If you get a chance to see Kung Fu Hustle I’d recommend you take that opportunity because it is one fantastic movie. On the other had, if you find yourself in pre revolutionary China and want to pick on the poor slum dwellers of Pig Sty Alley I’d counsel against that course of action because, as the title of this entry reveals, that place is chock full of Kung Fu masters.
And that is where the movie gets interesting. Instead of the usual stereotypical Kung Fu masters we’ve all come to know and love we get treated to some very atypical Kung Fu masters. In fact there may be no funnier scene in the movie than when one Kung Fu Master who is openly gay minces around saying that there is nothing wrong with being good at Kung Fu. Truly, it was hilarious. Truth be told most of the movie was pretty damn funny. If you’ve seen Kill Bill Volume 2 you know how talented filmmakers can weave violence and humor together in a seamless fashion. Thing is Kill Bill 2’s mix of violence and humor seems amateurish by comparison.
Yet if that was all there was to the movie, a clever blending of action and comedy, it would simply be a bloody Jackie Chan flick. But Kung Fu Hustle succeeds in other areas as well. Characters are not left unchanging in minor heavy/bad guy roles. No, Kung Fu Hustle contains plenty of twists along the way. Some of which are fairly obvious (yet still appreciated) while others are a complete surprise.
I would be hard pressed to call any one aspect of the movie the single strongest feature, all aspects of the movie are heavily interdependent upon each other. For example the cinematography, taken alone, would be considered pretty good. When paired with the music and action it becomes very nice. Sure some of the visual metaphors are a bit too obvious (black clouds roll in when the bad guys show up) but there is also a cartoonish element to the movie which makes even those moments fit as tightly as Mola Ram’s fist around a sacrificial victim’s heart.
Allow me to summarize as follows:
ONE FREAKING GREAT MOVIE!
Really excellent characters from the movie: The Beast, The Musicians, The entire Axe Gang
Oh yeah, Todd really liked it as well, so it’s not like I’m the only one.
A movie review by Chris Seibold? That is probably not a good thing. I must make amends, I mean you’ve slogged through the above you might as well get a payoff of some sort. Let me see what could I put in front your eyeballs that would makeup for what I just put in front of your eyeballs….Let me think, let me think…Obviously more Chris Seibold stuff wouldn’t do, I mean that is the source of the problem. Perhaps if there were a way to share interesting web pages with people who stumble across this blog, web paes not made by me…If there was only some way to link to other pages…well then I’d need an intro of some sort..wait..wait…..GOT IT!
Landlady’s Loquacious Links of Lovely Likeability
You constantly hear people harping about destroying the planet. I maintain that if you want to really destroy the planet you’re gonna need more than lead based paint, desertification, and CFCs. Heck no you need:
Geocide
Dozens of ways to really get rid of the earth.
Good Shot Dude
I’m good with hunting. I’m good with teaching your kids to hunt. I wonder if this guy started a bit early.
Which one of you did that?
Exemplifying why dumping dry ice into an airplane toilet at 33,000 ft isn’t the best idea.
Ah, well I hope you find the links satisfactory. In other news the mymac podcast is going over huge. Which is nice for Tim Chad, and sometimes Tad (known collectively as Tchid) but probably not so good for me. I do Not Mac News and it runs about a minute. One minute of Not Mac News is one less minute of the podcast and it isn’t going to be too long before people realize this and I get the boot. Maybe Tchid will adopt the four-hour format I’ve been pushing for.
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