jon Favreau very smartly allows the actor to seamlessly sew his identity onto the Robocop-like outer shell, thus ensuring that this otherwise not widely known character (with apologies to Marvel aficionados) will be as much of a household name as Spiderman. It is this, and not the special effects, which are of course, sufficiently spectacular, that makes for fantastic entertainment, through and through.