It looked good coming in; it was even better than I anticipated.

Silly, happy, with a smile on its face and a song in its heart, it is just trying to make people laugh. At no point in its 88-minute runtime are we intended to take its ridiculous story seriously.

The result is a goofy, and surprisingly heartfelt, ode to old Hollywood, with tons of references and in-jokes that will go over the heads of not only kids, but a lot of adults, too.

It is still likable, there are some inspired ideas and funny scenes. If the magic is gone, well, the series already had the best possible ending sixteen years ago.

It wants to be a big fantasy action movie, with effects, larger than life heroes and pure evil villains. It also wants to be a sendup of exactly that kind of movie. It turns out that this combination does not work.

This takes aim at class, culture and race in a lively, unsubtle, pull-no-punches kind of way. It also does many other things, some of them very strange. It is extremely entertaining.

It is smart, with likable characters, a very good cast (onscreen as well as via voiceover), a mystery that makes sense and genuinely amusing jokes.

It is cute, with funny moments, and does enough different things, while still feeling a lot like its predecessor. In short, it is fine; I am not mad that I saw it.

The screenplay never puts in the work to get them to see where they went wrong. It is more like their hatred stops making sense to them because they need to cooperate to stay alive.

Bob Odenkirk is, of course, perfect for the material, bringing his dead-pan humor and amusing realism to a deadly situation. It is bloody and explosive, after a strangely slow setup.