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‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Review: Jack Black Goes Through the Motions, but There’s Not Much Kick Left
Jack Black's Po is on the verge of retirement, which might not be a bad idea, given the lack of surprise and good jokes.
Po ( Jack Black), the sad-clown-eyed, dude-speaking, dumpling-loving, dumpling-shaped whirling dervish of the “Kung Fu Panda” films, has a word to describe his favorite martial-arts move (the mushi finger hold, executed with a raised pinkie). This genial fourth-chapter action fairy tale has all the things it’s supposed to have, at least according to the blockbuster animation playbook: Po kicking butt between daydreams of doughy cuisine; a quirky fighting sidekick — an androgynous-looking fox named Zhen, voiced by Awkwafina — who spends the film trading barbs with him; box-checking encounters with Po’s parents, Li Shan (Bryan Cranston) and Mr. Ping (James Hong), as well as his training guru, the ancient curmudgeon Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman); plus a supervillain who does all she can to take over the world. The Chameleon is cool to look at (a diminutive lizard in finery worthy of the Met Gala), and Viola Davis voices her with a dour aristocratic hauteur, but all the character does, really, is to call forth her guards and summon up past villains that Po has defeated.
Or read this on Variety
