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

Could you have...

[The Great Wakka]

put one positive thing in there? Geez, this guy is blasting the movie without any resentment.

Summary of Review:
The movie sucks.

Re:Could you have...

[americanFatCat]

I admire that. If a critic thinks a movie sucks he or she ought to say that. I hate the critics who just go the moderate route to appease the movie makers and avoid confrontation with others who might not have agreed with their review. That's why i think the filthy critic is so great. He has his opinions, and he can back them up with insight and knowledge. He doesn't sugar coat his review with: "Superb moviemaking for the 20th century!" -- or other press bytes that tell you nothing except that the critic who wrote them was a whore.

Do we boycott the MPAA every other week or what?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Let's boycott the MPAA... until there's some idiotic looking spoof movie I really want to see."

Re:he thought the trailers made it look good?

[QuasEye]

I know I watched them, and thought that it could be one of two things:

• Inspired stupidity. Think like the Airplane/early Naked Gun movies, where the gags are admittedly dumb, but dumb in such a creative, random way that there's a subversive intellectual quality underneath them.
• Attempted inspired stupidity. They tried, but fell short. Problem is, falling short at all is death to this genre. I'm not sure why, but it seems to be an all or nothing thing.

Unfortunately, the former comes along very rarely, and the latter comes around very often. Needless to say, I didn't hold much hope.

Jeez Katz...

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, I'd take your movie reviews more seriously (especially the negative ones), if you didn't spend so much time watching so much crap and then coming here to tell us how it's all crap and we could do better.

Need to see what I mean? Your review list lately reads like a direct-to-DVD-bargain-box roll call.

Good movies that have come out in that time span:

• Lord of the Rings
  
• A Beautiful Mind
  
• Ocean's Eleven
  
• Gosford Park
  
• Ali
  

What's up, Katz? Afraid of actually cutting your teeth on something substantial?

Oh lighten up...

[Anonymous Coward]

I went to see Kung Pow expecting a low budget spoof of cheezy Kung Fu movies, and that's exactly what I got. This movie obviously wasn't aimed at up-tight no-nothings like Katz, it was meant for Kung Fu fan boys.

Katz's review reminds me of all the bad press Godzilla 2000 got when it came out. People whined about it's crappy plot and terrible special effects... That's the whole point!

Of course a bad review from Katz can do nothing but help the movie out in the box office. Anything that idiot hates must be good.

Re:he thought the trailers made it look good?

[grammar nazi]

Inspired stupidity. Think like the Airplane/early Naked Gun movies, where the gags are admittedly dumb, but dumb in such a creative, random way that there's a subversive intellectual quality underneath them.

Back in college, I would have agreed with you. I've heard this argument applied to anime, Monte Python, Simpsons, 3-stooges, Laurel and Hardy, and many other things.

Now though, I realize that there's no subversive intellect. It's just that smart people and dumb people both find the same slapstick humor funny. It doesn't make me smarter than somebody else if I see furter into a dumb joke than they do, because it's still a dumb joke. Just think about it for a second and I'm sure that you will agree.

A REAL REVIEW!

[batkiwi]

I don't think katz actually saw the movie, I think he got a friend's grumpy grandfather to see it and tell him what it was.

This movie can be compared to one thing, and one thing only:
An entire movie made off of the bruce lee spoof in kentucky fried movie.

If you like naked gun/etc, you'll like this. If you don't, then what the fuck are you seeing a movie called "Kung Pow" for?

Two people walked out in the middle of the movie.
The other 60 of us in the theatre were falling on the floor we were laughing so much!

This movie is about one thing, and one thing only:
PHOTOSHOPPING.

You know all those pictures of person X put into background Y? This is an entire movie of it.

They took an old, REALLY BAD, 1970's kung fu film, and with a TON a greenscreen and computer wizardry, as well as some really bad dubbing, made their own movie out of it.

Only the main character is "real." All of the other people/scenes/etc were from the cheezy old kung fu film. In the credits they show you some of the wizardry (before and after shots) and it's REALLY amazing.

There is tons of changed faces, added people, time change bizzarement.

You know when you and your friends are drunk, 2am, watching a kung fu movie and you start adding your own lines, and acting out parts? That's this movie.

If you're into the photoshopping scene, you've GOT to check out this movie. Maybe wait for dvd if you're not into silly-stupid-drunken-funny humour, but check it out.

I am eagerly awaiting the DVD... I hope they show more of the before/after/in progress stuff. It's amazing to see a scene of the original, then watch it again to see a completely new scene made out of it, with new people/etc added in.

HERE'S MY SCALE OF 1-10 ratings:
SOPHISTICATED WIT: 0
JUST REALLY FUCKING FUNNY: 10
PLOT: N/A
TECHINCAL WIZARDRY: 10
ACTING: N/A
WACKYNESS: 10

MY overall score: 9

Like I said, if you like:
-kentucky fried movie (bruce lee segment)
-naked gun
-crazy mad editing
you'll love this movie.

If you're not into at least 2 of the 3 above, you'll hate it.

Oh come on, I laughed myself silly.

[Brad_Silva]

Sure, this movie is not a contender for a Comedy Oscar, but I thought it delivered on what it advertised....
I mean, if you watched the adds, you should have known it wasn't going to be a high dollar flick.

I thought it was one of the best silly films made in a long time. The silly film genre is one of the most overlooked in the history of Hollywood. When have they ever had a "Best Silly Film" award? When has the silly film ever gotten listed as a valid subcategory of Comedy? Granted that most people do not appreciate the wonderful humor in a silly film, but not being one of those people is no reason to criticize.

Shame on you Jon, you should have simply said "the movie is not for me" and gone on with your life.

This is a movie for those of us that are fans of things like MontyPython, The Hitchhikers Guide (the videos), Some of Mel Brooks more offbeat stuff, etc.
If you fit in that group, go see it, If you want to see a spoiler for my favorite gag, scroll down. When you see the spoiler, you'll understand why some people simply can't handle this movie.

Brad

.
.
.
We've all poked fun at the old dubbed japanese movies, where the sound is out of sync with the mouth movements, and this movies pokes fun at that. My favorite gag is a part where the dog barks, but the bark is obviously dubbed and is out of sync.

Not everyone would find that funny, and far too many people would let themselves be put off by its obvious and simple nature. Their loss.

It was funny

[jheinen]

I was expecting to see an utterly stupid spoof of 70's kung-fu movies and that's exactly what I got. It was so stupid it was hilarious. That was the whole point. I laughed my ass off. Was it a great example of cinema? No. Was there any redeeming features of the film? No. Is any of that relevant? No. It was a stupid, funny, enjoyable movie that made no pretense at being meaningful, serious, or containing a "message." It's sheer stupidity was a delight, and it is nice to see something come out of Hollywood that doesn't try to be anything other than silly. Sometimes I don't want to go to a movie to be informed or enlightened. I don't want a wry commentary on this American life. I just want to turn my brain off and be entertained, and this movie delivers. Go see it with a bunch of friends. Your soda will be coming out your nose.