Stats: Aproximately 120 minutes (I couldn't find an official time anywhere. Can you /believe /that?).

Directed by Steve Odekerk.

Starring Steve Oedekerk (The Chosen One), Tad Horino, Philip Tan, Jennifer Tung.

Let me start off by saying that the only reason I went to this movie was because it was written and directed /and /starred in by the same guy who did Thumb Wars and, for that matter, all the other 'critically acclaimed'¹ short films including The Blair Thumb and Thumbtanic). His films usually tend to be quite on the silly 'B' movie side - this isn't to say that I mind it - and Kung Pow was no exception.

Most of the actual footage from Kung Pow was taken from a little-known action flick called Savage Killers, aka Tiger and Crane Fists which, depending on who you talk to, came out in either 1976 or 1977. Needless to say, no one really cares. From what I heard it didn't do all that well in the theatres anyway. Savage Killers was directed by and stars Jimmy Wang Yu, along with Liu Chia Yung and Lung Fei, just in case anyone wanted to know.

The way the film works is fairly simple: Steve Odekerk did much of his acting (if not all of it) in front of a blue screen, and was digitally inserted into appropriate scenes. FOX describes the movie as such:
'The story follows The Chosen One (Oedekerk) as he seeks to avenge the death of his parents at the hands of the evil and seemingly indestructible kung fu legend Master Pain (aka 'Betty').'

The film follows the adult life of the 'Chosen One' (Steve Odekerk) And yes, Chosen One /is /his name². Apparently Chosen One was raised by different rodents thoughout his childhood, and has therefore developed many... unique ( what else can I say here?) fighting styles. In one memorable scene, he punches a hole through one of his foe's stomachs.

'Woah!'

says the narrator.
'Look at that! He just punched out a big stomach plug! Man, that must have hurt... Waitaminute... Is that even possible, man? I though there were organs and...'

Etcetera. The narrator made things just a bit more interesting every now and then. My favourite line was actually provided by the narrator:
'Now, I had two decisions here. One, take the claw in the face, and roll on the ground and die. Two, dodge Betty, leap up over his head, and finish him off with a spinning roundhouse kick. I should have chose two.'

My attention, personally, floated and bobbed throughout the length of Kung Pow, but then that's probably due to the fact that some stupid little girl from the Van's Skate Park (nearby to the theatre I most often frequent) and a few friends of hers were throwing popcorn in my general direction, trying to get the attention of my boyfriend. I was having trouble paying attention because I was thinking of 50,000 new and exciting ways to fricasee American pre-teen. Parts of it are extremely tasteless, if not irreverently funny. What can I say? Steve Odekerk is a comic genius. Go see the film. The comic value it holds is worth far more than the $7 you'll have to pay to go see it.

Jedi Jade

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