Our panda realizes he’s adopted in a sequel that offers a peacock supervillain, ramped-up action, top-notch animation and the usual muddled life lessons. Read more>>

Okay, 3D is really starting to annoy me. It’s too bad so much work that went into the layers of this film’s beauty is muted by the object that’s intended to enhance it. However, like the story, the characters and that few films today – adult or children’s – expose a world of culture, history, danger, and the simple security of knowing who you are and how you got here. Kung Fu Panda 2 excels at this. It’s a great film for kids old and young, and I look forward to number three. Read more

Taking up where the highly popular original left off, the roly-poly, dumpling-devouring panda bear is now firmly established as Dragon Warrior Po (voiced by Jack Black) in the Valley of Peace. But dastardly Lord Shen (voiced by Gary Goldman) is determined to rule all of China from Gongmen City with his Wolf Boss (voiced by Danny McBride) and a powerful new weapon: the cannon. Read more

Flora the elephant is really the star of the show, and thankfully filmmaker Lisa Leeman gives her the full star treatment she deserves. Flora is a tremendous crowd pleaser. So is this documentary! Read more

Filmmakers Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel follow the intense and energetic competition between Chicago high school poetry teams to win top honors at Chicago’s annual Louder Than A Bomb teen poetry rave. Read more>>

Time moves on, and people forget. But let’s not forget the Freedom Riders who challenged racial segregation in America’s Deep South and instigated changes in the laws and in social behavior that support equal rights and opportunity today. Freedom Riders chronicles the actions of and pays tribute to an important group of civil rights activists who played a major role in the nonviolent civil rights movement. Read more>>

Terrence Malick’s epic rumination on why bad things happen to good people is simplistic, impersonal and aesthetically pleasing, but so is a well-made commercial.
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No stranger to existential, impressionistic cinema, Terrence Malick (“Badlands,” “Days of Heaven,” “The Thin Red Line,” “The New World”) recurrently references the Book of Job during this challenging cinematic exploration of the wondrous origin and meaning of life: Read more

From the first overheated moments of “Bridesmaids,” with its Kama Sutra-plus-six-positions sex — so satisfying for him, so exhausting for her — it’s clear we’re in for that rarest of treats: an R-rated romantic comedy from the Venus point of view. Read more>>

Reinventing the franchise for this fourth installment, that swaggering, swashbuckling rogue Jack Sparrow finds romance as he searches not only for his lost ship, the Black Pearl, but also for the fabled Fountain of Youth. Read more