*Slight Spoilers of Great Jokes and Minor Plot Points Ahead*
With silliness that lasts from beginning to end, and a streamline of hilarity that sent me gasping for air and drying my eyes every five seconds literally, "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist" is the dumbest, and funniest movie I've seen in a while. Sure, it doesn't have as much intelligence as MST3K, or as much witty dialogue as a Kevin Smith movie, but "Kung Pow" resonates with tear jerking insanity.
Taking and old kung-fu movie, re-editing and re-dubbing it, Steve Odekerk ("Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls", "Thumb Wars") creates a light hearted, well meaning, silly film.
The plot (if you want to know) concerns The Chosen One, played by Odekerk himself. Born with the mark of the Chosen One (his tongue), Chosen's family is killed when he is a baby by the evil Master Pain (a.k.a. Betty). However, when Pain attempts to kill the newborn, Chosen jumps out of his cradle and unleashes major CGI assisted butt.
After escaping Pain and being raised by rodents in the wild, Chosen continues to run into random people who want to kill him. So, he goes to a Temple to learn how to defeat Pain. He meets and falls in love with local babe Ling, gets annoyed by Wind-Blows and his dubbed squeaky shoes, and endured the oddities of the dubbing of his trainer ("Taco Bell, Taco Bell, product placement for Taco Bell!")
Chosen goes on to fight Pain, evil henchmen, a CGI cow (in my opinion, the movie's one slow spot, what with an outdated, but silly, Matrix parody), and other weirdness.
The filmmakers were smart enough to know how far silliness can be taken. After starting off with some funny dubbed voices, they keep the voices, but add on to them, with funny dialogue (not K. Smith quality though), weird characters, and other things that just wring humor out of every possible aspect (The "Ventriloquists", Ling and her weird noised, Wind-Blows and his squeaky shoes). The filmmakers even use bad editing as a joke!
Another good thing about "Kung Pow" was it's good hearted nature. It is never vulgar or obscene, or use gross-out jokes as a crutch like many other "comedies", and is not trying to be mean to its audience or the films it parodies. The filmmakers obviously have a love for kung-fu and action movies, and it shows through this good natured parody. While not really appropriate for younger kids, this film is great and not very offensive.
And for anyone who says this movie is offensive intellectually, remember another movie with just as much silliness called "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"? This movie is silliness on a grand scale. And I laughed almost as hard during this movie as I did in "Holy Grail".
So if you're one of those people who hate a movie for just trying to entertain and be silly, laugh at your own seriousness and lack of lust for the idiocies and of life. I agree that stupidy can reach annoyance (see "Fast and the Furious"), but for me, it sure didn't happen here. So c'mon and laugh! Or better yet, go watch "How High", and realize just how mean spirited, talentless, and unfunny a comedy can be.
But for anyone who loves Monty Python, Ace Ventura, MST3K's sillier moments, and Kevin Smith's works (especially the "Clerks" Cartoon in the case of a movie like this), "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist" is for you.
With silliness that lasts from beginning to end, and a streamline of hilarity that sent me gasping for air and drying my eyes every five seconds literally, "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist" is the dumbest, and funniest movie I've seen in a while. Sure, it doesn't have as much intelligence as MST3K, or as much witty dialogue as a Kevin Smith movie, but "Kung Pow" resonates with tear jerking insanity.
Taking and old kung-fu movie, re-editing and re-dubbing it, Steve Odekerk ("Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls", "Thumb Wars") creates a light hearted, well meaning, silly film.
The plot (if you want to know) concerns The Chosen One, played by Odekerk himself. Born with the mark of the Chosen One (his tongue), Chosen's family is killed when he is a baby by the evil Master Pain (a.k.a. Betty). However, when Pain attempts to kill the newborn, Chosen jumps out of his cradle and unleashes major CGI assisted butt.
After escaping Pain and being raised by rodents in the wild, Chosen continues to run into random people who want to kill him. So, he goes to a Temple to learn how to defeat Pain. He meets and falls in love with local babe Ling, gets annoyed by Wind-Blows and his dubbed squeaky shoes, and endured the oddities of the dubbing of his trainer ("Taco Bell, Taco Bell, product placement for Taco Bell!")
Chosen goes on to fight Pain, evil henchmen, a CGI cow (in my opinion, the movie's one slow spot, what with an outdated, but silly, Matrix parody), and other weirdness.
The filmmakers were smart enough to know how far silliness can be taken. After starting off with some funny dubbed voices, they keep the voices, but add on to them, with funny dialogue (not K. Smith quality though), weird characters, and other things that just wring humor out of every possible aspect (The "Ventriloquists", Ling and her weird noised, Wind-Blows and his squeaky shoes). The filmmakers even use bad editing as a joke!
Another good thing about "Kung Pow" was it's good hearted nature. It is never vulgar or obscene, or use gross-out jokes as a crutch like many other "comedies", and is not trying to be mean to its audience or the films it parodies. The filmmakers obviously have a love for kung-fu and action movies, and it shows through this good natured parody. While not really appropriate for younger kids, this film is great and not very offensive.
And for anyone who says this movie is offensive intellectually, remember another movie with just as much silliness called "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"? This movie is silliness on a grand scale. And I laughed almost as hard during this movie as I did in "Holy Grail".
So if you're one of those people who hate a movie for just trying to entertain and be silly, laugh at your own seriousness and lack of lust for the idiocies and of life. I agree that stupidy can reach annoyance (see "Fast and the Furious"), but for me, it sure didn't happen here. So c'mon and laugh! Or better yet, go watch "How High", and realize just how mean spirited, talentless, and unfunny a comedy can be.
But for anyone who loves Monty Python, Ace Ventura, MST3K's sillier moments, and Kevin Smith's works (especially the "Clerks" Cartoon in the case of a movie like this), "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist" is for you.