NickSavage

I don't normally watch martial arts movies that take place in a modern day city, but I kept seeing parts of this movie on T.V. and it eventually caught my interest.

This is actually a good movie. You do sort of get close to some of the characters (good acting for this type of movie).

Watching this movie today, it does feel rather dated, with the bell-bottom pants and some of the background music. Though, some of the music is kind of "cool" sounding, and fits in with the scenes. Wait till you see the modern digital wrist watch that the lead character becomes obsessed with (remember those big ones where you had to push a button to see the red LED light up the time? I do!)

The story is good and does have some morals to it. The scenery does look rather phoney. It looks as if a strong wind might blow down some of the stores downtown. Is a hot dog stand supposed to convince us that this is really America?

The dubbing is also very funny, and stereo-typical of Chinese people and kung fu movies.

Most of the fight scenes in this are not that great, and is probably the film's weak point. There seems to be too many fight scenes in this movie anyway. This is one of those rare martial arts film where the plot is more interesting than the fighting.

To some it up, this movie does have "campy" elements, and there are some poor production qualities. But the acting, character development, story, and even a few positive production values make this into a very watchable movie.

I recommend this to fans of Chinese martial arts movies, especially the older 70's/80's movies. Or anyone who likes to watch something a little different from time to time.

7 out of 10 stars.

This is another one of those little known classics. I do not consider myself to be a fan of Joe Piscopo material, but this one is really good.

The skits I remember from this are as follows-

In one skit, J.P. is portraying a homeless guy that lives in an alley who one day finds a pair of "magical drum sticks" in the trash and becomes a fabulous drummer. Eventually he joins a big rock band, gets hooked on cocaine, almost dies, and ends up back in the alley where he started, and where he seems to be happiest.

The whole skit is less than 10 minutes, with little or no dialog, and is very funny as well as insightful.

The highlight of this video is a fantastic parody on the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video. It begins just like the original one. J.P. is walking his girl friend through the woods. As the full moon rises, J.P. slowly turns in to---Jerry Lewis!

The dance scenes in this are great and hilarious. You will die laughing when you see it. I put this parody up there with Steve Martin's "Billie Jean" (also very hard to find).

Eddie Murphy's scenes are also good, and its easy to see that these guys were probably friends in real life. Good chemistry.

This should be on DVD! 8 out of 10 stars.

I only remember a couple of episodes of this. The best skit I saw was the Steve Martin "Billie Jean" parody (which I could not find under the Steve Martin Television Appearances section on IMDB).

Another skit that stands out was the "Cartoon Bloopers" skit. The idea was so original and ridiculous at that time, although the idea has been somewhat over-used in recent years. Like, "The Jetsons", George is supposed to enter a room, and the space-age door slides up half way and gets stuck, and you can hear him laughing on the other side of the door. Great stuff!

Would love to see a "Best Of" DVD for this show!

8 out of 10 stars.