Movie Review- Kung-Pow: Enter the Fist

Kung-Pow: Enter the Fist is a neat idea for a movie that fails in its execution. It's a re-dubbed and re-edited kung-fu movie. The film's writer/director/star Steve Oedekerk is then digitally inserted into the footage in place of the original actor, sort of like they did in Forrest Gump. In a way the film is ahead of its time, predicting the remix culture of YouTube, as well as the obnoxious and juvenile humor most remix videos employ. And much like YouTube remix videos, Kung-Pow seems to have been created by an immature middle schooler.

For every funny joke in Kung-Pow, there are 25 stupid ones rushing in to crush any enjoyment the viewer may be experiencing. At its best, the film recontextualizes the old footage into jokes. For example, in the original film a character goes into a coughing fit due to his failing health. The filmmakers digitally inserted a bug into the film, which then flies into the man's mouth, making it appear as if that was the trigger of his cough. But clever manipulations of the material are few and far between. Most of the jokes consist of "what if I made this character have a silly sounding voice?"" or "what if I made this character say something really stupid in a silly sounding voice?". When the jokes aren't being immature, they're just obvious potshots. There's a extended sequence in which Oedekerk fights a poorly-animated CG cow in a cheap parody of The Matrix. The film's climax is a stupid joke about the French. The list goes on.

Steve Oedekerk, writer of the Nutty Professor remake, Ace Ventura 2, and Bruce Almighty is no stranger to stupid and juvenile humor. Despite their lowbrow jokes, at least those movies were competently made. Kung-Pow feels like a collection of all the jokes Oedekerk cut from his other movies for being too stupid. The movie barely even clocks in at 75 minutes long, and the last few minutes are actually a fake trailer for the movie's sequel. For a movie that is largely the passion project of one man, he sure did get lazy putting it all together.

I have seen criticisms against Kung-Pow suggesting that the film may have worked better as a short skit as opposed to a feature-length film. I feel that a movie like this could actually work if more thought was put into the jokes, and less time was spent playing fart noises over old footage.  I really like the concept of this film, so it really disappoints me that the execution was so shoddy. There are enough jokes that actually work that have me convinced the idea could be pulled off if given to the right creative team. If the idea of the film interests you, it's worth looking in to because it's the only one of its kind, but don't expect much from it.