Kung Fu Panda and You Don't Mess With The Zohan

"Kung Fu Panda" is as good as it gets without being Pixar. It was funny, exciting, good-hearted and well animated. Sure, on the car ride home I had to tell Aravis not to use Kung Fu on her brother, but that's a small price to pay for the lasting entertainment value. Jack Black didn't just voice the Panda, the filmmakers made Jack Black into a Panda, and that's a good thing. From the opening title sequence and song (sung by Black) things were on the right track. The humor was just intelligent enough to have me laughing, along with the cartoon slapstick to keep the kids happy. I think you can tell when the filmmakers are truly considering their audience, and the makers of "Kung Fu Panda" got it all right. Even to the point that the villain was appropriately foreboding, without being too scary. There is a scene midway throught the film when we see him chained in prison, and the setup is great, showing the extreme to which his captors have gone, but it never quite leaves the realm of 'cartoon' therefore making it suitable for the kids. My kids and I liked the movie, and if that isn't good enough for you, and don't know what is.

I have quite a few things I could say about "You Don't Mess With The Zohan". One of the things I could say is; it was a very funny movie. Something else I could say is; Adam Sandler did a great job creating and filling out an interesting, entertaining character. I could also say that; the overall story was good-spirited and positive. All of these things are true, but last night as I thought what to write about this movie I decided to focus on something different: This movie unintentionally succeeds in acomplishing the opposite of what it intends. At the risk of looking for meaning in an Adam Sandler movie, here's what I'm talking about. The main character (Zohan) is a promiscuous Israeli who initially is at odds with his Palestinian neighbors until he falls 'in love' with one of them. The movie is trying to tell us we should all just get along, because all we need is love, and by love it means, well you know what I mean. Anyways, what I thought was interesting is that the only people this message is going to work for are adolescent American boys. This movie has gone beyond simplifying the issue. It's even gone past dumbing-down the issue. "You Don't Mess With The Zohan" has mentally retarded the issue of the Middle Eastern conflict. Perhaps I misspoke when I said that the filmmakers unintentionally did this. I don't know what the purpose of this movie was. I hope it was harmless fun. I suspect it was a misguided attempt at a good message. I'm afraid it was something else and I'm afraid it's this kind of mainstream thinking (and I say 'thinking' loosely) that will lead us to our next President-elect.