Kung Phooey!

I practice martial arts (Ok, I practice - I didn't say I was good!). This movie was funnier than I expected, and is mercifully short(only 87 minutes). It doesn't take itself seriously - there are scenes where characters discuss being characters. The plot is whisper-thin, but who watches these things for the plot? Having said that, I still laughed out loud in several spots, and the martial arts scenes were quite good (and legit. Some of these were taken seriously or at least lovingly). The movie did a great job spoofing the genre - but if you don't like martial arts films, you just won't appreciate this film.

Basically, the level of humor is broad. If you liked Hot Shots Part Deux, you'd probably enjoy this movie.

I admit it...I did laugh out loud. It takes awhile to get it - that the spoof is the spoof. This movie is much more about blasting stereotypes than about spoofing the old Kung Foo run of hits and misses. Every social service or public health organization that requires "cultural competence" training would do far better with this corny but telling depiction of the gross stereotyping prevalent in all sectors...rather than the deadly talking heads or overly-processed exploration of prejudice. Although the 11 year old market of viewers may be more tempted to take this one off the shelf, it's way fun. But you may have to think and even squirm once you get it. Enjoy the a

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 ****

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!

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.