Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (PG-13) ½
A bizarre, off-the-wall, silly attempt at comedy created by blending new live-action footage with 1976 Japanese martial arts film Savage Killers that never quite does become funny.
Story
The story is a simple one: once every generation there is a Chosen One (Steve Oedekerk), whose task it is to fight evil. This Chosen One, though, is also out to avenge the wanton slaughter of his family at the hands of the despicable Master Pain, who later inexplicably changes his name to Betty. On the road to conquering evil and figuring out his ''true destiny,'' the Chosen One battles a Matrix-empowered cow and the evil council, which is made up entirely of French aliens in pyramid-shaped spaceships. He receives help from the kindly Master Tang, his daughter and the karate queen Whoa who has but a single large boob.
Acting
There's not much acting going on here at all; when the live action is inserted all we have is Oedekerk's over-the-top mugging, or some silly henchman dancing in the background. (The real actors from the '70s movie he ripped off don't count--they're meant to be the dull foil to Oedekerk's razor-sharp wit.) At least Oedekerk looks the part of a martial arts expert. The dialogue is supposed to be the key, and we are supposed to be amused by the different accents given to the random verbiage, but none of it really makes any sense, nor does it make us laugh. The cow, though, was fabulous.
Direction
If you're anything like my friends and me, you've done this before--and probably with more laughs than this movie gets. You're watching a really bad '70s chop-socky film with the volume turned off, and you and your buddies give the players on the screen dialogue that doesn't fit the situation. That's all Oedekerk (Nutty Professor II: The Klumps), Patch Adams) has done, although he's also added in live-action fantasy sequences that we as technically challenged teens couldn't without our own film studio. Nor is Oedekerk's idea particularly imaginative: the Sci-Fi channel's Mystery Science Theater 3000 series did this with much funnier effect and greater success.
Bottom Line
If we gave letter ratings instead of stars, I'd give this movie a ''U,'' as in ''U kidding me? They gave this guy money to make this movie?'' I would've rather watched the karate movie Oedekerk took footage from than this mess.
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