I love a surprise, even a small one like finding out that Kung Fu Panda was more likeable and fun than I might have expected. I have a secret mini-crush on Jack Black (okay, maybe not so secret), so I was hoping that Kung Fu Panda wouldn't suck and if nothing else, I'd be able to enjoy his vocal stylings in the Dreamworks animated film. Surprise! I liked the movie for more reasons than Jack Black.

Black voices the title character, Po, who helps in his father's noodle shop but dreams of becoming a kung fu fighter and joining the Furious Five: Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Crane (David Cross) and especially Tigress (Angelina Jolie). He wants to watch the Five compete to be the great Dragon Warrior, and is somehow dragged into the selection process himself. Kung-fu master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) is irritated that a fat clumsy clown of a panda is joining his elite cadre of students, especially since it's predicted that the supremely evil snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane) may escape from prison and try to steal the Dragon Warrior scroll of power for himself.

Perhaps the best thing about Kung Fu Panda is that it's an action comedy that doesn't skimp on the action. Dreamworks Animation's latest effort may stick out a little on the Red Carpet at Cannes -- where it's screening out of competition -- but it's certainly a well-made kid's film that earns high points for how directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne clearly crafted and contemplated its look and feel with ambition and style. Anyone can make a computer-animated cartoon with fuzzy animals doing kung fu; you have to be at least a little inspired to make a computer-animated cartoon featuring fuzzy animals doing kung fu in widescreen Cinemascope. ...

Kung Fu Panda opens with a rousing, stylish action sequence, as a narrator (Jack Black, in full-on Tenacious D exposition mode) explains how "Legend tells of a legendary kung fu warrior whose kung fu skills were legendary. ..." But then, the heroic panda we've seen unleashing paws of power on the big screen ... wakes up; it was just a dream. Then Po the panda (Black), whose dreams of kung fu glory are the counterpoint to his unsatisfying life, gets ready for his day of helping his father Mr. Ping (James Wong) sell noodles to the people of the Valley of Peace.

Cinematical is oh-so-happy to have received this exclusive teaser poster for the upcoming Dreamworks animated comedy Kung Fu Panda (click on the image above for a larger version), starring Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen and Ian McShane. The film follows a fat, lazy Panda named Po (Black) who, while living in ancient China, must somehow learn how to become a Kung Fu Master in order to save the Valley of Peace from an evil snow leopard named Tai Lung (McShane). Kung Fu Panda was directed by Mark Osborne and John Stevenson. Additionally, we have some bonus treats for you: A few days ago, a promo for the film arrived online and folks were calling it the first official trailer for the film. Not so fast -- the first official trailer has just arrived today, in glorious HD, and you can head on over to Moviefone to check that out right now. Prepare your fighting stance people -- Kung Fu Panda shall kick and punch its way into theaters on June 6, 2008.

During this year's Tribeca fest, I had a chance to talk to Paul Soter, director of the noir romcom Watching the Detectives, starring Cillian Muphy and Lucy Liu. Paul's name is already probably familiar to anyone who knows Broken Lizard, but he's intent on branching out as a mainstream writer-director, and his first film is proof that he has the chops. A strange and intriguing mixture of film noir and romcom spoof, Detectives is sure to get a distribution deal and be remembered as one of the festival's success stories -- it's also further proof that Murphy has a Gary Oldman-like ability to disappear in just about any role. The same guy who played an Irish revolutionary in 1916 is now completely convincing as a video store slacker who can't believe his good luck, when a mysterious babe walks into his store and into his life.

The whole time I was watching this movie I thought it was set in L.A., but someone told me that's not the case?

PS: Well, it was shot in New York City, but set to be kind of anywhere. I had originally conceived it to be more like a college town. There's an area where I grew up in Denver where there's a lot of mom and pop indie record stores, comic book stores, kind of places like that. Originally, the idea was that I was going to shoot it in Austin, Texas, and then for various reasons and then it turned out that we had to shoot it in New York. It turned out to be kind of a tricky thing, to come out here and find a way to shoot something in this city, that hopefully didn't look like the city. So we ended up shooting in Brooklyn, Queens, Bayonne, New Jersey, sort of all over the place -- everywhere, but the city. You say there was something in it that made you think of Los Angeles?

It may be just the whole film noir vibe that runs through it, that made me think of L.A.

PS: I'm glad to hear it, because I always hope that I pulled it off and it didn't just look like, around the city.

Did you talk to the actors about actually injecting a film noir vibe into the film, the acting, the dialogue, and so forth? Lucy Liu's character has a very femme fatale thing going on.

PS: Yeah, definitely. I tried to explain to them that a lot of the idea behind making the movie was that you take the dynamic between the male and female that exists in so many film noir movies and try and transplant that into a current film set, in the current day. So, you know, yeah, in terms of Lucy being a sexy, mysterious, possibly dangerous woman and Cillian being this guy who sort of thinks he knows the score, but everyone but he knows that he's being taken for a ride. Yeah, I wanted them to sort of be aware that that's what was going on while they were doing it.

"I can't shake the feeling that you're just blowing through town with a carnival." Dialogue from Watching the Detectives, a romantic comedy with shadings of L.A. noir that played at Tribeca this year. If the film were made sixty years ago, the male lead would first be seen in a downmarket private investigator's store front, leaning back in a chair with his feet up on a desk, as the dangeous female comes waltzing into his life. Today, it's a downmarket indie video store, where Neil (Cillian Murphy) lounges with his fellow employees, savoring their status as increasingly rare birds in a neighborhood being invaded by behemoth video store giants. Into the store one day waltzes Violet (Lucy Liu) a first-time customer who continually asks Neil questions about this and that and when he answers, points out that she's talking not to him, but to whoever is on the other end of her invisible Bluetooth handless. She eventually sidles up to the counter and announces that she has no membership and no driver's license, but she wants to check out anyway.

What follows is a gentle spoof on femme fatales and the men they inevitably drag along by the ear. The plot can't handle any seriously evil or crooked intentions on the part of Violet, so instead she's portrayed as having a screw loose -- a woman who enjoys walking her men into elaborate practical jokes and then doubling over with laughter every time they fall for it. She begins by showing up at the restaurant they choose for their first date falling-down drunk. When Neil refuses her aggressive, drunken come-ons, she reveals the put on and tosses it off as a half-joke, half-test to see if he would take advantage of her. In the real world, the man would run for the hills of course, but it somehow works here. For his part, Neil is a classic noir stooge who understands intellectually that he's being taken for a ride by this woman but can't help himself. "I've lived in Tasmania, Cape Town ..." Violet tells him. "That sounds incredibly ..." "Exciting?" "I was gonna say made up."

You've got to like a movie that gives us a nude Lucy Liu, shot high and from behind, and then moves her slowly over to a full-length mirror where all will be revealed ... but she's a vampire, so no reflection! Rise: Blood Hunter, from director Sebastian Gutierrez, is a cheap and dirty mash-up of the vampire and revenge genres, following L.A. reporter Sadie Blake (Liu) as her quest to find out who murdered a goth vampire wanna-be lands her on the menu of the real vampires behind the crime. Unfortunately for them, some potent blend of reporter moxie and girl power prevents her from staying dead like they planned -- she ends up kicking open and crawling out of the morgue drawer she was stuffed into, pissed off and shaking like a heroin addict for want of blood. Soon enough, she'll adjust to her new lifestyle and even acquire two must-have accessories: a girly little crossbow as a signature weapon and a vampire mentor who encourages her to "embrace your shadow side," whatever that means.

Sadie's shadow side is apparently the side that allows her to kill and dine on innocents, and not even particularly annoying innocents, as is sometimes the loophole. Picking up a reasonable young hitchhiker at one point, she quizzes him: "Do you have a wife? Have a girlfriend?" After giving all the wrong answers, he's lunch. Hey, she's a vampire -- vampires gotta eat. I have to say I wasn't expecting such a morally troublesome hero to emerge from those paragons of virtue at Sam Raimi's Ghosthouse Pictures, but I like it! Blood Hunter succeeds through edgy little moments like that one, along with an assortment of nude scenes, each one shot in such conspicuously low light that it smacks of actress protest, which somehow makes more enjoyable, in a perverted way. Sadly, there's no virtuoso special effects or cinematography -- there was more visual originality in a ten minute vampire short included in the anthology Paris Je T'Aime, released this weekend -- but there is enough here that works to make up a picture that's good for a Saturday night.

When last we checked in with Lucy Liu's vampire flick Rise: Blood Hunter, Monika told us about a juicy scene from the film supposedly "leaked" to an eager audience of rabid fanboys looking for some blood, gore and hot lesbian vampire action. Sadly, almost as soon as the clip was on YouTube's servers, it was taken down -- I'm sure to preserve the dignity of all involved. At that time we also learned the film had been languishing "on the shelf" for awhile (as they say in the biz) but had finally been given a release date.

Fortunately, especially for fans of the aforementioned hot lesbian vampire action who didn't get a chance to see the clip on YouTube, the release date seems solid and to prove it, distributor Samuel Goldwyn Films has dropped the first one sheet poster for the film for your consideration. I'm a big fan of Lucy Liu and would pay good money to watch her kick some vampire ass, or really, do almost anything. Plus, I'm also a horror fan who usually likes these kinds of movies. So, following that logic, this movie should be right up my metaphoric ally. Oddly enough though, looking at the poster I had the opposite reaction. I was rather amused instead of interested. Why? The tag lines.

I don't know about you, but when I see tag lines on a poster that say things like: "From the Producer of the Grudge franchise and the writer of Gothika" I tend to worry a little. It just seems like quite a stretch and a bit like desperation time on the part of the distributor. Or maybe I'm just too sensitive. The poster looks just fine and pretty much follows the standard horror conventions for films of this genre. Plus Lucy Liu looks great (as expected) and the film also features the excellent Michale Chiklis of TVs The Shield and my soon-to-be-wife, the super-sexy Carla Gugino too. Put that all together and you really might have something. To find out exactly what that "something" is, check out the flick when it hits theaters June 1st. Or go to Tribeca.

When we first brought you news on the film Rocket, it was being called Eliot Rockett and Jimmy Fallon and Sharon Stone had just signed on to play a mother and son. Now, Variety brings us word that the film has changed titles, added Tom Arnold, Lucy Liu and Ileana Douglas to its cast, and, just recently, began production. Holly Wiersma, who is very familiar with pic's cast, having worked with all four actors on three different films (Factory Girl, Bobby, Happy Endings) is producing via her shingle Ring Prods.

Though he's still a fairly bankable star, Jimmy Fallon hasn't quite been able follow in his former SNL pals' footsteps and bring in major box office dollars. However, that hasn't stopped him from deciding to go the dramatic route (a la Sandler and Ferrell) in an attempt to switch things up and possibly provide a much-needed spark for his career. In Rocket, he'll star as a guy who has problems committing to his girlfriend (Liu), which stem from the extremely dysfunctional relationship his parents (Stone and Arnold) once shared. Pic is based on several short stories written by Ethan Canin, with a script penned by Patrick Sisam and Rick Velleu. Sisam is also set to make his feature directorial debut with the film. Do you think Fallon has what it takes to go all dramatic on us, or should he cash in his big-screen chips now and search for a comfy new TV gig?

I'm not sure if this is a actual leak, or if Ghost House Pictures is trying to finally drum up some buzz for Rise. In the summer of 2005, Lucy Liu filmed the vamp flick, intended to be the actress' step into the horror genre. With names like Michael Chiklis and sexy Sin City alum Carla Gugino co-starring, and Marilyn Manson popping up as a bartender, you'd think it would have sped its way to horror fans' eager eyes. It didn't, but now Arrow in the Head has gotten a tip to a clip that has found its way to YouTube. It's all sexy, lesbian, sweaty and blood-lickingly NSFW.

According to IMDB, the movie will finally be released on June 1st. What's it about? Well, Lucy plays a reporter who wakes up, undead, in the morgue. More than a little ticked about her predicament, she vows revenge against the vamps who put her there, mainly, I would assume, the other lady (who appears to be Gugino) in the clip. One by one, she hunts them down. Does it sound familiar? At least Liu didn't suffer the same fate. However, this was the last live-action film on Mako's long resume -- the man who did guest spots in just tons of shows over the years, and who was also the voice of Master Splinter in the upcoming TMNT before he died last July. The movie could be cool, but the delays don't give me much hope.

Here's some bites for hump day Wednesday:

• We're only 4 months and 1 day away from the release of the next Die Hard movie, Live Free or Die Hard. While a poster isn't quite as exciting as flying cars and exploding helicopters, it's a pretty good representation of what we love about franchise -- Bruce Willis looking tough, dirty and resilient in the face of chaos. While a small version is on the right, you can click here for the larger version, which was posted on a Russian website.
• While Die Hard is wrapping up and waiting release, production is gearing up on The Mummy 3. Last week, I reported that the sequel will deal with Alex O'Connell as a young man, and that Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh might star. While no further casting news has been released, SneakPeek has stated that the sequel to the popular Brandon Fraser series will shoot in Montreal, at the Cité du Cinéma studio. (It is the same effects house that re-created ancient Sparta for 300.) According to the site, this news has been confirmed by the head of the Quebec Film and Television Council.
• Although Lucy Liu made a name for herself on Ally McBeal, her tough-girl stints in Charlie's Angels were enough to send her up and into cinematic circles. However, her latest films -- Domino, Lucky Number Slevin and Code Name: The Cleaner, aren't quite box-office smashes. So, it's no wonder that Film Ick has reported that she's going to head back to television and take on one of the starring roles in the upcoming pilot, Cashmere Mafia. Coming from Bring It On and The Break-Up director Peyton Reed, Liu will most likely play one of the lead executives.