Review: Kung Pow

Well, some of you warned me, and you were right. Kung Pow - Enter the Fist had a great premise and the trailers were tantalizing. Steve Oedekerk borrowed from Woody Allen's What's Up Tiger Lily? to make a Kung Fu spoof patched together from a little known 1976 karate film Tiger and Crane Fists. But the result is anything but funny. Spoilage warning: plot discussed, not ending.

This one should have worked. Oedekerk, writer and director of this mediocrity, is also the star. He uses digital film-editing techniques to insert himself into the older film as the new hero, a creative idea that in better hands could really have been funny.

The Chosen One saw his family killed by the evil Master Pain/Betty and was raised by rodents. He finds his way to Master Tang, then falls in love with Tang's daughter Ling, who speaks in a perpetual whine. The stop-action overdubs and hesitations are funny at first, but then are just headache-inducing. There are a few inspired moments -- I personally loved the karate brawl with the dairy cow -- but the movie derails as he comes closer and closer to his confrontation with Master Pain.

Don't be fooled by the trailers. Every funny scene is in them. There are few movies I can't sit through, but this one was a struggle. It really isn't worth much more discussion, and my best advice would be to skip it altogether.

Comments

Re:Those trailers were terrible

[jafiwam]

A guy being distracted by a woman with big breasts?

A guy being distracted by a woman with one big breast.

Review?

[UberOogie]

I'm sorry, that wasn't a review. That was barely a TV Guide summary of the movie.

Amongst all all the other faults Katz has (*coughCommie64splayingmoviesinKabulcough*), his movie reviews tend to be nothing if he can't bring out one of his dead horses (Columbine, geek prejudice, globalism) to beat. And even then, it has no actual bearing on the movie review.

And why is this even being reviewed here? Jesus, if Katz can't make at least a tenuous connection with some of his tropes, how does this fit "News For Nerds, Stuff That Matters"?

And, granted that this was likely a horribly bad movie from everything I've seen on it and heard from others, Katz is still supposedly getting paid for this "work," so he can at least put some effort into it. I mean, hell, Mr. Cranky devoted more words to his review.

up side

[Rubbersoul]

Well look at it this way everyone:

We only have wait until next year to start seeing Maxtix 2 ripoffs in every other movie. And then by this time in 2004 they wont be cool anymore either ...

OT: Maybe

[Paradoxish]

I agree. Slapstick comedy, when it's alone, no matter how well executed... has no hidden intellectual quality. A guy falling down on his ass, no matter how funny it may be to some is still just a guy falling down on his ass. The difference is when the idiocy of the plot is used to convey some message that is worth talking about. When that message is "Most Kung Foo movies are really bad!" then there's nothing deeper. That should have been obvious from the trailers and from the press around the movie.

I'd say The Simpsons is a whole different monster, though. The Simpsons is satire wrapped in (mostly) funny, over the top comedy. It's not worth teaching a philosophy class over, but for people who can understand the messages behind the shows they are there.