Today, I'm going to let you in on a secret. Let's suppose you own a business and are looking for a free way to promote what you have. In this case, my wife owns a Karate school, and we have been looking for all kinds of cheap advertising to help promote the business. In January, I got the bright idea to call movie theaters to see if we could do a cross promotion with "Kung Fu Panda 2". AMC Deer Valley 30 for example, has invited us to sponsor a booth in the lobby during Memorial Day weekend to advertise our business, and in return we are advertising "Kung Fu Panda 2" enrollment specials for the school. The promotions director for this movie also gave us a batch of 200 tickets for a special sneak preview of this movie last Saturday. Didn't cost us a thing.
So, it took four months to put these promotions together. Because I know the promoters of some of these movies very well, my wife and I haven't paid for a movie in months, always seeing movies days or weeks before they come out in theaters. Which is a boon for the readers of this website, because you're getting reviews of movies well before they come out, in most cases. (See why you should subscribe?)
Later this week, I'll be reviewing the new Mel Gibson movie "The Beaver", and "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides". (Although, truth to tell, I'm trying to get out of this screening, as I haven't seen one of these movies at all. Next to a teacup ride at Disneyland, pirate movies are my second most hated thing in the world! OK, people clipping their fingernails and bananas are things I hate that are way up on the list... )
Go see this movie. It's pretty good. Better than the first one. I give it one of my highest recommendations... four bamboo stalks and a skadoosh!
Oh, wait... you're reading this column expecting a review?
Jack Black voices Po, a panda who tragically lost his parents as a young cub, and subsequently becomes a kung fu master. He is trained by Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) and protects the Valley of Peace along with the Furious Five (a selection of animals including a tiger, a praying mantis, a monkey, a viper and a crane). An albino peacock (voiced by Gary Oldman) threatens to take over all of China and wipe out kung fu forever with a secret weapon, for which Po and the Furious Five have to stop him.
That's the whole plot in a nutshell. Po confronts his past and learns new things about himself, and the movie makes great work out of the 3-D special effects. This movie is in fact, one of the best 3-D movies so far this year. I remember very little about the first movie, but the plot and characterization of this movie even brought a smile to my face, even though Jack Black hasn't made a decent movie since "Tropic Thunder", and even he wasn't very good in that. If you ever want to punish your children for drawing on the kitchen walls with a crayon, you can't punish them any harder than making them sit through "Gulliver's Travels".
The movie runs 100 minutes and is due to be released on May 26th.
So, it took four months to put these promotions together. Because I know the promoters of some of these movies very well, my wife and I haven't paid for a movie in months, always seeing movies days or weeks before they come out in theaters. Which is a boon for the readers of this website, because you're getting reviews of movies well before they come out, in most cases. (See why you should subscribe?)
Later this week, I'll be reviewing the new Mel Gibson movie "The Beaver", and "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides". (Although, truth to tell, I'm trying to get out of this screening, as I haven't seen one of these movies at all. Next to a teacup ride at Disneyland, pirate movies are my second most hated thing in the world! OK, people clipping their fingernails and bananas are things I hate that are way up on the list... )
Go see this movie. It's pretty good. Better than the first one. I give it one of my highest recommendations... four bamboo stalks and a skadoosh!
Oh, wait... you're reading this column expecting a review?
Jack Black voices Po, a panda who tragically lost his parents as a young cub, and subsequently becomes a kung fu master. He is trained by Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) and protects the Valley of Peace along with the Furious Five (a selection of animals including a tiger, a praying mantis, a monkey, a viper and a crane). An albino peacock (voiced by Gary Oldman) threatens to take over all of China and wipe out kung fu forever with a secret weapon, for which Po and the Furious Five have to stop him.
That's the whole plot in a nutshell. Po confronts his past and learns new things about himself, and the movie makes great work out of the 3-D special effects. This movie is in fact, one of the best 3-D movies so far this year. I remember very little about the first movie, but the plot and characterization of this movie even brought a smile to my face, even though Jack Black hasn't made a decent movie since "Tropic Thunder", and even he wasn't very good in that. If you ever want to punish your children for drawing on the kitchen walls with a crayon, you can't punish them any harder than making them sit through "Gulliver's Travels".
The movie runs 100 minutes and is due to be released on May 26th.
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