The kids really enjoyed this. At first, “Ice Age: The Meltdown” looks like the inevitable sequel to the famous 20th Century Fox animated blockbuster, trying to cash in the success of the previous movie but that wasn’t the case. This new adventure of the prehistoric mammals manages to stay on its own legs and delivers nothing but great fun becoming a worthy sequel. That alone is an achievement in its own right.

“The Meltdown” continues with the style of its predecessor both in humor and animation, so those who fell in love with the original will love the sequel too. The difference however, is in the fact that now Manny is our main character. We get to know more about this character apparently anti-social and cynic, but who in the inside feels very lonely after the loss of his family. Sid and Diego make good sidekicks in this adventure and while their roles in the film are somewhat diminished, they still are very well-developed characters. Scrat, the nut-obsessed squirrel is back too in his constant quest for his lost nut, giving slapstick humor of the finest type in every scene he is in.

It is always hard for sequels to live up to the expectations, specially in family-oriented animation films, but director Carlos Saldanha and his team manage to make a funny movie that never gets boring or tiresome (something vital as it is a movie mainly oriented for kids).

While probably the story is not exactly original or complicated writers Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow make up for it with good character development and funny one-liners that fit the movie tone very good. Two new characters, the young possums Crash (Sean William Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck) are a welcomed addition to the family, as well as Ellie (Queen Latifah), the lost mammoth.

Ellie, Manny and their relationship is a very important subplot in the movie, and one that was perfectly handled by the director and his crew. While Diego’s subplot was also interesting and served as basis for very good jokes, it didn’t had enough screen-time; a shame in my opinion, but overall the movie was very good. The only problem I had with it was the language and innuendos. Yes, the PG rating warned of that, however it is a cartoon and maybe we need to let the movie producers know that we don’t have to have foul language and sexual innuendos to make a movie good.

To summarize, fans of the first “Ice Age” won’t be disappointed by “The Meltdown,” and it also breaks the “sequel’s curse” this film is entertaining on its own right.

Last summer, director Christopher Nolan reinvigorated the BATMAN legend with a character-driven thrill-ride chock full of surprises and endless invention, but the same can’t be said of Bryan Singer’s SUPERMAN RETURNS, which feels like a retread for much of its lethargic and bloated running-time. I can’t say this was a major disappointment since my expectations going in were modest at best, but this thing was sooo shockingly mundane; nothing in this movie stirs up much excitement or comes close to matching the awe and wonder Richard Donner’s film fashioned so exhuberantly.

With few exceptions, the casting is disastrous: Bosworth takes the plucky Lois Lane and imbues her with the sum energy derived from digesting a handful of sleeping pills; Spacey’s Luthor, while more faithful to the source material than previous screen versions, isn’t half as memorable as Gene Hackman’s playful take on the character, and Frank Langella is sooo lackluster a Perry White I’m not even sure he was awake when his scenes were shot. As for Routh, he improved as the film progressed, but he still looks more like Superboy (or, more precisely, RUSHMORE’s Max Fischer) than the Man of Steel. (His adolescent looks and awkward first attempts to mimic Christopher Reeve’s Clark Kent are painful to watch)

The missteps in casting could have been glossed over if the film delivered some truly jaw-dropping scenes of Super-derring-do, but there’s little suspense or excitement to the action set-pieces that seem regurgitated from previous films, and the special-effects — the one area it was reasonable to expect improvement in leaps and bounds — are competent but unambitious and not that big an upgrade from what Donner achieved in 1978. In fact, director Bryan Singer, who did such a fine job with the first two X-MEN films, seems so intent on capturing the style of the Donner classic that he leaves little of his own imprint on SUPERMAN RETURNS. SUPERMAN RETURNS most reminds me of Tim Burton’s “re-imagining” of PLANET OF THE APES; each had heaps of money lavished on them, but both are completely lifeless. And since when did Clark Kent wear glasses as a young boy??

Ultimately, this new SUPERMAN may appeal more to those who didn’t grow up with the Christopher Reeve movies, but at 2 1/2 hours, it may be too slow to become the smash Warner was hoping for; it certainly won’t rule the box-office for 13 consecutive weeks as the 1978 original did. In the end, it’s ironic the filmmakers chose to feature the song “Heart and Soul” when SUPERMAN RETURNS had neither.

Already breaking box-office records with each passing week, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” promises to be the top grossing film of 2006… and possibly of all time without question. Millions of people, eagerly waiting since the premier of the first installment, have generated $400+ million in sales for this movie thus far and the numbers continue to grow. But sales… those are just numbers, at the end of the day, the true question is… How does this “Pirates” stack up to the first?

Although this movie was relatively well done, it pretty much is a two and a half hour teaser for part three, which is a bit disappointing. It really lacks the sarcasm and witty humor that made the first one such a great movie among all ages. The jokes and one liners in “Dead Man’s Chest” fall a bit short of funny, and by the end of the film are just lost in the epic that this movie tries to be. The plot seemed a bit dull (chasing a human squid around the seas, while trying to recover a beating heart in a chest), but it would have been ample if the movie would have just cut out the filler and kept the time around the two hour mark. It was obvious that the audience (in the two times I’ve been to theatres to see it) was growing quite restless and bored.

With that being said though, I should point out that Johnny Depp (Jack Sparrow) does, in fact, make it more than obvious that he carries this movie. His ability to take on a character in full and entice movie-goers all at once is astounding. He creates and refreshes a charcater that adults and children alike will find appealing, funny, and eccentric.

Overall, “Dead Man’s Chest” follows the makings of any sequel… lack of developed plot, quite the teaser, and overdone. But it’s still worth seeing… even if just to have more background for the upcoming Pirates III. Some scenes might be a little much for children, but it is a film that would be great for a family outting.

I am an advid fan of both the x-men comic books and the movies. I have been a fan of Marvel Comics for over twenty years. I feel that the characters depths were reached in the first two movies but were not carried on to the third, yet they seemed to add many more to the mix, and the special features were a travisty. These things lead to my actual review being closer to 2.5 stars.

I feel that the addition of new characters enhanced the movie and hindered it at the same time. Beast, played by Kelsey Grammar was very well done, to the point of him saying “Oh my stars and garters.” The Kitty Pryde character seemed one dimensional with no depth at all. She is shown to be a bit intelligent in the class room discussing Plato’s view of ethics, but then used as a third wheel of a love triangle dissolves the hope of any furhter depth. Colossus’s use of the “fastball special”, at the beginning the movie, was awesome to the point of ingenious, but that is where his character loses his appeal. He has next to no lines and begins to blend into the background in many scenes.

The plot is based very losely on the story arc “The Dark Pheonix Saga” and when I say losely, I truly mean losely. The comic story involved a much greater deal of internal conflict within Jean, in which Jean solves by comitting suicide. In this movie, her death only comes by the hand, or claws of, yup you guessed it, Wolverine. The depths of emotional conflict in Jean is never brought to the screen, except for her saying thank you to Wolverine at the end of her life. I felt no pythos or pain, that her life needed to be forfeited. I was unimpressed and unmoved by the representation of the pheonix/Jean saga.

Extras/Special features? These were all things picked up off of the floor of the editing room and pasted, any way they could, back into the movie.
3 Alternate endings that have no rationale behind them or connection to the movie. The world of Marvel, this section is a cheap way for Marvel to exploit the viewer into purchasing some of the lesser quality superhero movies. They show the trailers for Daredevil, Electra and FF. Ther is no in depth look into the world of Marvel Comics at all. For those who really want to be cheated out of their hard earned cash, buy the colectors edition of the DVD, it has different packaging and a comic that stars San Lee. Yeah!!!

The whole presentation from the coverr of the actual DVD to the Special Features seem as thrown together as the actual Movie. I as a viewer feel a bit let down by the conclusion of the trilogy. Marvel, does not seem to shy away from the open handed, gimmie your money approach to commerece, just look at the Civil War Strory in stores now, so I would have to say wait a few months and you will probally see a new release of the DVD that does not seem so thrown together.