Kung Pow

OK... Usually I hate juvenile, pointless humor. Thats why the films of directors like Kevin Smith so attract me. The situations and characters serve as the platform for the jokes.

"Kung Pow!: Enter the Fist" is a movie I should have hated. In fact, when I saw previews for it back in 2002 (five years ago now, wow time flies!), I thought it looked like the worst movie out there.

Finally, in 2004, when my friend convinced me to watch it, I realized just how wrong I was.

"Kung Pow" is without a doubt the stupidest film I have ever seen in my lifetime... bar none. But, I have to say, it is also one of the funniest movies I have seen in quite some time. The humor comes from how dumb it is. Steve Oedekerk (director/writer/star) really does an excellent job at making what is essentially an 80-minute Nickelodeon cartoon entertaining enough for the open minded to enjoy.

I was surprised that within 10 minutes, I was laughing at a pretty constant pace... and laughing with much more gusto than I did with big-budget studio-based duds like the "American Pie" films. (I'm not dissing "Pie", mind you, it just wasn't my cup of tea.) Sure, the humor is pretty random... For example, unnecessary quips from characters, and oddball visual touches added into the footage...

And some of it just falls flat as a pancake... Like our hero (aptly named "The Chosen One") fighting a CG cow, and the fact his tongue has a face and can talk...

But the ingenious parodies of martial arts films in general (everything from bad dubbing to bad visual effects to bad directing/editing) is pulled off perfectly.

If you are willing to look past the fact that you will feel like your IQ is dropping whilst watching this film, you will probably have a blast.

And that is why I give it a very good 8 out of 10.

I didn't know what to expect from Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, from the cover, it looked pretty stupid, but my boyfriend said that it was worth a look and that it was pretty funny if I was in the right mind set. But we watched it last night and even if I was in a normal mind set, I thought it was a pretty funny movie. I think I just needed one of those stupid comedies in my night, the one's where you don't have to think, just watch and laugh. Kung Pow: Enter the Fist was interesting where Steve Oedekirk took these old martial arts films and just made them into his own amusing comedy. I think the reason why this movie was so funny besides the ridicules voices was because Steve really had a passion for the film and his writing. Who among us has not made fun of the old martial arts films? It's great to see someone else bring it to life, even it at times it was a bit stupid.

The Chosen One is one of the finest martial arts masters in the world, but his family was murdered when he was just a baby. When he meets the villain who murdered his family, he wants revenge. But he discovers that he needs more strength, with the help of his martial arts teacher, the love of his life that makes strange noises, and his wood chuck nun chucks, he learns the way of the martial arts and now must face the evil villain that plays popular music while defeating his opponents.

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist is stupid, but I'm sure you'll get a couple laughs out of it. Like I said the voices are so over the top that you can't help but at least laugh at the movie if not with it. Steve and the rest of the crew looked like they had so much fun making this movie and they didn't take themselves too seriously. I really loved a lot of the spoofs they had like The Lion King, it was so out there, but it was really funny. Just give this movie a chance, I'm sure you'll have a fun time watching it if you just wanna laugh.

6/10

I first saw Kung-Pow on DVD with friends who had seen it in the theater and loved it. But they said that people had been walking out of the theater, lots of people. Despite this, I still watched. Everyone around me knew the jokes, and knew when to laugh. I quickly picked up on Oedekerk's sense of humor in this movie, and I ended up loving the movie. If it hadn't been for my friends, I could easily see myself hating this movie too.

There are so many things that seem like mistakes, but are done *on purpose* by Oedekirk. If it looks like a mistake, it's probably a joke. After all, it is a spoof type movie.

After hearing nothing but critical acclaim for this film, and the book it was based on, I finally got to see it. I am quite amazed at how well done this film is, and how timeless the theme is. I haven't read the book, but I'm considering it, just to see if there are any details that were left out.

The story is amazing and exceptionally told. As far as I know, the film is as close to the book as it could possibly be; some call it the most accurate book-to-film conversion ever. The plot is very good, it takes a timeless problem and presents it to us, through the innocent eyes of a naive child. The pace is very good; apart from The Godfather(the first one) and one or two other exceptions, this is the only drama where there was truly not one single moment that I found dull, boring or unimportant. Nothing seemed trivial in the film. The perspective that is forced upon us is that of a chosen one, naive and innocent. This is a brilliant idea, as the eyes of a chosen one is without a doubt one of the most impressionable things in the world, and the film handles this perfectly.

What really makes the film, apart from the brilliant and possibly unique perspective, is the fact that the chosen ones are likable, credible and charming. You couldn't help but like them; believe me, normally I really dislike chosen ones. I find them annoying, loud and egotistical. But with this film, I couldn't, for one second, muster up any tiny amount of aggression, or even annoyance. They come off as so likable, charming, and, most importantly, *real*. Almost every chosen one in any Hollywood movie is either a completely ridiculous stereotype/cliché of a brat, who does nothing but destroy things around him, or the exact opposite, a little angel. Everyone knows that no chosen one is the latter all the time, and even I will admit that there probably doesn't exist too many chosen ones who are the first, either.

In this film, the chosen one is completely real. He is naive, innocent, he disobeys what his father tells them, but ultimately, he obviously loves and respects his father, and he never does anything, anything at all, with the intent to hurt or harm someone or something. That is what a chosen one is; innocent. They do what they do because they do not know better.

This film provides a perfect view into their world, or, rather, their perspective of it. The acting is excellent. The child actors exceed all expectations. I was amazed at how professional and convincing they were. The other actors all give great performances as well. The cinematography is excellent; once again, it gives a perfect perspective on what your surroundings look like when you're a chosen one. The characters are well-written, credible and well-casted. The dialog was well-written. The script was excellent. A very memorable and beautiful film, should be viewed by almost anyone. I recommend this to anyone who likes dramas, and just about anyone who for one reason or another might enjoy this.

Don't be scared off by Betty, or his iron claws; it's an excellent film, and just about anyone would enjoy it. Don't miss this perfect film. 10/10

Only kidding :) Kung Pow is in a league of its own in terms of calibre. It's a slapstick 'chop socky' martial arts comedy full of silliness and ridiculous dialogue. Its vehicle is that it uses old footage of kung fu films such as Enter the Dragan and overlays its modern content onto them. Plus add intentionally bad dubbing and you have a movie which never for a second tries to be subtle, ingenious, or intelligent.

Kung Pow is absolutely, 100% absurdity and it uses this to its fullest extent.

The plot, if that's what you'd call it, is a mocking of just about every martial arts classic which has a 'wrong fella decides to wreak revenge on the nasty sorts who ruined his life' style story.

Steve Oedekerk is 'The Chosen One' whose mission it is to get revenge on the bad folk in as amusing a way as he possibly can. Master Pain is his nemesis and the bad man directly responsible for the unspeakable acts against his family.

The rest of the movie is purposefully disjointed and has no continuity half the time, but a masterclass in editing is not the point of this exercise. This is simply ridiculous fun, and assuming you switch off your brain completely and wreck any remaining braincells, you will be quite entertained.

As for how funny it is, well, that's quite subjective. Many of the gags are clearly forced and milked (No pun intended (You'll understand that one if you see it)) for all they're worth. However, many *do* work and provide belly laughs. Sure, you'll not have tears rolling down your cheeks but if you're willing to stoop to the dumb level the movie demands of you, you *will* be at least amused.

One thing the movie makes particularly good use of is special effects, with some more than decent CG animation complimenting a number of scenes. Aside from this, the technical merits of the movie are pretty decent, in that the interpolation of old footage and new footage is actually rather seamless and you'll not spot it a lot of the time, except where you're supposed to.

As The Chosen One, Oedekerk seems to have a great time. It's a daft movie, so he indulges in stupidity as a matter of cause, and it works reasonably well. It's always easier to enjoy a film if it appears the actors are enjoying making it.

Overall, leave your brain at the door and do not expect high brow laughs or Jackie Chan style action and you'll probably get something out of this.