Paddington 2

2018 is off to a great start. This movie was great! I wouldn't say it's better than the first one, but I still enjoyed it. The acting was great. Brendan Gleeson as a prison chef is particularly delightful. The CGI is some of the best I've seen. The plot jumped around at points, and made it hard to keep track of what was going on, but the payoff in the end was satisfying. At first, I thought this would be just a cute kids' film, nothing more, but there was actually some substance to it. Even a lot of the adults in my screening were laughing, and laughing hard. The slapstick humor was a bit over the top at points and slowed the film down as filler, and was unneeded, but when it did shift focus back to the story, it was good. I enjoyed Hugh Grant's performance as the villain. He wasn't as good as Nicole Kidman's portrayal of the villain, (she was far more evil and her intents were actually sinister. Grant's character is a bit sillier.) but he was still enjoyable. (There was one scene in particular during the end credits that had me laughing pretty hard.) Considering this is 1. a sequel and 2. a sequel to a kids film, this had more effort put into it then there needed to be. It deserves its (surprising) 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It's a delightful film, and a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.
Grade: B   8/10   4/5 stars