Master Chifu gives Po a little lesson or two in kung-fu

Managed to catch Kung Fu Panda live in action at TGV cinema yesterday night. I would have enjoyed the movie more had it not been for a VERY annoying little kid behind me who did not know the virtue of 'silence is golden', screaming and gibbering almost the whole time. I honestly wanted to yell, "SHUT UP!" The mother did not even bother to control her, and only half-heartedly whispered 'Sssh..' when I glanced behind. Talk about irresponsible. Parents of potentially restless youngsters, please take pity on other movie-goers and LEAVE YOUR KIDS AT HOME if you think they're going to be whining to go home after they finish eating the popcorn. It would be a heck of a lot more considerate to everyone else.

For a 'feel-good kiddie flick', Kung Fu Panda scores high on the charts. It's brightly coloured, boasts exhilarating martial arts sequences (time to try out those fancy moves!), stars Jack Black as Po, the lovable bumbling, noodle-making Panda who; by some bizarre twist of fate, gets chosen as the legendary Dragon Warrior and potential heir to limitless power; as well as a star studded cast which includes Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu etc. I shan't be dishing out any spoilers here, but for the more cynical; the plot is predictably cliche, we've heard all that stuff about 'believing in yourself' before and it is also unbelievably short: merely 1.5 hours! But then again, this a movie targeted more for the under-12s and the directors probably figured that even 90 minutes would be stretching their attention span a little too much...But in a nutshell, it's still a pretty decent show so go watch it if you're in the mood for some kick-ass kung fu!

Congrats to Luka Modric & co. for upsetting Germany 2-1, Croatia look like serious contenders to reach at least the semi-finals of Euro now.

Tonight: Italy vs Romania
Holland vs France

Predictions: Italy to win 2-0, Holland to beat France 3-1