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KUNG
POW! ENTER THE FIST
AKA:
N/A
Year:
2002 Reviewer: Phil
Mills
The
traditional kung fu movie has always been a source of much
amusement for a large percentage of the western audience
thanks to the humourous dubbing and some questionable acting
talents that were introduced during the 70's. Several
parodies of the genre have been attempted over the years with
the "Fistful Of Yen" section of 'Kentucky Fried
Movie' probably achieving the highest notoriety amongst true
fans for it's accurate send-up of 'Enter
The Dragon'. With the re-emergence of traditional
kung fu movies into the mainstream a new offering has appeared
in the form of 'Kung Pow! Enter The Fist'.
For
'Kung Pow', writer/producer/director/star Steve Oedekerk has
basically taken footage from Wang Yu's 'Tiger And Crane Fist',
removed Wang Yu and replaced him with himself whilst also
re-dubbing the entire language track into English. The
little story that there is follows "The Chosen One"
(Oedekerk), a great warrior who travels the land searching for
Master Pain (or Betty as he prefers to be known) who is the
man responsible for the death of his parents. The
Chosen One takes shelter at one of the local schools and
befriends the teacher and fellow students who he hopes will
lead him to Master Pain and help him to complete his quest to
see justice served in the only way possible; vengeance!
After
seeing the trailer I had high expectations for this flick as
it appeared the makers had genuinely captured the essence of
the traditional kung fu film and integrated it successfully
with modern day special effects to hilarious effect.
Unfortunately, you can't help thinking of it as something of a
missed opportunity. The effects can definitely not be
faulted as they always look superb with Oedekerk seemingly
appearing in the actual movie but the dialogue is where it
seems to fall flat. There is little room for
sophisticated humour or cleverly devised jokes and instead it
relies far too much on silly voices and bizarre out-of-context
comments for the laughs and this really only triggers the
occasional wry smile at most. When you go to such effort
to create a fresh and interesting way of approaching a comedy
you would have at least expected Oedekerk to come up with a
script that complements the expensive special effects but he
fails to provide us with anything substantial. Maybe
this sounds a little harsh as the CGI created fight scene with
the cow and the semi-amusing use of gopher-chuks do allow for
the odd must-see moment but all these supposed best bits do
seem to be spoilt in the trailer, meaning the complete picture
only results in disappointment.
Overall,
'Kung Pow' is a no-brainer comedy affair following in the
footsteps of the current crop of parodies launched by 'Scary
Movie'. If you appreciate the gross-out gags and
slapstick routines that are filling those types of films then
you will no doubt get a giggle from 'Kung Pow'.
Personally, squeaky noises and funny faces don't quite provide
me with the laughs that they probably once did when I was in
primary school.
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