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Author Topic: Kung Fu Panda (2008) David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 06-08-2008 07:33 PM                        Today at Regal 15 in Eugene, #15, NEC 2K DLP & KlipschSurround. Sue me if you like but it looked and sounded awesomely good. I did not hate it, but yet it made me sleepy about halfway through. Clearly the filmmakers tried very very hard to make this very very cute, and clever, and yet there I was starting to doze off. The little kiddies in the audience seemed to like it. Maybe they all had some kind of hyperactivity disorder that kept them from falling asleep too. Their parents, I don't know, when you're actively parenting maybe you don't fall asleep so easily. Visually this movie is stunning in DLP. That's what kept me awake. And the "trailer" for the next Madagascar movie looked even better. Extra-stunning. I'm going to give this 3 out of 5 stars because it looked so damn good. My sleepiness while viewing it must be a result of becoming newly narcoleptic or something. I probably should see a doctor. A kid sitting behind me spilled what must have been a 250-oz. Coke. What joy. Really I was too sleepy to get mad.  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 06-08-2008 08:57 PM                     I screened one of my prints Thursday night in my favorite theater, one of my mid-sized screens. 35mm, SRD, 42ft wide screen. I liked this movie, despite its formulaic plot and generally slapstick humor. Jack Black is everything you would expect in a PG movie, and I think that is a good thing. As far as mindless entertainment goes, this is a good way to spend an hour and a half. 4 out of 5, a good family movie to tide us over until the thermonuclear bomb that is Wall-E explodes from the screen and into our eyes and brains, forever ruining all other movies for us.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 06-08-2008 09:08 PM                        Yeah, I agree, Jack Black dialed down to PG was perfect for this movie. All the voice actors did a great job. This is a pretty good family film and there you have it. Did I mention how good it looks on the screen?  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-08-2008 09:10 PM                        Is it better than the last Shrek? (Or the first Shrek for that matter?)  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 06-08-2008 09:13 PM                        I hated the first Shrek and you couldn't pay me to see any of its sequels. So, absolutely, yes, Kung Fu Panda is several orders of magnitude better than any Shrek movie. In my opinion. I will add that my sleepiness while watching it was probably a result of, well, lack of sleep recently. The movie is probably better than I give it credit for. Predictable but fun.  |  IP: Logged Mike Schindler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1039 From: Oak Park, IL, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 06-08-2008 10:49 PM                     quote: Mike Blakesley Is it better than the last Shrek? CSPAN 2 is better than the last SHREK. But KUNG FU PANDA makes CSPAN 2 look like SHREK 3. I read somewhere that this movie is the KILL BILL of animated panda movies, and I'd say that's an accurate description. This is way funnier and has way better action than most "adult" movies. I would highly recommend it.  |  IP: Logged Shane Cooper Expert Film Handler Posts: 232 From: Little Rock, Arkansas Registered: Jun 2004 posted 06-08-2008 11:34 PM                     The Kill Bill of animated Panda movies? Is there a large pool of animated Panda movies that require a qualification like this? Isn't it automatically the "fill in the blank" of animated Panda movies by default?  |  IP: Logged Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 06-09-2008 10:57 AM                        Saturday Afternoon June 7th, 2008 14:15:00 Show at Cinema Salem, Salem, Ma. House Number 2. (Disclaimer; I installed this theatre so my presentation review may be a bit biased) I took my beautiful 5 year old daughter Vanessa to see this with her beautiful mother Angel. We got there really early because we though it would be really busy but it wasn't at all. The film was shown in house #2 which has a Century SA on a pedestal with a 2000 watt super lume-x lamphouse, TA-10 automation, a cp-55 with dolby a type stereo, QSC amplifiers, and JBL Stage Speakers, and "Sony" surrounds. The show started on time and the focus was very good and the brightness and light uniformity seemed to be good. The framing was slightly off and the previews were all scratched. Fortunately the feature was not scratched and the volume seemed a little low but the sound quality was ok for what it is. (I wish they would put a Sub in here and upgrade to digital) My daughter, her mother, and I all liked this movie. It was very cute and I think had a great message. I found it be kind of humorous. The animation was outstanding in my opinion. This is a good clean kids movie with a very good message. I would reccomend it!  |  IP: Logged Kurt Zupin Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 989 From: Maricopa, Arizona Registered: Oct 2004 posted 06-10-2008 07:15 AM                     Dreamworks has really stepped up their game when it comes to the animation. It's still not on PIXAR level yet but they are doing a great job. Panda looked great, had lots of things going on in the background and never looked sloppy. We had our employee screening last night and I watched it with them. This was funny and like said before had a great message. I loved how the dad was getting ready to tell him that he wasn't Panda's dad, and it was the "Secret Recipe". 4/5  |  IP: Logged Tom Mundell Expert Film Handler Posts: 120 From: Silver Spring, MD, USA Registered: Nov 2007 posted 06-15-2008 05:06 PM                        Saw this at the now Regal (formerly Consolidated) Majestic 20 in room #7; Print was a little scratched at times, and I think they could have turned up the sound just a bit. Overall I ended up really liking this, I think it's probably my favorite Dreamworks animated title so far. Definitely a lot of humorous moments, decent action, and animation was pretty good. Recomended!  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-16-2008 08:58 AM                     quote: David Stambaugh Did I mention how good it looks on the screen? Of course dude! Duh ah you saw it in digital !  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 07-05-2008 06:01 PM                        CINEMA: Moore Warren, Moore, OK AUDITORIUM: 11 PRESENTATION: Dolby Digital Cinema DLP/THX PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None technically RATING: Two stars (out of four) WARNING: "We have one way in, one way out, one thousands guards, and one Spoiler." I'll say this...It's the biggest 14-plex I've ever seen. Auditorium 11 is at the end of its corridor. It's quite a walk, and I didn't see any bathrooms aside from the central ones in the lobby. So ladies...go before the movie. The building is similar to the 13th Avenue Warren in decor. But the screen to seat ratio is way too big and close for DLP (the auditorium is of a "wider is better" design...it's wider with fewer rows so you can have a nice big screen with side masking). You'd probably have to sit in the last few rows of this auditorium to not notice the flaws of digital projection. Even so, it's not so bad that you stop thinking about it as the movie goes along. I was watching from the first row in the stadium tier. There's two slope rows and the handicap/walking row ahead of that. THE PLOT: A noodle parlor employee screws up and becomes a dragon master, even though he's fat and out of shape and there are no actual dragons in the movie. Wackiness ensues. Well, it's a cute take on the tried and true Kung-Fu formula. We have the loser turned hero (picked by a turtle who is a dead ringer for the surfer dude turtle in Finding Nemo), a trainer (who looked like the bastard child of Yoda and Gizmo from Gremlins), a bad guy escaped from prison, five trained fighters who fail to defeat said bad guy for tension buildup, and a big showdown at the end. A really SILLY showdown at the end. It was the only actual fun part of the movie, really. Then the credits roll to "Kung-Fu Fighting". THAT'S original. The only think they didn't pull the trigger on was a love interest. I'm sure everybody had the tigress pegged for that one. And why did they all have eyes that looked like they were backlit?  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-13-2008 10:03 PM                        I have to agree with most of the comments above. It looked and sounded great, and was an entertaining movie. I didn't find myself falling asleep during it, as I did with WALL-E, and we have had kid after kid come out saying what a great movie it was. I'm not really into the whole Kung Fu thing nor do I understand or care about it, so the fact that I enjoyed this movie really speaks volumes about the quality of the movie. My wife liked it too. I think my favorite Dreamworks Animation film would still be the original Shrek, but this one has vaulted into a solid second place, knocking Madagascar into 3rd. I don't really remember anything about the abominations that were Shrek II and III, and Shark Tale. Our print looked great until it got to reel 5 - there were a couple of light continuous scratches that didn't appear in the rest of the print. Luckily the action scenes in that reel kept the scratches from being bothersome. (Of course, the film arrived way too late for any test screening or even a close inspection.)  |  IP: Logged

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