Movie Review: Kung fu Panda

Believe.....believe in yourself, believe in what you do. This is the message the movie Kung fu Panda has for you. The message is not drummed into your head, but subtly brought to your attention. Kung fu Panda is a simple movie with a simple plot, still it entertains you. I liked the movie so much that I watched it twice, back to back. Even now, while I am writing this review of Kung fu Panda, the movie is playing in another browser. Kung fu Panda tells the story of a clumsy panda Po, who works in his father's noodle restaurant and dreams of becoming a kung fu fighter. He is picked by wise Oogway to be the next dragon warrior to fight evil Tai-long. But the furious five and their master Shifu are dismayed to see fat bellied panda being crowned the savior. Shifu tries everything in his power to frighten him off the premises of the kung fu school, but ultimately he has to relent. Shifu devises innovative ways to teach kung fu to Po and he defeats the dreaded Tai-long in the end.
Jack black has done a good job as the voice of Po, the kung fu panda. Dustin Hoffman is also impressive as Shifu. Angelina Jolie is not suited as the voice of tigress. She sounds out of character here. I was surprised to see Jacki Chan's name in the cast of characters because I didn't hear his voice in the whole movie. After some digging around, I found that he has lent his voice for monkey. That's a total wastage of his huge talent. But overall, Kung fu panda is a good enjoyable movie.

Perfume stinks!

Husband got this DVD( perfume- the story of a murderer for me.The movie released in 2006. It is directed by the talented German filmmaker Tom Tykwerof Run Lola Run fame. It is adapted from the bestselling German novel Das Parfum by Patrick Suskind. It's an annoyingly wasteful film. The movie squanders many chances to bond with the viewers, and tossing away over 65 million dollars to achieve what's best described as perverse whimsy.
I got to read the book 7 years ago. The book was bad, but I kept reading it, in the hope that it would get better. It didn't. Like the movie, there was no real character development. I didn't care about the main character or any of his victims... I didn't even care about the little dog, and I love pets.
The plot:
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is abandoned after birth and grows up in penury.He has no scent but his own sense of smell is almost magical.He can identify things by their scent.His search of ultimate perfume turns nasty, when he realizes that women have special scents.He begins killing girls so as to extract perfume from their dead bodies.
It seems to me that Tykwer intended to make Perfume into an epic, focusing on one man's journey, with expansive cinematography, and legions of extras, but the story is unable to support the lavishness of the film making. And the plot follows no logic. When the murders begin, no one right away suspects the strange new guy who lives on the same farm as the first victim. Everybody else is immediately suspected. No one points a finger towards Grenouille's brazenly suspicious actions.
Dustin Hoffman as perfumer Giuseppe Baldini, and Alan Rickman as Antoine Richis the overprotective father are totally wasted in the movie. Their roles are thoroughly underwritten and pointless. British actor Ben Whishaw is handsome, but that's all.
The only strong point of the movie is its visual style. The camera of cinematographer Frank Griebe is creatively and accurately observant.. It perceives color and detail with compassion and enjoyment.
In the end all I want to add is that Grenouille is cast as a tragic figure, a victim of his circumstances and his unique gift, but we don't buy it. The character is never sympathetic enough for us to care about his predicament and too dense to be truly frightening and his victims are no more characterized than the busty blonds.