From my favorite movies..

As Good As It Gets

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

To begin with, I'm an adult male who tends to like movies that adult males like, and I have a confession to make. I absolutely, totally, completely, loved the first "Hoodwinked" cartoon movie, which I'm pretty certain was aimed at prepubescent children.This follow-up, while not nearly as clever as the original, is still entertaining enough to be worth the time. It does have some problems , however. It was no doubt produced to capitalize on the success of the first one, but, in this case, the pop culture references are overdone and the plot has been neglected. It definitely follows the pattern of the sequel being worse than the original, but not so much so, that it's not worth watching. It's also fun, because kids will get some of the references, adults will get others, and both together will get yet others. Overall, a fun, safe time for the entire family that everyone should be able to find something to like about.

I loved the first movie, but this movie just didn't work. The story sort of sucked, they try to push the character's various traits down your throat instead of just letting it happen.Unfortunately Hayden Panettiere doesn't do anywhere near as good a job as Anne Hathaway did in playing the roll of the sassy Red. To me, Anne really made the last movie. She played the roll perfectly. Hayden just seems to play it straight and it just doesn't work for me.The rest of the case is great, but they really were not given a very good story to work on. Perhaps it would have been better if they had of been working in another fairy tail, helping the main characters out of some jam to fulfil the story we all know and love. Instead we get some mess about a society of extreme granny bakers that Red is trying to join. Just dumb. I have to ask, after the great job they did on the first movie, how could they have fallen so far in the second? As for the animation, it's fine. Unlike what one of the other reviewers would have us believe, the animation does not make the movie. The animation in the first movie was just fine and fit the subject perfectly. I was hoping they would stick with the same animation for the second movie, but they cleaned it up a bit and it's completely lost its charm.If you see this in the bargain bin, you may want to pick it up just to complete your collection, and watch it just for completions sake. It has a few good laughs and doesn't completely suck.BTW, this movie and the first one are not even remotely like Shrek. They have nothing in common at all (at least, no more than two different fairy tales have in common). But I suppose now, anyone who makes a movie about fairy tale characters is going to have those unimaginative people who just can't see a movie for what it is and will always have to have a comparison to some other movie, even if it doesn't fit. This movie is to Shrek as Star Trek is to Star Wars. In other words, not even remotely the same (If you don't count the last Star Trek that JJ Abrams tried to make into another Star Wars).

I couldn't finish this movie... It got really boring in the middle. {THIS PART CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS} It seems like the movie was copying a lot of other movies when Hansel and Gretel betrayed Granny Puckett. In the middle, the storyline gets very uninteresting and unenjoyable, so I just left the room. It seems like the creators ran out of good ideas and threw in some weak jokes in an attempt to get money out of the movie. The characters look different in the sequel, also. Red almost has brown lips, and Nicky Flippers has humongous lips (unlike the first movie). The only funny parts were in the beginning; by the middle, they tried way too hard to keep the storyline flowing by adding in weak puns and jokes. I also couldn't believe that this movie contains the "d" word... kids movies aren't supposed to curse. But since they actually used the word in the right place, I thought it was kind of funny. They had some pretty intense violence scenes for a kids' movie, too. I recommend this movie for 8 year olds who can handle a mild curse and some cartoon violence.

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. EvilThe worst thing about a secret agency comprised of fairy tale archetypes is that every mission you send them on has to have a moral to it.And while there is a dearth of lessons to be had in this animated-comedy, there is a profusion of parable players.When Granny (Glenn Close) is kidnapped, while on a mission to rescue two missing children, Hansel (Bill Hader) and Gretel (Amy Poehler), her granddaughter Red (Hayden Panettiere), a member of the Happily Forever After Agency, and her partner, The Big Bad Wolf (Patrick Warburton), are assigned to the case. Meanwhile, an all-powerful truffle recipe has been stolen from the Sisters of the Hood and has fallen into the wrong hands.A sequel to Hoodwinked, Hood vs. Evil is more of the same folklore-inspired jokes, tinged with modern references, told through crude animation.Besides, when a senior disappears, it's usually attributed to dementia. (Red Light)