Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

Year One is a comedy about a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers (Jack Black and Michael Cera) who are banished from their primitive village and they set off on an epic journey through their ancient world. Starring Jack Black, Michael Cera, Olivia Wilde, Year One will be released on June 19, 2009.

Popularity: 1%

Po and his gang from Kung Fu Panda is back. DreamWorks Animation has announced that Kung Fu Panda 2 is now in production and is expected to hit theaters on June 3, 2011. Both Jack Black and Angelina Jolie will return for the sequel. The sequel will follow Po, the world’s biggest kung fu fan, as he continues his journey as the chosen one who fulfills an ancient prophesy while mastering the art of kung fu.

However, Kung Fu Panda 2 will be in 3D.

Popularity: 2%

Kung Fu Panda owns Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess With the Zohan as it earned an impressive $60 million during the opening weekend over Adam Sandler’s flick which earned just over $40 million.

For Kung Fu Panda, that blockbuster $60 mil opening ranked No. 9 on the all-time list of animated premieres, and it was the best yet for a non-sequel from DreamWorks Animation (only Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third banked more on their first weekends). It was almost parallel with the $60.1 mil that Pixar’s Cars bowed with on this weekend a couple of years ago.

(Source: Entertainment Weekly)

Popularity: 1%

Po (voice of Jack Black) is a fat and lazy panda. In fact, he is the laziest animal in ancient China. He works in his father’s noodle shop but dreams of being a kung fu warrior. Po studies kung fu history and idolizes the Furious Five, the country’s top martial arts masters — Master Monkey (Jackie Chan), Master Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Master Viper (Lucy Liu), Master Mantis (Seth Rogen) and Master Crane (David Cross). They are trained by Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) whose master is Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim).

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Master Oogway (a tortoise who knows kung fu) summons Shifu only to tell him his prophecy of Tai Lung (Ian McShane) will escape to become a treat to the civilians, therefore, Oogway must select a new Dragon Warrior to defend the town. The whole village gathers to find out which of the Furious Five will be the Dragon Warrior only to see Po accidentally being selected as the chosen one.

Po and Shifu in Kung Fu Panda

After learning the prophecy of Tai Lung’s escaping, Shifu sends Zeng (Dan Fogler), the messenger goose to send a message to Commander Vachir (Michael Clarke Duncan), a Javan Rhinoceros to beef up the security by as much as twice but Vachir arrogantly says no one can escape his prison, with 1,000 soldiers guarding 1 prisoner. Unfortunately, Zeng carelessly drops a feather which enables Tai Lung to escape and easily trashes all of Vachir’s soldiers who try to stop him.

When Shifu learns from Zeng that Tai Lung has escaped, Shifu consults Oogway only to have Oogway strongly tells Shifu to believe Po is the chosen one and slowly nurture him like the peach tree. Oogway then passes away like dust in the air. While Po is upset by his clumsiness and his failure in his earlier training, it is Shifu who convinces Po to stay when Po decides to leave. Shifu discovers that Po is able to climb up to the highest kitchen cabinet just to steal some cookies and therefore uses food as a whole new way of training Po. When Po is finally equipped with the kung fu to fight Tai Lung, Shifu brings down the dragon scroll to Po only for both of them to realize the scroll is totally empty.

Po, Master Monkey, Master Tigress, Master Viper, Master Mantis and Master Crane

Knowing that Tai Lung is on his way, Shifu asks his students including Po to help the villagers to evacuate the place, believing he will be able to at least, momentarily holds off Tai Lung. Po meets his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong) who finally reveals to Po his secret ingredient’s secret — nothing. Po finally understand the secret behind the blank scroll, which is nothing but to believe in oneself. He boldly goes back to the palace in order to face Tai Lung. The fight between both of them doesn’t last very long, but like the entire show, is nevertheless hilarious. Po, somehow, manages to defeat Tai Lung and earns the respect of the Furious Five as well as Shifu.

Overall, this is one of the best animated movie and definitely the best so far this year. Great voice acting by Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman, beautiful landscapes and background arts, what’s more, the dumplings and bowl of noodles look extremely real! Worth watching with the entire family.

My ratings: 9 out of 10.

Popularity: 3%

Be Kind Rewind is a 2008 American movie directed by Michel Gondry and starring Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover and Mia Farrow. The comedy film opened on February 22, 2008 in the United Kingdom and in the United States.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Melonie Diaz, Mos Def and Jack Black in the movie "Be Kind Rewind"

Mike (Mos Def) works at a crumbling VHS rental store called Be Kind Rewind in Passaic, New Jersey. Mike’s best friend Jerry (Jack Black) is a nutty junkyard worker who lives in a trailer. Mike is fascinated by the story that Fats Waller, the legendary jazz musician, was born in the VHS rental store (at least, according to the store’s owner, Mr. Fletcher).

Fletcher (Danny Glover) is informed by Passaic town officials that his store is scheduled to be demolished and replaced with a new building complex. He is given a time frame of 60 days to raise funds to renovate his building or move to The Project. Instead of worrying, Mr. Fletcher decides to get ideas on how to increase business by spying on a successful chain of DVD rental stores in neighborhood towns. He puts Mike in charge of Be Kind Rewind while he is away on his spying mission. Mr. Fletcher tries to pass Mike a message before he leaves on a train but Mike misunderstands the meaning due to the backward writing from inside the train.

While figuring the message Mr. Fletcher tries to convey, Jerry asks Mike to join him in sabotaging the power plan, which he believes is the cause of his headaches. Mike refuses to help at last minute after figuring Mr’ Fletcher’s message of “Keep Jerry Out”, and leaves Jerry to sabotage the plant on his own. Jerry is electrocuted causing him to become magnetized. The next day, Jerry goes to Be Kind Rewind to confront Mike for leaving him by getting rid of his customers. Later on, Mike finds out that Jerry’s magnetized body somehow erases all the tapes in the store when two of his customers has returned blank tapes.

When things are not in order, the store’s most loyal customer and Mr. Fletcher’s friend, Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow), comes to rent Ghostbusters. Fearing that she will tell Mr. Fletcher about Be Kind Rewind, Mike suddenly comes up with the idea to completely remake the movie with him and Jerry as the stars; his logic being she is too ‘cuckoo’ to realize it’s not the original one since she hasn’t seen Ghostbusters before. The two friends create the 20-minute remake using an old VHS camcorder and cheap special effects. Soon another customer requests the movie Rush Hour 2. During the filming of this movie, they manage to get the help of a local woman named Alma (Melonie Diaz). When Jerry takes the whole bottle of Aspirins thinking they are sleeping pills, Alma helps Jerry by making him drink a bucket of salty water, which leads him to urinate in the streets, causing the magnetism to be expelled from his body via the urine. Eventually, as their business flourishes, Jerry, Mike and Alma create a system where customers come to request movies “sweded” for 20 bucks instead of the usual one dollar (Jerry claims that the movies are from Sweden, the main reason for the higher prices).

When business begins to pick up as the sweded videos are in high demand and eventually the local townspeople become involved in the swedeing process, unfortunately, two court bailiffs, Ms. Lawson (Sigourney Weaver) and Mr. Rooney (Paul Dinello) arrive at the store and confiscate the movies due to copyright violation. To the dismay of the townspeople, the court bailiffs confiscate the tapes and crush them with a road roller. What’s worse is Mike discovers from Mr. Fletcher that Fats Waller was not actually born in the store.

In a final attempt to save Be Kind Rewind, Jerry with the support of the town gets Mike for ideas. A depressed Mike suggests to make a movie based on the fictional life of Fats Waller. Later, Mike, Jerry and others convince Mr. Fletcher about the idea. Though reluctant at first, Mr. Fletcher has finally agreed with the movie-making idea. The entire town, including Mr. Fletcher, creates the movie using a re-written history of the man created by the townspeople. For the premiere, Mike and Jerry break into a nearby video store in order to steal a video projector to present the movie on. Their attempt fails when they are caught by the store owner, who they discover is living inside of the store, porn room. Equally embarrassed, the store owner who knows Mike personally, agrees to let them go if they keep their mouth shut. On the day of the premiere, the demolition crew arrives to destroy the store, as Mr. Fletcher was not able to repair the store in time. The crew cannot destroy the building with people inside. As Jerry attempts to raise the small T.V. for all to see, it falls and breaks. As a blessing in disguise, the video store owner from the night before had realized the boys were attempting to steal his projector and brought it for them to use. Hence, they set up a sheet over the window for it to project on. When Mr. Fletcher is warned by the demolition leader to evacuate the store, Mr. Fletcher begs for an additional one hour so that they can finish watching the movie. The citizens proudly watch their movie with each other. Mr. Fletcher, Jerry, and Mike go outside to find that their movie could be seen from outside. A large crowd of people have already gathered outside to watch the movie. The crowd is very pleased with the film, and begins to cheer when the three men come outside. In the end, the man organizing the demolition smiles and pats Mr. Fletcher on the back, and the film fades out leaving us to guess whether the store is demolished or saved.

My ratings: 7 out of 10. Bizarre film with quirky lines and artistic trash. A touching ending.

Popularity: 1%

Tropic Thunder, directed and acted by Ben Stiller, is a movie about film crew struggling against Murphy’s Law during the production of a big budget war film. Also starring Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. and Steve Coogan.

Popularity: 1%

A DreamWorks Animation comedy about a lazy, irreverent slacker panda, Po (voiced by Jack Black), who must somehow become a Kung Fu Master in order to save the Valley of Peace. Also starring the voice of Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie and Lucy Liu. The movie will only be in theaters on June 6, 2008 (USA).

Popularity: 1%

Are you ready for ‘The Holiday’? No, not the holiday. ‘The Holiday’ is a romantic-comedy movie starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Jack Black. It will be released nationwide on December 8, 2006.

Iris (Kate Winslet) is in love with a man who is about to marry another woman. Across the globe, Amanda (Cameron Diaz) realizes the man she lives with has been unfaithful. Two women who have never met and live 6000 miles apart, find themselves in the exact same place. They meet online at a home exchange website and impulsively switch homes for the holiday. Iris moves into Amanda’s L.A. house in sunny California as Amanda arrives…

Watch the trailer

Popularity: 1%