Mainichi Daily News reported, “Lucy Liu had some trouble learning her lines for the hit summer animated film “Kung Fu Panda.” But that wasn’t her fault — a lot of the time, she said, there weren’t any lines to learn.”

“Working without knowing what you are doing from start to finish is very difficult,” Liu said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It was really improvisation. It was exciting. It keeps you on your toes.”

“Liu was in Japan on Tuesday with comedian Jack Black and other members of the film’s cast and crew for Kung Fu Panda’s Japan premiere.”

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MOVIE COMPANY: Columbia Tristar
CAST: Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Bill Murray, Sam Rockwell, Crispin Glover, Tim Curry and more.
DIRECTED BY: Joseph McGinty Nichol
WRITTEN BY: Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts III
RATING: PG-13
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0160127
TYPE OF MOVIE: Action, comedy
DURATION: 98 minutes

King and Jack are experts in finding lovers of first love for their clients. One day, a young guy, a man of concealed identity, and Taiwan’s richest business tycoon ask King and Jack to look for their first lovers. To King and Jack’s astonishment, the women all look like the same ……

DVD EXTRAS:

• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
PLEASE NOTE: Warner and Columbia have recently added a Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE) to Region 1 titles like the The Patriot and The Perfect Storm. Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called “region-free” DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby
• Theatrical trailer(s)
• Director and Cinematographer Commentary
• Featurettes:
• Fashion Featurette
• Set Design Featurette
• Martial Arts and Stunts Featurette
• Special Effects Featurette
• Director McG Featurette
• Wired Angels - Special Effects Deconstruction
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Outtakes and Bloopers
• Music Videos by Destiny’s Child and Apollo Four Forty
• Widescreen anamorphic format

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): Three Easter Eggs

Hidden scenes:
Select the “Special Features” option at the main menu. Highlight the “Getting G’d Up” option and press Right. A box will appear on Cameron Diaz’s waist. Press Enter to view the scene.

Select the “Special Features” option at the main menu. Highlight the “Wired Angels” option and press Left. A box will appear on Bill Murray’s jacket. Press Enter to view the scene

Select the “Special Features” option at the main menu. Advance to the last screen in the special features section. Highlight the back arrow and press Right. A square will appear over Sam Rockwell’s eyes. Press Enter to view the scene.

DVD REVIEW:

A fun movie to watch and a fun movie to watch if you grew up in the 70’s during the Charlie’s Angel phenomenon.

One of the problems with this movie when it debuted was that some people loved it and some people hated it.  Those who hated it, didn’t like the MTV look of the film and how the film wasn’t serious.  Some may say it’s more eye candy for the male fans.

Perhaps.  But you maybe asking why buy this DVD?  Well, it’s kind of hard to convince you if you hate this movie but if you enjoyed it, then the reasons why to buy this DVD is because it’s jam packed.  Note: If you have a multi-region player, this DVD may not play.

The video quality is very cool.  Since they experimented with different ways to film the movie, colors are brilliant but at times I felt that the colors were over saturated (note: Beach scene, look at the reds).  The audio was nice but for some reason I felt that I got more from my digital 5.1 from the trailers. (Yes, the trailers are in 5.1 except Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

As for DVD special features, a small featurette for the director, the action-stunt coordinator, fashion/clothing, for the movie, extended scenes, deleted scenes, outtakes (the ending of the film without the credits), director’s commentary, two music videos and trailers that are in digital 5.1 (including a sneak peak of the highly anticipated CGI film, “Final Fantasy”).

So, if you enjoyed the movie, you will be in for a treat with the special edition DVD.

THE MOVIE: B-
THE DVD EXTRAS: A-
THE DVD OVERALL: B+

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MOVIE COMPANY: Touchstone Pictures
CAST: Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Lucy Liu
DIRECTED BY: Tom Dey
WRITTEN BY: Miles Miller, Alfred Gough
RATING: PG-13
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL:  http://us.imdb.com/Title?0184894
TYPE OF MOVIE: Action, Western, Comedy
DURATION: 110 minutes

A 19th century Western directed by Tom Dey, Shanghai Noon stars Jackie Chan as Chon Wang, a clumsy Imperial Guard to the Emperor of China. When Princess Pei Pei (Lucy Liu) is kidnapped from the Forbidden City, Wang feels personally responsible and insists on joining the guards sent to rescue the Princess, who has been whisked away to the United States. In Nevada and hot on the trail of the kidnappers, Wang is separated from the group and soon finds himself an unlikely partner with Roy O’Bannon (Owen Wilson), a small time robber with delusions of grandeur. Together, the two forge onto one misadventure after another. (IMDB)

DVD EXTRAS:

• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Widescreen, Dolby, Surround Sound, Digital Sound, Closed-captioned
• Commentary by Jackie Chan
• Commentary by Owen Wilson
• Commentary by director Tom Dey
• Music Video
• Production Stills
• Deleted Footage
• 3 Making Ofs: “Making an Eastern Western,” “The Shanghai Kid,” “Western Stunts, Eastern Style”
• Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S):

Mini-game bonuses:
Select the “Special Features” option at the main menu, then choose the “Shanghai Surprise” selection. Successfully complete the “Roy’s Revenge” mini-game to view a pre-production look of a train crash scene that was planned to be included in the film. Successfully complete the “Chon’s Challenge” mini-game to view a translated version of the drinking game scene from the movie.

DVD REVIEW:

I remember how I enjoyed this movie when it first came to the theaters.  I could remember people debating if this movie or “Rush Hour” was better.  Needless to say, it’s another good US movie from Jackie Chan and the more he is paired up with talented actors instead of English speaking bad actors, the movie is going to be a hit.

As for the DVD, this DVD is packed.  You get the commentary from Chan, Wilson and the Director Tom Dey.  7 Deleted Scenes which include selectable commentary.  Behind-the-scene featurettes, Shanghai Surprise game which leads to two goodies, a music video and more.

The DVD’s video quality was brilliant and colorful.   The ratio is 2:35:1 Widescreen with Digital 5.1 surround for English and French language tracks.

If you love Jackie Chan films, this is one to have in your collection.  The extra features are a definite bonus if you enjoyed the film.

THE MOVIE: B
THE DVD EXTRAS: A-
THE DVD OVERALL: B+