Image Credit: Universal Pictures
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Po is kicking more butt (including his own) and Guy Ritchie turns a movie into a TV series… Sort of. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite
Fourth entries in franchises, especially after taking a break for a few years, can be hit-or-miss affairs. And while Kung Fu Panda 4 often feels more serviceable than truly amusing, it’s at least a worthwhile trifle with a couple of standout moments and characters, and finds ways to access the nostalgia corners of fans’ brains without leaning too hard on that aspect.
The new movie picks up the story of Po (a typically effervescent Jack Black), well established in his role as the Dragon Warrior. So entrenched, in fact, that he and his family (including real panda dad Li, voiced by Bryan Cranston and adoptive goose father Mr. Ping, brought to panicked life as always by the legendary James Hong) have capitalized on the idea with merchandise and a themed noodle restaurant.
Po is therefore concerned when Master Sifu (an enjoyably cranky Dustin Hoffman) informs him that he’s going to become the next Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace and that he needs to find a successor to take up the mantle of Dragon Warrior.
Yet on top of that, Po faces a big new threat from beyond the Valley –– The Chameleon (played by Viola Davis) –– is using some dark magic to draw Po’s old nemeses back from the spirit world, intent on taking their powers and martial arts abilities to expand her criminal empire into one with real clout that expands beyond her current territory.
Let’s start with the positive side of things: if you grew up with, or even simply enjoy spending time in the company of Black’s irrepressible panda, then chances are you’ll be happy to have him back on big screens (there have been TV spin-offs in between the movies). And in Mike Mitchell (a DreamWorks Animation veteran of Trolls and Shrek Forever After), you have a reliable director who knows how to whip up a solid action scene and frequently finds the funny.
The dynamic between Po and Zhen, Rüppell’s fox who Po catches sneaking in to rob the Jade Palace, is a highlight –– the character capturing voice actor Awkwafina’s kooky charm and organically pointing Po towards his new villain. And there’s a subplot featuring Li and Ping going to help their son that also generates some goofy comedy.
On the downside, The Chameleon feels like a waste of Davis’ considerable talents, a stock villain who has her gravitas but isn’t doesn’t offer much beyond that and some funky animated moments of her turning into other villains or Po himself (hence the kicking his own butt mention in the headline). It’s a disappointing element of the new film, and a weakness overall.
Too often it can feel like a lazy franchise extension when there are actual snippets of real joy to be found here. At least it’s more “Skidoosh” than “Ski-douche”.
Kung Fu Panda 4 is in US cinemas now and will be released in the UK on 28th March.
Image Credit: Netflix
It’s somehow fitting that I should be home visiting the UK (where the weather is chillier but somehow nicer than the rainy Los Angeles I left this week) when Guy Ritchie’s first real stab at television, The Gentlemen is launching its eight-episode season on Netflix. Because it’s so very, very British that even with explanatory notes scrawled on the screen for some terms, audiences in the States and beyond might find themselves reaching for a dictionary to figure it out.
Ritchie has become a real genre-hopper of late, and a prolific workhorse, with two films released last year, another (The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare) due in April, this TV show and one more series reportedly headed our way in 2024.
For The Gentlemen, he’s effectively revisiting the concept of his 2019 movie, which saw Matthew McConaughey as a weed empire boss looking to offload his domain in London and coming up against all manner of crooks, wheelers, dealers, scam artists and troublemakers. The new show features none of the characters, but does feel of a piece, focusing instead on Eddie Horniman (Theo James), who inherits a massive family estate after his father’s death and quickly learns that it comes complete with a sneaky marijuana cultivation base and ties to a powerful criminal gang.
Eddie had never intended to take over the family plot, instead figuring his wayward older brother Freddie (Daniel Ings) would inherit. Choosing to serve in the Army instead, Eddie is summoned home to his dad’s deathbed and learns he’s getting the keys to the kingdom –– with the added weed responsibilities. And that, in turn, leads to his entry into a much dodgier world than even the British aristocracy (well, not that much dodgier, but still).
James has for me never been the most compelling of actors, but between The White Lotus and this, he’s certainly had the chance to show more range than bland/angry heroics in the Divergent franchise. Here, he’s certainly solid in the lead role, but frequently outshone by others, including Ings as his idiotic older bro.
The series might be called The Gentlemen, but it’s the lady who really sparkles here. Kaya Scodelario, playing sly, witty and no-nonsense Susie Glass, is the standout of the show. Never reduced to being someone’s wife or girlfriend and (for the most part, except when she’s interacting with her incarcerated kingpin father played by Ray Winstone) the boss of the weed organization. She’s dynamic and captivating, less stealing scenes than more heisting the entire show out from everyone else.
Around them, Ritchie has built a solid ensemble of character types, who are all clearly having a blast with his and co-creator Matthew Read’s chewy dialogue.
It’s not perfect, lumbered with some of Ritchie’s obsessions that have worn increasingly thin since Lock, Stock, and can feel repetitive with many similar elements in various episodes (Eddie has a problem he needs to solve, which brings him into contact with a fast-talking/violent person, he uses some of his own skills or Susie’s to sort it, job done) but it all ties up nicely and works as a whole.
The Gentlemen is on Netflix now. I’ve seen all eight episodes.