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Kung Pow! (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:53
Fresh:6
Rotten:47
Average Rating:2.8/10
Consensus: A short sketch's worth of jokes stretched into a full-length feature.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for comic violence, crude and sexual humor
Runtime: 81 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Jan 25, 2002 Wide
Box Office: $15,943,478
Synopsis: Director Steve Oedekerk (ACE VENTURA: WHEN NATURE CALLS) wrote, produced, and stars in this goofy spoof of martial arts movies, which he created by re-dubbing and digitally inserting himself into a... Director Steve Oedekerk (ACE VENTURA: WHEN NATURE CALLS) wrote, produced, and stars in this goofy spoof of martial arts movies, which he created by re-dubbing and digitally inserting himself into a 1976 Kung Fu film called TIGER AND CRANE FIST. Oedekerk plays The Chosen One (so named because of his magic tongue) who grows up in the wild after his family is murdered by the evil Master Pain--who later changes his name to Betty. Hunted and attacked continuously, The Chosen One eventually finds shelter at the Crane School, where he falls in love with a squealing maiden (Jennifer Tung) and figures out how to avenge his parents' death. He also encounters a woman with a very unusual breast, French aliens, an animated spirit father styled after THE LION KING, a martial arts-expert cow, and other digitally animated wonders. Somehow Oedekerk and Co. manage to wring a lot more funny moments out of the concept than one might think possible, and thanks to amazingly inventive editing and a gleefully juvenile sense of humor, the film never runs out of steam. There's even a threatened sequel: "Tongue of Fury." New exterior shots were filmed in Mexico. KUNG POW: ENTER THE FIST! is also known as THE DUBBED ACTION MOVIE. [More]
Starring: Steve Oedekerk, Jennifer Tung, Tad Horino, Philip Tan
Starring: Steve Oedekerk, Jennifer Tung, Tad Horino, Philip Tan
Director: Steve Oedekerk
Director: Steve Oedekerk
Screenwriter: Steve Oedekerk
Producer: Steve Oedekerk, Tom Koranda, Paul Marshal
Composer: Robert Folk
Studio: 20th Century Fox
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Reviews for Kung Pow!
Kung Pow seems like some futile concoction that was developed hastily after Oedekerk and his fellow moviemakers got through crashing a college keg party.
You'd have to search far and wide for a movie as gleefully stupid as Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, but you'd never find one so bereft of laughs.
Oedekerk's latest exercise in what I like to call 'the cinema of screechy hellsuck.'
Most of the time, this mess is about as much fun as being with a bunch of drunken frat boys who are talking back to a martial-arts film.
Oedekerk wrote Patch Adams, for which he should not be forgiven. Why he was given free reign over this project -- he wrote, directed, starred and produced -- is beyond me.
It's not that Kung Pow isn't funny some of the time -- it just isn't any funnier than bad martial arts movies are all by themselves, without all Oedekerk's impish augmentation.
An incredibly narrow in-joke targeted to the tiniest segment of an already obscure demographic.
Kung Pow is Oedekerk's realization of his childhood dream to be in a martial-arts flick, and proves that sometimes the dreams of youth should remain just that.
This is the type of movie best enjoyed by frat boys and college kids while sucking on the bong and downing one alcoholic beverage after another.
Rarely do I really want to get up and leave only a few minutes into any film -- no matter how bad it might initially seem -- but this one had me itching to flee rather early on.
Full of flatulence jokes and mild sexual references, Kung Pow! is the kind of movie that's critic-proof, simply because it aims so low.
Kung Pow! is far too long, with belly laughs quickly turning into bemused grins as the novelty of kung-fu fighters saying silly things wears off.
Did no one on the set have a sense of humor, or did they not have the nerve to speak up?
An inept, tedious spoof of '70s kung fu pictures, it contains almost enough chuckles for a three-minute sketch, and no more.
Latest News for Kung Pow!
December 18, 2006:
Oedekerk Hired to Rehaul Tim Burton's "Ripley," Believe It or Not
When Paramount shelved Tim Burton's "Ripley's Believe It or Not" a few months back, some people thought the project was dead in the water. Well hey, apparently not. More...
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