Movies starring Jack Black

Every year, there are a handful of pleasant and unpleasant surprises in multiplexes. Count Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle among the former. A tremendous improvement over the tepid 1995 original, this quasi-sequel brings humor, fun performances,...

Spoiler Alert: This review assumes that the reader is familiar with the story of King Kong, including the ending. If you're not, and don't want to be spoiled, it's best to stop reading after the fourth paragraph and return once you have seen the ...

The average animated sequel is content to apprehend the successful elements from its predecessor and regurgitate them. The result, no matter how enjoyable, often drips with an overly familiar precipitation. Dreamworks' biggest animated franchise, S...

Kung Fu Panda 3 falls on the kids-only end of the family movie spectrum. Unlike the best animated films, Kung Fu Panda 3 is content to appeal primarily to younger viewers, offering little of substance for the parents who accompany them to theaters. I...

Kung Fu Panda adopts a different, less zany tone than one might expect from a movie with that title, especially considering that Jack Black has been brought on board to provide the lead voice. While it would be unfair to say that the movie doesn't...

It's always the case that when a director does something that attracts notice (or, in some cases, notoriety), his or her next project is awaited with a degree of anticipation. This is the case with Noah Baumbach, whose The Squid and the Whale, whi...

Going into A Minecraft Movie, I was hoping for something that might emulate the cheeky fun of The LEGO Movie or the re-imagined Jumanji. Those at least seemed to be reasonable comps. Alas, Jared Hess’ translation of the popular computer game pro...

The Muppets is a rare family film likely to appeal more to parents than to their offspring. Although it's true that most kids today know a thing or two about Jim Henson's creations (the movie's premise - that they have vanished into obscurity since...

When a movie tries to be intentionally campy, it follows a difficult road. Most films that attempt this fail because the artifice of the situation drains the humor from it. Genuine camp is the child of earnestness and ineptitude, and is only foun...

Most parents, on at least a subconscious level, would be happy if their children, when grown, followed in their footsteps. Such a career choice by one's offspring, is, after all, a kind of validation of one's own decisions. So it must be with som...