Rating: 3 stars

Art and shameless commerce don’t usually intersect, but they do (sort of) in Kung Fu Panda.  In many ways, the film feels like it was created by some harried Dreamworks exec in a focus group. I can see his notes now . . .
1. Cuddly panda bear: check
2. Kid-fave Jack Black: check
3. Under-achiever makes good: check
4. Kung fu, which kids love? (Note to self: Look up returns on Forbidden Kingdom. Ahhhhh, $21.5 million in its first week): check.
But at the same time, the film has a warmth and a playfulness about it—not to mention some truly beautiful animation—that suggest it was made with great care, even love.
The story focuses on Po (voiced by Jack Black), a portly panda being raised by his noodle maker father, who is a goose. (In one of the film’s clever touches, it’s not clear that Po knows he’s adopted.) Po fantasizes about being a kung fu hero and his dreams are realized when, through a series of comic mishaps, he is taken to be the Dragon Warrior, a mystical, messiah-like figure, meant to conquer the evil...

Rating: 3.5 stars

Sex and the City ran for six seasons on HBO and, amazingly, it never once jumped the shark. If anything, the final seasons were its strongest—with the show’s addictive blend of fashion, sex, friendship, and clever bon mots honed to near perfection. When the show went off the air in 2004, women around the world mourned—and rumors of a Sex and the City movie immediately surfaced.
Once those rumors became a reality—confirmed by paparazzi photos of our four fashionista galpals filming in New York—anticipation reached a frenzied pitch. I can safely say that no movie that I’ve ever reviewed has been more buzzed over—with more of my friends helpfully “volunteering” to accompany me to my critics’ screening (thanks, girls)—than Sex and the City.
So, does it live up to the hype?
Hell yes.
Sex and the City, the movie, really does feel like a giant, gift-wrapped present (from a high-end Fifth Avenue boutique, naturally) to fans of the show. In many ways, it plays a lot like the TV show, except the fashion has been dialed...

Rating: 3.5 stars

Young @ Heart, a documentary about a chorus of senior citizens who sing rock and punk songs, works, fabulously, on three different levels.
For one, it’s a performance film, complete with a tough yet devoted choral director, disastrous rehearsals, back stage jitters, and unforeseen obstacles en route to the big show.
Next, it’s a film about life and death—the choral members are mostly in their 70s and 80s (one delightful pip named Eileen is 92!)—they get sick and incapacitated and some never return. But they persevere, because dealing with death “comes with the territory,” as one choral member wryly notes. Also, as many in the group frankly state, they certainly wouldn’t want the show to stop in the unfortunate event of their own demise.
Finally, Young @ Heart is about music and its power to raise the spirit and bring unlikely people together (in one memorable scene, the chorus performs for a group of hardened convicts, who literally seem to soften in their presence.) These old people love making music, they love the energy and the power...

Rating: 2.5 stars

Sadly for me, all the things I liked best about the original Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe—Tilda Swinton’s icily mesmerizing White Witch; James McAvoy’s puckish Mr. Tumnus; the refreshingly realistic sibling rivalry among the Pevensie children; the talking beavers; those crazy-delicious cupcakes (just checking to see if you were paying attention)—are mostly gone in the sequel. Instead, we get more CGI! More battles! More epic grandeur! In this case, more is less—at least for me. I missed the charm and intimacy of the first work. Some, I suppose, will prefer this version, which plays a bit like Lord of the Rings for tweens.
The tween dream factor is certainly provided by our titular hero. British newcomer Ben Barnes looks so much like a young Keanu Reeves, I half-expected him to mutter, “Whoah. Narnia is totally righteous, dude,” but makes an able bodied (and totally hot) Caspian.
As the film starts, the Pevensie children are back in war-torn England. I’m not sure how much “real world” time is supposed to have...