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Review: Kung Pow

Posted by JonKatz on from the enter-the-mess-of-a-movie dept.

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.

3 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Ummm.... by Doctor_D · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Ummmm...Kung Pow Chicken.... Now ya went and made me hungry...

    --
    "If you insist on using Windoze you're on your own."
  2. A blessing in disguise... by Fnkmaster · · Score: 1, Redundant
    This is the best Sunday treat ever. This weeks's Jon Katz movie review is the shortest, most sane posting of all time.


    Thank you Katz, for sparing us the usual wordy outpouring of ranting pseudo-journalism.

  3. Re:A real review by GreenHell · · Score: 3, Redundant

    More reviews (Not that many right now actually, more are added as more reviews are published)

    Right now, my favorite's the one that says "It could well end up being the worst movie of 2002. It's that bad."

    I'm still trying to figure out how anyone could have found the trailers interesting though...

    --
    "I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."