Kung Pow! Enter the Fist

Kung Pow! Enter the Fist (2002)

August 21, 2005

DVD, Somerville, MA

½ / ****

by Scott Muoio

What happens when a comedy writer buys the rights to an old ‘70s kung-fu flick (Savage Killers), superimposes himself into the film as its new star, re-dubs it with lines of the same ilk as Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls (he wrote that one as well), and throws in a few kung-fu fighting computer generated barnyard animals for good measure? A big, smelly cow turd, that’s what. Good idea? Maybe. Bad execution? Unquestionably. I knew there had to be a reason why 50 copies of this movie sat in Blockbuster’s “Pre-Viewed Sale Bin” for months. Now I know.

The man behind the madness of Kung Pow! is Steve Oedekerk. According to legend, Oedekerk is a former writer for In Living Color, a pal of Jim Carey, and the creator of all those thumb movies (Thumb Wars: The Phantom Cuticle). In addition to those laurels, Oedekerk has written The Nutty Professor and Patch Adams, which proves, if nothing else, the man is at least prolific and a persistent Hollywood fixture. As for the quality of those pictures, I’d rather not comment. I will, however, note that with Kung Pow! Oedekerk has once again shown he has interesting concepts but destroys them with tireless and tiresome repetition, inevitably what his films are really about. And that’s never a good thing.

Kung Pow! follows “The Chosen One,” a shirtless Oedekerk, from birth to belated revenge. We see The Chosen One on a farm, in a kung-fu school, near a waterfall, in a field, and just about anywhere else one might imagine a ‘70s chop socky flick might lead, all courtesy of computer magic. Along the way, Chosen does battle with baddies as he chases Master Pain, AKA Betty, the evildoer who killed his parents and left him to be raised by the local wildlife. Eventually we arrive at the end of this mess where, of course, a big, anti-climactic smackdown ensues, which is as stupid as the movie’s jokes are lame and repetitive.

Let’s consider one of the film’s big gags, a woman with one breast. Now if you think the sight and mention of a hot chick with one breast is funny merely because she has one breast, then maybe Kung Pow! is your type of film. If not, you’ll certainly find more comedy value in just about any of the real thing, ‘70s kung fu flicks that are so bad they are almost good, or at least very entertaining and filled with great martial arts action.

For those looking for an alternate path to Kung Pow!, and I do suggest it, consider something like Shaolin Drunkard. That flick is certainly worth the price of admission and then some. Funny, action packed, innovative with its gags, and gloriously celebrating the silliness of late ‘70s/early ‘80s chop socky fun, that flick is certainly worth the price of admission and then some. In contrast, Kung Pow! can’t even give us funny dubs. How lame is that?

There isn’t much more to say about Kung Pow! It is what is, one man’s attempt at parodying a genre that is often times a parody of itself. Double irony? Who knows and really, who cares!? Perhaps if Oedekerk played things straight instead of going the full-blown parody route then the good idea that he started with could have possibly turned into a good movie. But he didn’t and the movie suffers dramatically for it, culminating in one agonizingly terrible viewing experience.