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Outside of the first SHREK film, KUNG FU PANDA is the best movie from DreamWorks Animation. Unlike other DreamWorks’ productions that have relied too heavily on pop culture references, Mark Osborne and John Stevenson’s film has a self-contained world with jokes based on the characters not FAMILY GUY-style “let’s throw out as many references as we can and see what sticks.” Containing the hallmarks of a good family film, PANDA doesn’t talk down to anyone in the audience and provides something for everyone. Martial arts fans will particularly love the action and the subtle references to kung fu classics.

Po (Jack Black, HIGH FIDELITY) is a pudgy panda who dreams of becoming a great kung fu warrior like his heroes — the Furious Five. His father Mr. Ping (James Hong, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA), on the other hand, is grooming him to take over the family noodle business. Meanwhile, kung fu master Oogway the turtle (Randall Duk Kim, THE MATRIX RELOADED) senses that savage Tai Lung the snow leopard will escape from prison and destroy the Valley of Peace. He decides it is time to select the mythical Dragon Warrior. His closest disciple, Master Shifu the mouse, presents the Furious Five as contenders for the legendary kung fu master title. However, on the day of the selection, Po makes an unexpected explosion onto the scene and is selected as the Dragon Warrior.

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This fictionalized version of the story of Chinese martial arts master Huo Yuanjia has the same wire-fu and complex fight choreography that one would expect in a modern martial arts picture. But what was unexpected was the heart. The simple story deals with classic conflicts, such as hubris, redemption and corrupt rulers. I couldn’t avoid thinking of HAMLET in the end.

As a child Huo Yuanjia wants nothing more than to train with his father in the martial arts, neglecting all his studies in every other area. After a beating by a rival, he vows never to lose again. Grown, with a young daughter, he is the best fighter around, but he’s arrogant, taking on any freeloader from the street as a student and running up huge debts. His childhood friend Nong Jinsun (Yong Dong) worries that his need to fight will destroy him. And so it happens that Master Chin, the rival who beat him as a child, returns to town, which leads to Huo Yuanjia losing everything. Now, alone, wondering the desert, Huo Yuanjia is taken in by a blind farmer named Moon (Betty Sun). After he is rejuvenated, Huo Yuanjia returns to his hometown to make amends, but now the English and Japanese rule the city, spurring Huo Yuanjia to fight for something honorable.

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Sometimes what you bring into a movie makes a big difference in how it will be viewed and ultimately enjoyed. If you’re a history buff you may be irritated with period inaccuracies in a war movie. A fan of a certain comic might hate a feature version because it’s not what they remembered or wanted. So going into TMNT it has a lot riding against it in terms of fans’ expectations and how critics or even the general non-fan population view the Turtles either from the animated TV series or men-in-suits live-action films. It’s tough to do anything right in some critics’ minds when your franchise started with grown men playing teenage mutant ninja turtles.

I come to TMNT as a person who was a big fan of the TV series as a kid and vaguely remember liking the original live-action film when it first came out. Therefore, I have knowledge of the franchise and expectations of what would make a good or bad TURTLES movie. Thus my recommendation of the film comes from that point of view. If you were a fan of the series (but maybe not a hardcore one, I can’t say how it stacks up to the comics) then you will not be disappointed by this film. All others should either go in with an open-mind or take their baggage and fly over to another theater that’s not playing this movie. TMNT isn’t a great film, but it brought back fond memories of the characters that I loved in my youth.

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For the last few years, director Zhang Yimou has been crafting epic, martial arts fantasies like HERO and HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS. CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER may be his most epic yet. However not in the action set-piece sense of the world, but more so like a Shakespearean tragedy.

Empress Phoenix (Gong Li, MEMORIES OF A GEISHA) is slowly being poisoned by her heartless husband Emperor Ping (Chow Yun-Fat, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON). The Empress is having an affair with her stepson Prince Xiang (Liu Ye, THE PROMISE), who is sleeping with Chan (Man Li, film debut), daughter of the imperial physician (Dahong Ni, TO LIVE). Returning home from battle is middle son, Prince Jie (Jay Chou, HIDDEN TRACK), who is torn between his devotion to his mother and his loyalty to his father. Jie is idolized by his younger brother Cheng (Qin Junjie, film debut). Also figuring into the mix is a mysterious ninja (Chen Jin), who holds dark secrets to the Emperor’s past.

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Sasuke Sarutobi (Koji Takahashi, SANSHIRO SUGATA) is a legendary samurai of the Sanada clan who is tracking Toyotomi clan spy Takanosuke Nojiri (Kei Sato, THE SWORD OF DOOM). One day he meets the spy Mitsuaki Inamura (Rokko Toura, ZATOICHI AND THE CHESS EXPERT), who is trying to sell information to Nojiri and his master Shigeyuki Koremura (Eitaro Ozawa, SAMURAI 1: MUSASHI MIYAMOTO), which lead them to the whereabouts of leading Tokugawa spy Tatewaki Koriyama (Eiji Okada, LADY SNOWBLOOD).

Sasuke wants nothing to do with Mitsuaki’s plan because he fears that it will lead to another war, especially after he finds out that Mitsuaki has ratted out a Christian samurai named Yashiro Kobayashi (Yasunori Irikawa) in an effort to sneak by the cruel local magistrate Genba Kuni (Minoru Hodaka, MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS). While on his mission, Sasuke runs into Tokugawa assassin Sakon Takatani (Tetsuro Tamba, THE STORY OF RICKY), who wants to find Tatewaki for his own reasons. Sasuke also gets involved with Jinnai-Kazutaka Horikawa (Seiji Miyaguchi, THE SEVEN SAMURAI), an older statesmen who seems to be someone Sasuke cannot trust.

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ONG-BAK generates awe not from its lame plot, but from its raw stunt work that baffles the eyes. Story is irrelevant when the real purpose for this film is to showcase the amazing physical skills of its star Tony Jaa. It’s a kung-fu flick — what else do you want?

Ting (Jaa) is a skilled boxer from a small village in Thailand. Young gangster Don (Wannakit Siripout) has stolen the head of the village’s stone Buddha called Ong-Bak. So Ting heads to the city to retrieve the statue’s head. In the city, he meets up with Humlae, known as George (Petchtai Wongkamlao) and his sister Muay Lek (Pumwaree Yodkamol), who left Ting’s village for the city and are more interested in stealing Ting’s money or exploiting his fighting skills then helping him find the missing idol head. As would be expected, Ting ends up in a boxing match, which loses Don’s boss Komtuan (Suchao Pongwilai) a lot of money.

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The first KARATE KID is a classic. Yes, I’m gutsy enough to say that. Yeah, it has its total cheese parts, but at its core it is a believable tale of friendship. However, THE NEXT KARATE KID is all cheese. Abandoning the core relationship that made the original great (not that it saved part two or three), you can hear the filmmakers trying to wring out the last coin from this franchise.

Every time Pat Morita rolls his eyes in disgust, you have to believe it’s a comment on the trite he is being subjected to in order to pay his mortgage. This time around Mr. Miyagi (Morita) becomes the guardian of his dead friend’s daughter, named Julie, played by, yes, two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank.

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This spin-off of DAREDEVIL doesn’t contain any of the really silly parts that hampered its predecessor, but it doesn’t have any of that film’s originality either. I’m not saying DAREDEVIL was groundbreaking in anyway, however when that film worked it had nice original touches whereas this film never reaches above “been there, done that” territory.

Elektra (Jennifer Garner, TV’s ALIAS) is an assassin, who was brought back from the dead and then trained in martial arts by the blind master Stick (Terence Stamp, THE COLLECTOR). Elektra leaves the tutelage of Stick to become an assassin and is assigned to kill Mark Miller (Goran Visnjic, TV’s E.R.) and his daughter Abby (Kirsten Prout, ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS), who is a born fighter.

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At times the film feels like its going to spin off the rails into a chaotic mess, but it surprisingly brings its epic scope into focus for an ending that delivers one of the best actions sequences ever filmed.

Set in late 19th Century China, Wong Fei-Hung (Jet Li, HERO) is a martial arts master of the utmost skill. He is trying to keep his school and clinic alive in the traditional ways as his country moves toward the ways of the West. A gangster named Tiger (Steve Tartalia) extorts money from the local businesses, which leads to clashes with Wong’s students. Those battles enrage the magistrate (Chi Yeung Wong), who is trying to impress visiting American businessman Jackson (Jonathan Isgar, MR. NICE GUY), who shouldn’t be trusted at all.

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I struggled with this film throughout. At times it works on your emotions successfully, but undercuts those emotions with characters that are inconsistent.

The story follows Danny (Jet Li, HERO), a savage hitman who has been beaten of his humanity by gangster Bart (Bob Hoskins, MONA LISA). Danny wears a collar that makes him docile, but when Bart removes it Danny becomes a raging, unstoppable killer. As the story progresses, Danny ends up meeting and eventually taken in by blind piano tuner Sam (Morgan Freeman, MILLION DOLLAR BABY), who has a stepdaughter named Victoria (Kerry Condon, NED KELLY). Sam and Victoria make Danny a part of their unusual family. They also go about teaching Danny to readjust to normal society.

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