Kung Fu Panda 4 and Borderlands (2024)

Accepting change.

Kung Fu Panda 4

Continuing on from the previous movie, Poh (voiced Jack Black) faces his next task of choosing a successor - something he doesn't want at all because it would mean no longer being "the Dragon Warrior". Of course these movies are really all about accepting change, and his adventure this time has side-lined the other high paid voice actors defenders "the Furious Five" off on single sentence hand waved missions (which is a good idea). Funny and entertaining but only watch it after Kung Fu Panda 3.   

Borderlands

When bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett) is sent to track down a fugitive on her home planet of Pandora, she learns a few things about herself. Oh, and kills a LOT of people in ther process! As regular readers might know, I've played a lot of the Borderlands game series from which this movie is based of. My advice if you are like me: put everything you know about the games and the meta in a box, set the box aside (and maybe air step over it) when you go watch this as it will be more enjoyable as a clean slate than if you have expectations.

I did that, and I was not disappointed. Sure, it's not as gory-violent as the games but its still very entertaining in a PG-13 way. Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black) is actually funny and not as annoying as his game counterpart, and there's just some ridiculous fun in the chase and action sequences that kept us glued to the screen. My wife, who has never played Borderlands, absolutely loved the show and wished it was a series so that there would be more. While I might not have loved it as much as she, I'm in agreement as it wasn't bad at all.

Kung Fu Panda 3 and Testament: The Story of Moses

Learning to be teachers.

Kung Fu Panda 3

Having saved the village numerous times now, the "dragon warrior" Po (a talking panda voiced by Jack Black) is tasked with stepping up to be the new teacher as his own one is retiring while also reconnecting with his biological dad which puts his adoptive father on edge. Naturally things go terribly at first but urged on by an impending doom track yak, a mighty undead warrior from the ghost realm, Po has to get everything lined up perfectly just in time to save the day... by simply being himself! It's a good message for the younger audience wrapped up in a fun animated adventure, but plot wise there's no real threat to Po or his friends here which is a shame as I do enjoy protagonists learning through consequences. Still a decent watch.

Testament: The Story of Moses

As you might expect, this three episode mini-documentary-series focuses on the life of Moses from escaping death as an infant to bringing lots of death to the Egyptians while saving the slaves. Alas Moses himself is mostly a grumpy, non-interesting character (which is ironic as this is his story) but maybe that's what they were going for? In contrast Pharaoh exudes in screen charisma and is great. While the dramatization certainly has some budget behind it, I'm not sure how much value is added by the "expert" segments of actual theologians talking about him seeded at various points in the plot which couldn't have been better done with just some book-end like text. As such the episodes are quite lengthy and if you should attempt watching it I'd advise at least bumping it up to 1.25x speed.

Jumanji: The Next Level and Spiderman: No Way Home

A poor sequel and a great sequel.

Jumanji: The Next Level

Having not learned the lesson from last time, people find themselves in Jumanji once more in this action comedy which is somehow even lighter / more nonsensical plot wise. While the acting is ok, what kills this is the script and comedy aspect with repeating jokes and honestly a few mind numbing fools that deserved to be offed. It also over stays its welcome and is a threat of being a snooze fest as some points. Not recommended.

Spiderman: No Way Home

When Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and those closest too him start feeling the problems of fame, he decides to visit master magician Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for a spell to make people forget who he is. A spell he promptly keeps interrupting until it misfires, opening tears to dimensions which just lead to more problems for spidey and his gang.

While the start is a tad slow, this is an excellent superhero action flick and one that rewards long time fans by putting in many familiar faces on the screen. While non-spidey/non-superhero viewers might not like this, I found it to be really great once it started to pick up. Good pace, good story and basically a lot of fun. Highly recommended!

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

What, no save points?

A bunch of teens come across an old game and decide to play it, quickly finding themselves transported into the world of Jumanji as the characters they chose, which happen to differ wildly to who they are in real life.

Meet the intrepid heroes!

Great liberties are taken in the Jumanji world where not a lot makes sense, but most games (especially older arcade types) never did so in this instance its fine. More importantly while the action is ok, the comedy is great which makes for a very entertaining show.

Might be too silly for some viewers, but it was just the right amount of silly for me. I give it 3 weaknesses out of 5 and would like to watch it again.

Sex Tape

Cameron Diaz is hot, but not hot enough to save this movie.

A married couple decide to record themselves while doing the deed and, due to a severe lack of foresight, are then pressed by the challenge to try stop it from getting out into the public. That's the main gist of it, and while Cameron Diaz being naked is a great thing to watch it kinda falls a little flat on the comedy side for me.

In some games this would be +3 armor.

Yes, there are some funny scenes but most of the time I found myself just smiling instead of laughing out loud which I think is the whole point of a comedy. Jack Black's cameo was something of a highlight here, which is never good when a cameo outshines the movie. Still it was entertaining enough, but not something I would be willing to watch again. Hmm, I think I'll be adding that criteria to all my future reviews too. Overall I give Sex Tape two out of five somersaults.