Kung Phooey!

I just rented Kung Phooey. Did I like it? I normally return movies I rent the next day so that I can get an early return credit, instead of keeping them for the full rental period. I rent 2-3 movies a week and I've only kept 2 movies past the first day. Kung Phooey was one of them. I wound up watching it almost daily. The comedy worked on all levels. From stuff my kids laughed at (and me, too), to higher brow stuff that had me rolling on the floor. I especially like the scene with the Jean Claude-esque character. I find myself quoting their fight scene at random moments throughout the day. Many 'indie' films tend to be 'serious' and wind up being melodramatic. I haven't seen many indie comedies, much less ones that made me laugh as much as this film. Come to think of it, most big-budget Hollywood comedies don't make me laugh as much as this film. Great work all around!

This is a very enjoyable movie that may not be very deep but definitely achieves getting a few laughs. The jokes are continuous and many do hit the right chord. It's fast paced, silly, and quirky and ends up making a very entertaining spoof. It goes against many stereotypes by spoofing everything. I was watching it with my family and they all enjoyed it. It is a fine movie for kids (despite the ridiculous R rating) and it is also fun for adults.

Bottom line: If you like light-hearted slapstick spoofs - give Kung Phooey a try. *** out of ****

Despite the title, Kung Phooey! is really not so much a spoof targeting kung-fu movies as it is a spoof on cultural stereotypes of Asian Americans, particularly Asian-American males. It does take shots at the kung-fu film genre, but it is limited by its budget, and the action scenes, while well-executed considering the limitations, are few and far between. While Kung Phooey! hits a few of the obvious bases in its parodies of martial-arts films, it mostly spoofs them in ways that purposefully examine how they inform popular conceptions of Asians. While the film seeks to hide its social satire within its media/pop culture parodies, its social satire is far too unsubtle to stay below the surface. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since spoofs like this aren't about subtlety anyway, and this cultural perspective is the strongest thing Kung Phooey! has going for it. Besides, it's nice to see a film that has a message of ethnic pride but doesn't use it as an excuse to get overly serious and self-important--and parody is the perfect genre for achieving this. The message is made quite clear, but it never hits you over the head in that obnoxious, self-righteous kind of way.

As a kung-fu spoof, the film is a bit lacking, but taken as a satirical response to media portrayals of Asian Americans, it's much stronger. Some jokes play better than others, but overall, it's a satisfying ride--especially for Asian-American audiences who have been thinking these things for a long time, and can now see them acknowledged on screen.

This is an amusing film, and I have seen it twice and am willing to see it again; but I can't recommend it.

The film is an attempt to develop a type of absurdist, parodic comedy made famous by the Zucker-Abrams-Proft team ("Airplane!") within the context of the martial arts genre. There are indeed funny bits throughout the film - but unfortunately they're just not funny enough.

The obvious on-screen reason for this is pacing - it's not a slow or boring film; but if some reviewers express that opinion, it's because there's a flaw here that is even worse, for comedy - the timing of the gags is frequently way off. In the title sequence, for instance, we see the protagonist walking across a sand-dune ala Kane in "Kung Fu"; gags intervene twice, once with a toy dune-buggy zipping by from out of nowhere, the second time a woman in a bikini dives for a volleyball save. The dune-buggy shows up too late by about two comic beats (it should nearly clip the heel of the protagonist, who in the actual film has almost already walked off screen). The volleyball babe shows up about a beat too early - SHE nearly clips the protagonist's heel (when she should be behind him by at least two steps).

The primary behind-camera reason for such mistakes is money; this is a really low budget film, and it's clear that they could only afford one take for most scenes. That's actually very hard to do right, and requires either actors who have their lines and staging down pat, or a really inventive director who can waltz the camera around the actors to gloss over any of their defects, and who can work wonders in an editing room. This film has neither of those counter-balancing accessories. So when a scene goes flat, we're stuck with it.

So, while a lot of this movie brings a smile to my face, I can't say I actually laughed out-loud, and it's clear director Fong wants me to. Hopefully, when Fong gets the budget he needs, he can make the film this ought to have been.

I stumbled upon Kung Phooey at a local video store that tends to cater towards the indies and not so much of the mainstream. I was pleasantly surprised to see that a low-budget film could have such a good look to it. The cover just looked too silly for me to pass up. Sure, it's filled with cheap gags and goofy character imitations, but it is a slapstick spoof and that's exactly what I was expecting. Kung Phooey was a huge step up over the extremely disappointing Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. I seemed to notice some familiar faces in the cast too. Not sure why it's rated R...there didn't seem to be anything inappropriate. I watched it with my two kids and they loved it!