Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002)
A laugh-out-loud funny spoof!
I’m tapping into some old stuff tonight. I mean, old in a relative sense - this thing came out back when I was in school still, and there was plenty of laughs to be had about it. Tonight, I introduce someone else to it and see how well it holds up in entertainment value. Spoiler: it’s probably not going to hold up the best. Get your ADR ready and open that mouth, tonight is Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.
So I’ve got some nostalgic attachment to the movie since I saw it earlier on - like around when it came out. That might flavor my views of it a little bit - but hey, at least I’m upfront about it right? The movie uses a couple of different movies, cuts them up and slaps them together, splices in some new characters, and then ADRs over the entire thing. It essentially makes something new out of older things, and how well it goes over is going to be a person to person thing - largely because of the humor of course. It’s a typical “chosen one” going to get revenge upon the evil man who killed his family sort of thing. It’s not super crazy important, if we are being honest - it’s there to facilitate a bunch of jokes that could probably work even without it, but hey - nice bonus?
Characters aren’t here to have development. Most aren’t there to even have actual character. The main character is “the chosen one” - and the most arc you will get out of him is “he’s not ready”, training montage, “he’s ready.” Largely, whatever semblance to the original movies things were taken from could be retained in basics - oh, that guy is a master. Oh, that’s the bad guy. There’s a fight here that that dude loses. If you are here for characters or story, then you’ll probably be having a real rough time with this. That being said, if the particular breed of humor it’s going for is yours, then you’ll end up easily overlooking the smaller details of plot and character. Essentially, the characters boil down to jokes - squeeky shoes. Wee-oh chick, Betty.
Acting was probably not horrible for the original movies - but admittedly it’s being repurposed here and that can make for it to be difficult to really fault anything the actors do. The only ones that were totally added in are overly hammy and wack-a-doodles, but there is no way I’m misconstruing this as anything but intentional. The movie is a comedy spoof - for better or worse, it’s put together knowing this and laser-focused about it. When it comes to the ADR, it’s very much the same - they know what they are trying to do, and then they do it. If it comes across as bad, or goofy then that’s just the breaks unfortunately.
Open your mouth!
The comedy here is, as always, dependent on you the viewer. For me, there’s plenty of stuff that still hits. Yeah, it can be something as stupid as a ninja-vanish smoke bomb that doesn’t work like it’s supposed to - but it counts either way. I would argue that not all of it ages the best - some of it is way nicer when you still have that juvenile mind. Some of it might even offend the modern folks who get more easily offended about things. Some jokes are more practical, some are riffing other popular movies of the time, and some of them are just plain wackey. There’s also some that are just kinda drawn out - and it doesn’t always work out for it. I laughed - sometimes in anticipation of something I knew that was coming up. Sometimes I laughed because it was still funny to me.
Effects work is somewhat mixed. I mean, at the time it was still pretty fine stuff - but nowaday’s it’s a bit easier to catch a lot of the stuff, particularly the green screen stuff. It’s still holds up fine - in the sense of the old martial arts movies it’s exactly what you’d expect, blood geysers and all. Some of the other stuff - specifically the CG stuff, like the baby and cow, really don’t hold up great at all. Goes to show that practical stuff holds up better, right? I feel like that’s not the most accurate statement considering if we are going off of things that look believable - although it is a lot easier to get things to match with the scene when they are actually in it and not just added in later. Honestly, that’s one of the easiest way to notice the green screen add-ins or replacements, that slightly’ off lighting on the stuff getting put in.
Something you certainly didn’t think you’d hear me say is that the soundtrack is great. Guess what, i’m saying it. Is it original audio? Nah, but I still love me some Ram Jam and MC Hammer regardless. The audio is balanced well enough that you can hear things fine, which is helpful for the jokes. Subtitles actually both add a bit of fun (baby thuds) but also kill some of it (appears too early and gives away the joke). Delivery is good for the joke purposes, but like i said most of it is pretty over-the-top. There’s a moment or two that are somewhat meh at best - but like I said, for a young mind it can be much more humorous than one that might have grown out of it.
Effects at work.
Should you watch it? I mean, I wouldn’t go out of your way to unless the trailer looks like it’s your jam. It’s a pretty stupid-humor kind of movie, and if it works for you than it’ll be really enojyable, but if it isn’t your cup of tea you are in for a rather unpleasant time I would imagine. I feel the trailer honestly does a really good job of selling what this movie is, and if you’ll like the jokes or not. It’s also helpful if you have a penchant for those old martial arts movies that weren’t always “high quality” or maybe even a friend or two to watch with.