Movie Reviews: Bad Teacher, Cars 2, and Kung Fu Panda 2

Bad Teacher
Starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake, Lucy Punch
Written by Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg
Directed by Jake Kasdan

Story: A gold digging, shallow, foul mouthed teacher tries to raise money for a boob job, so she can catch the eye of a wealthy substitute teacher.

Review: Remember how Bad Santa was really crass and funny? Well, Bad Teacher was really crass. Apart from a few funny gags (dry humping being the highlight), there's no reason to see this movie.

Comparable Movies: Role Models or any other movie where an immature adult grows up after being forced to watch over children.

Rating: **

Not the worst movie ever, but still below average.

Cars 2
Starring Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy
Written by Ben Queen
Directed by John Lasseter

Story: Tow Mater gets caught up in a international conspiracy to take over the world's oil market by Lemons (Hugos, Gremlins, and other crappy cars.)

Review: I know Cars was one of the most successful franchises that Pixar has made, but I'm not a big fan of the first movie. I hate Larry the Cable Guy, and he is the main character for most of the movie. Cars 2 has a lot more cliches than most of the Pixar films, and the plot is very formulaic. Compared to other 3D animated movies that come out it is okay, but a definite miss for Pixar.

Comparable Movies: Pretty standard animation fare. Be yourself and don't worry about what the world thinks of you. Shrek with cars.

Rating: ** 1/2

If you like Larry the Cable Guy, or really like Tow Mater from the first Cars, you'll like this one.

Kung Fu Panda 2
Starring Jack Black
Written by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger
Directed by Jennifer Yuh

Story: Po must save China and Kung Fu from an evil warlord who has discovered the use of gun powder.

Review: A sequel that lives up to the first film. Although Kung Fu Panda is only a good movie, the sequel brings back all the characters and has a good, fast moving storyline. The animation is excellent, the voice acting is good, and the action sequences are over the top and fun.

Comparable Movies: Very similar to the first film. Like it's almost the same movie.

Rating: *** 1/2

Over the last year and a half I would say Dreamworks Animation has been better than Pixar.


That's it for today kiddies. Should have a review of Transformers 3 by the weekend.

May the Force be with you,


CHUD