Paws Of Fury: The Legend Of Hank (2022) - Movie Review

Ever hear the argument that political correctness has gone so screwy that you couldn’t make a Mel Brooks movie today? Well, outside of how much of a chode point-of-view that is to begin (and how the existence of films like Jojo Rabbit pretty much defeat that line of reasoning), it is at least partially correct in this film’s case. Originally titled Blazing Samurai, this loose remake of Brooks’ Blazing Saddles (to the point where all five of Saddles’ co-writers are credited on this) has been in numerous states of production and release limbo for several years. And we’re not just talking about the COVID shuffle either; this thing has been batting around since 2010.

Considering my lengthy history with sub-par animated films starring talking animals, and how much I respect Brooks’ work on the original, I’ll admit that I wasn’t all that enthused about this film even in its early stages with that crack of sumo cat teaser poster. It finally seeing release after spending so long percolating must have been a massive relief for all parties involved, and I certainly get that (any film that makes it all the way from conception to public release is nothing short of a miracle if you know anything about the industry), but how does that translate into the viewing experience? Well… it’s kinda complicated.

Mortal Kombat (2021) - Movie Review

This is likely the only time that a new film will have to meet the benchmark created by Paul W.S. Anderson. And I’m not even remotely kidding; the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie remains one of the best video game adaptations of all time. Yeah, it’s a dense slice of action cheese, but with that casting, that soundtrack and those one-liners… in all seriousness, I went into this actively hoping for that same level of all-out fun. And truth be told, that is exactly what I got.

The Art Of Self-Defense (2019) - Movie Review

There are few things that can immediately bring out the fragility in a self-supposed alpha like daring to utter the phrase ‘toxic masculinity’ in their presence. Bonus points if their rebuttal to the sheer idea of the concept involves some combination of ‘beta’, ‘cuck’ and ‘soy’.

Even as someone who has discussed the topic in past reviews, in particular my look at Only The Brave, I keep getting the feeling that there’s far too many out there unable to see or even comprehend the distinct between masculinity at its best and at its worst. For its best, the archetypal protector and provider has his place and as tempered by genuine human empathy and compassion, it remains a true showing of strength. For its worst… well, let’s get into this film.

Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016) - Movie Review

While How To Train Your Dragon serves as a lot of people’s evidence that Dreamworks is far better than we give them credit for, the Kung Fu Panda films are also an example of the studio at their best. Admittedly, the entire franchise started on a rather ill-fitting note by casting Jack Black as the main character, and sure his mannerisms were quite grating to start out with, but it had a sense of excitement and fun that a lot of other recent family films were lacking. The animation was high-energy and very well-crafted, leading to probably some of the best fight scenes of any film series of the last several years, the acting was top-notch with an all-star cast that contained some real martial arts legends like Jackie Chan and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Oh, and the writing took the standard “be yourself” theme of a lot of family-friendly fare and executed it so well that it managed to break the mould of its kind and surpass the genre clichés. You can imagine, with a pedigree like this, that this third film would have some rather high expectations. For reasons I will get into with the review proper, I was really not looking forward to this. But hey, after the weaksauce family offerings of the last long while, I’m still positive that this will be a decent watch. How decent is the question, though.