The movie going public are clearly torn over this slapstick comedy. Though the IMDB community have rated it fairly highly the metascore is positively laughable. Unusually, I'm with Metacritic on this one.
Kung Pow parodies many 60's-70's martial arts films telling the story of the "Chosen one" on a quest to avenge the deaths of his parents by the hands of the evil Master Pain.
The film comes under the slapstick silly comedy type alike Airplane, Baseketball and countless others but while they manage to be funny Kung Pow is positively cringe inducing.
For silly comedy with quickfire back to back jokes to be entertaining it needs to be *Gasps* funny and this isn't. Though it succeeds in parodying the common tropes of the genre from the overacting, over the top martial arts styles/movesets and awful dubbing it fails to deliver much in the way of actual laughs.
Sure when you look at the cover you hardly expect something with much substance or the slightest hint of intelligence but you do expect silly fun. All I found here was silly, the fun must have gone walkabouts for the sequel that never even got made (Good call).
Did it need to go more R rated? Did it need a better lead than Oedekerk? (Who is a better writer than actor) or did it just need better writers? Personally, I'd say all three would have been a start.
Want this kind of humor done correctly? Watch Baseketball (1998)
The Good:
Great parody
The Bad:
Stock screams
Weak cast
Simply isn't funny
Kung Pow parodies many 60's-70's martial arts films telling the story of the "Chosen one" on a quest to avenge the deaths of his parents by the hands of the evil Master Pain.
The film comes under the slapstick silly comedy type alike Airplane, Baseketball and countless others but while they manage to be funny Kung Pow is positively cringe inducing.
For silly comedy with quickfire back to back jokes to be entertaining it needs to be *Gasps* funny and this isn't. Though it succeeds in parodying the common tropes of the genre from the overacting, over the top martial arts styles/movesets and awful dubbing it fails to deliver much in the way of actual laughs.
Sure when you look at the cover you hardly expect something with much substance or the slightest hint of intelligence but you do expect silly fun. All I found here was silly, the fun must have gone walkabouts for the sequel that never even got made (Good call).
Did it need to go more R rated? Did it need a better lead than Oedekerk? (Who is a better writer than actor) or did it just need better writers? Personally, I'd say all three would have been a start.
Want this kind of humor done correctly? Watch Baseketball (1998)
The Good:
Great parody
The Bad:
Stock screams
Weak cast
Simply isn't funny