Movie Review - Paddington 2

While I personally felt that Paddington didn't need a sequel, we got one anyway and its surprisingly good. Most of you know Paddington but for those of you who don't, he is a bear with a heart of gold and a love for marmalade. Like with a majority of British children's books, he too has been given the film treatment and I'm actually glad that the production company behind the Harry Potter films helped make this film. Because basically in my honest opinion, it probably wouldn't work well if it was Americanized. So with that said, let's grab some marmalade and bread and get eating those sandwiches:

The film begins in Greatest Peru where Paddington (reprised by Q himself, Ben Whishaw) is stranded on a river. He is rescued by his then newly appointed aunt Lucy (reprised by Professor Umbridge herself, Imelda Staunton) and his then newly appointed uncle Pastuzo (reprised by Professor Dumbledore number 2 himself, Michael Gambon) who both abandon their plans to go to London to raise Paddington. We then cut to the present where Paddington has finally settled into the Browns residence and is quite the local celebrity among his neighbours. Learning about his aunt's plan to visit him, he goes to the antique shop to buy a pop up book of London for her, only to find that its too expensive for him. So he goes to find a job to get the money to buy the book. But when he gets framed for a crime he didn't commit and is sent to jail, its up to the Browns to help clear his name and take down this criminal while Paddington himself learns the life of a jailbird alongside a number of bizarre jail mates.

So as a sequel, it manages to be way more action packed than the first and shows that even with a tight budget and an all star cast, you can still make great films (so take notes Sharknado!!). It develops the established characters well with new characters added for comedy and cameo purposes which is good. Its fun for the whole family (cheesy I know) and probably one of the few films I've seen where the problems are little to none. Like the first, it probably would work better as more of a made for TV film, but its still good despite that. Though no offence to the guy, but I personally am not too keen on Hugh Grant's acting but he was decent at best in this film. 9/10