The Super Mario Bros. Movie - 超級瑪利歐兄弟電影版

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (超級瑪利歐兄弟電影版) is an 2023 film. The animated movie is voiced by Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, and Fred Armisen. The film was produce by Universal Pictures, Illumination, and Nintendo. At the moment of this writing, it is the highest grossing US film of 2023 with $1.3 billion at the box office.

Mario and Luigi are plumbers that get sucked into the world of the kingdoms. Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom and than runs into Princess Peach. Somehow they team up to go against Bowser. Peach enlist the help of the Jungle Kingdom and they go attack. Will they be able to stop Bowsers war on the kingdoms?

I loved this film. Maybe because I grew up on Mario Bros games starting with those handhelds. In the schoolyard, it was always the rich kid that went back to Taiwan and brought one back from their summer trip that got us all wanting to play it. Just as kids are, those games had a short shelf life and broke. It wasn’t until a lot later when Nintendo entered the US market that we could goto the TV to play. Atari had already fizzled out by then.

The movie was fun and was always on the go. I liked the voices chosen as it was not even on my mind whom they were while I was watching. I didn’t think any of the voices were out of place. Which kept me in the story and movie. I will purchase this via digital during Black Friday and watch it again. You should watch it in the theatre if you get the chance. Visually, it was a very well made film. I think Universal and Sony are passing up Disney on these animated films now.

Jumanji: The Next Level - 野蠻遊戲:全面晉級

Jumanji: The Next Level (野蠻遊戲:全面晉級) is an 2019 film. The movie stars Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Awkwafina, Danny Glover, and Danny DeVito. The supporting case reprise real world roles, played by Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser'Darius Blain, Madison Iseman, and Colin Hanks. This game is a sequel to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (野蠻遊戲:瘋狂叢林).

Set 2 years later, all four main characters are in their first year of college and head back home for Christmas break. Fridge, Martha, and Britany seem to be living their best lives. Cut to Spencer and we see a unconfident and seemly miserable at his CVS type job. When they all head back to Brantford to meet at Nora's, Spencer's a no show. They go looking for him and find out that he's been sucked back into Jumanji. After some debate, they decide to go help find Spencer so they can win the game. However, grandpa Eddie and Milo get sucked in as well. Later on, they find Spencer and set out to solve the game.



Even though this movie follows a similar formula as the first, the introduction of the grandpas and Awkwafina did refresh the movie. Add to it a new story and obstacles, I was thoroughly entertained throughout. You also see that they did increase the budget as the locales were vastly different. From the jungle, they entered into the dessert and snow capped mountains.

I caught this at a local AMC theatre.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - 野蠻遊戲:瘋狂叢林

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (野蠻遊戲:瘋狂叢林) is an 2017 film. The movie stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Nick Jonas. The supporting cast include Bobby Cannavale, Rhys Darby, and Colin Hanks. The film was primarily shot in Hawaii and takes place 26 years after the events of the first movie, starring Robin Williams.

Four teenagers get into mischief at school and are sent to detention. There, they discover a old video game and decide to play it. The four pick characters and are magically transported into the game. They discover that they have 3 lives to complete the game and maybe get back home. Along the way they find out their skills and become "woke" to their ways in the real world.

The movie was a lot of fun to watch, the story was simple and the action kept me engaged. I like that each character had their moments and it wasn't completely a Rock movie. Johnson does get most of the scene time, but they do end up focusing on the other players a lot too.

This movie was also much different than the Robin Williams one. Where the game came to our world, this one was the gamers going into their world. A fun watch and recommended for a fun time.

A sequel was releases in 2019, Jumanji: The Next Level (野蠻遊戲:全面晉級).

Kung Fu Panda 3 - 功夫熊貓3

Kung Fu Panda 3 (功夫熊貓3) is an 2016 animated film. The voices Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, J. K. Simmons, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, David Cross, Bryan Cranston, Kate Hudson, James Hong, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Randall Duk Kim. This is the third film release.

Kai, a prisoner of the spirit realm finds a way to get to the human realm. When he does, he seeks out the Dragon Warrior to prove he's the strongest. Po inherits the master role, but does a poor job. Heading back home for some comfort, he bumps into another Panda looking for his long lost son. Po learns that there's a whole village of Pandas. Saying good bye to his friends, me makes the long perilous journey to this village. When he does, he gets reconnected. Just as he was getting comfortable, Kai's presence is felt and they must devise a plan to defeat him. Can the village learn Kung Fu in time to save themselves?

Much like the last installment, they expand on the mythology of the realm. Where the 2nd installment made improvements to the first one, this 3rd installment didn't. Seems there's always someone around the corner that is bigger and stronger than the last one. But beyond that, this movie didn't involve the previous characters as much, but spent a significant time in the panda village.

My kids both liked the movie and I plan on getting it on sale in Blu-ray during black Friday or the Christmas season. Be prepared for more, it was recently announced that there are 3 more planned films.

Kung Fu Panda 2 - 功夫熊貓2

Kung Fu Panda 2 (功夫熊貓2) is an 2011 animated film from Dreamworks. This movie is a sequel to the 2008 film, Kung Fu Panda. Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, and James Hong reprise their voice roles for the sequel. Additions to the second installment are Gary Oldman, Michelle Yeoh, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. The movie was directed by American-Korean, Jennifer Yuh Nelson.

Po is now the dragon warrior supreme. When a clan from the captial attacks for resources, Po's pulled into the fight to save his country from tyrants. Can Po become strong enough to overcome the cannons and save his friends and heroes?

This second installment didn't go into character development for the five as much, but the backstory of the antagonist was explored in much depth. And I was very much the same about this film as I was for the first. "eh" was it. Entertaining and worth a watch to see where its going. There's a cartoon series now. i wonder if that's it for the movie franchise. However, the wikipedia says there are sequels involved. I prolly have watched my last one by myself. The next ones with be with my daughters as they're coming to age to start watching this. But I started on TVB dramas when I was 8 years old. Seems right.

Tropic Thunder - 開麥拉驚魂

Tropic Thunder (開麥拉驚魂) is a 2008 film starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Cruise.



The film is a mockumentary of the film industry. The premise is that real actors in a war film are dropped into a real war situation for the sake of making a film.

That war situation is the Golden Triangle with the Flaming Dragon gang as the main antagonist.

Some of the guys get captured by the Flaming Dragon gang who speak Mandarin Chinese.

There's a part of the movie where Robert Downey Jr. attempts to speak Chinese to the captors. The Chinese is barely decipherable. I had to read the subtitles and watch it over about 10 times. How the Flaming Dragon didn't just say, "what the heck are you saying?" is beyond me, they were understanding him. Got to give credit to RDJ for even getting all those Chinese words out of his mouth. I have a hard time these days and I am a native speaker.

Kung Fu Panda - 功夫熊貓

I caught Kung Fu Panda (功夫熊貓) about a month ago. I had heard all the hype around it and wanted to check it out. The hype that Hollywood was successful in making both a film about kung fu and pandas. Both things that considered treasures per se in Chinese pop culture. And Pandas can be considered iconic to China.

I think the film itself was ok. The story was simple and the characters were developed to move it along. I was actually very annoyed and had a hard time finishing the film. The story was very "american". Personally, I don't know if a story like this could come out of China. But you never know, many Jackie Chan movies had a similar formula. Since there could be 5 more sequels and already released unofficial sequels and spinoffs, Jack Black will continue to do those ridiculous kung fu poses for the world to see. It also includes the racist "Kung Fu Fighting" song with updated lyrics.



In general, it felt pretty "Chinese". Some things of note that were "Chinese". The noodle making. The city. The "bao" that was contested in a scene. Many things you would see in a genre martial arts film from HK, Taiwan, or China.