Ten Stars or Less

Madagascar 2 actually had a lot going on and a limited time frame to achieve everything it set out to do. Whether it was Alex (Ben Stiller) returning home for the first time since he went missing as a cub, or the time he destroyed and had to repair his friendship with Marty (Chris Rock). Meanwhile Melman (David Schwimmer) thought he was dying, but had yet to confess his love for Gloria (Jada Pinkett-Smith). Throw in the Penguins who not only crashed the plan down in Africa, but were also in charge of the repairs. Lucky for them there are far more monkeys in Africa, but they are on strike for some reason. To cap everything off, King Julien (Sasha Cohen-Baron) somehow made the trip to annoy us, while humans get their safari trip hijacked and have their own set of problems. This movie was only 1:29 long and there are about 129 problems. Everything gets miraculously solved in a limited time that allows The Penguins to really stand out in this one, thus launching their own side project of mayhem. Although the sequel fits the theme of every other movie ever made, I really enjoyed the sarcasm bought to the story by these tough as nails penguins. Alec Baldwin joins the cast as the “bad guy” who wants to rule the lion kingdom. Was this all really needed, probably not, but I assume the writers tried their best to create more drama and intrigue in the jungle all the years Alex was away. I don’t like all the character arcs in this one and liked I’ve pointed out before, there are some laughs here and then some parts that make you scratch your head. One of the biggest questions left when it is all said and done is, will these guys ever make it back to New York. Maybe the bigger question is really, despite their best attempts, do you they even want to go back? 6/10