Kung Pow: Enter the Fist 2002 PG-13 Run-time: 1 hour, 21 minutes
Directed by: Steve Oedekerk Starring: Steve Oedekerk
I'm honestly not entirely sure why I have this movie in my DVD collection because it's not really the type of movie I'd generally buy. If I remember correctly, I think my dad bought the flick, and at some point in time, I absorbed it into my personal collection, so it had to be viewed as part of this DVD Challenge. That being said, let's get into what works and what doesn't, shall we?
For those of you know who don't know the deal behind this movie, Oedekerk essentially took an obscure, 1970s martial arts movie called Tiger and Crane Fist and inserted himself into the story. In doing so, he created an entirely original storyline and dubbed the voices of the original characters, essentially spoofing the martial arts genre. Unfortunately, a lot of the jokes are relatively childish and unoriginal. Basically, we've got a movie that delves into the "stupid funny" realm in order to garner its laughs. There's a lot of slapstick comedy and a lot of raunchy humor, but aside from that, we're not getting any legitimate laughs.
There are quite a few pop culture references to be had, however. The most obvious modern spoofs are of the 1999 film The Matrix and the 1994 animated film The Lion King, so be on the lookout for those homages. According to the film's IMDb page, there are also references to Titanic, The Usual Suspects, and The Lord of the Rings, but I couldn't find them anywhere in the film. Maybe you'll have a little more luck spotting those particular gags.
Overall, Kung Pow: Enter the Fist is good for a few chuckles here and there. It's a goofy send-up of 1970s martial arts flicks from the man who brought the world the Ace Ventura films, so you can probably assume the direction this one will take. Is it worth owning? Probably not, but it's still in my library so I'll treasure it regardless.
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 comedy directed by Mel Brooks. The film parodies the Western genre as a whole. We open on a group of African-Americans working on a railroad in the middle of the desert. When a black man named Bart (Cleavon Little) hits his white boss Taggart (Slim Pickens) over the head with a shovel, he's immediately sent to jail. Taggart asks his boss, Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) to have Bart hanged, to which he readily agrees. Lamarr and Taggart are working on building a railroad through the countryside, but they are sidetracked when they realize they cannot claim the rights to a township called Rock Ridge as long as the citizens live there. To get them to move away, he has Governor Lepetomane (Brooks) authorize Bart to be the town's sheriff, making him the first black sheriff in the history of the United States. The townsfolk don't take kindly to Bart, whose only friend in the early going is a drunk named Jim (Gene Wilder) who used to be known as the Waco Kid. When the townsfolk do not leave after Bart's arrival, however, Lamarr has to go to drastic measures to kill the sheriff so that he and his henchmen can take over the town with brute force.
If you've been following my blog over the past couple months, you've probably noticed that I rank Blazing Saddles rather highly on my lists of the greatest films of all time. To explain, it currently rests as my 26th greatest movie of all time, and the fourth best comedy I've ever seen. So I kinda hyped this up a little bit before I even started this recommendation, but it's been hyped for a very good reason. I'm not the only person to think that it's a brilliant comedy - it currently holds a rating of 7.7/10 on the Internet Movie Database, and it currently holds an 89% approval rating on the review aggregate website, RottenTomatoes.com. It also nabbed three Oscar nominations, and although it didn't win in any of its nominated categories, it has definitely stood the test of time since its release thirty-seven years ago.
I'm going to start with the film's acting, giving a little breakdown of each of the four main characters:
Bart (Cleavon Little): As I previously mentioned, Bart is the African-American man who's sent to the township of Rock Ridge as their newly appointed sheriff. He meets immediate resistance in this 19th-century, all-white town that has yet to offer an acceptance of minorities. Bart is highly-educated and an "urbanite," as Jim calls him; this gives him quite an advantage over the "morons" that populate the West. This role was Cleavon Little's big break, pushing him into the Hollywood limelight. Sadly, it was his only lasting memorable role, especially considering he nabbed a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer - it just never panned out. What's really sad about that is that he's absolutely brilliant as our lead in Blazing Saddles, bringing the charm, the bravado and the comedic presence that's absolute necessary for a Mel Brooks lead character.
Jim aka Waco Kid (Gene Wilder): We first meet Jim as he's hanging upside-down in one of the Rock Ridge sheriff station's holding cells. He's a little confused when he meets Bart - because he's black - but he never once judges him for being so. We learn that Jim used to be known as the Waco Kid, the man with the fastest hands in the world. After a series of events, Jim has fallen out of his renown and become a passive drunk, spiraling ever further into self-destruction. But Bart helps bring him out of the grave and gets him sober, making the two a formidable team. Gene Wilder - who also starred in Brooks's other 1974 venture, Young Frankenstein - gives a much more subdued performance than we had ever seen before. Whereas his performances in films like the aforementioned Frankenstein flick and 1970's Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory are very manic and over-the-top, Wilder's Jim is a very passive and laid-back guy, making him instantly likable. The change of character definitely doesn't take away his comedic presence, either.
Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman): Hedley Lamarr is our principal villain in the film, and his want for money and power is his main motivation in everything he does. He's the man who starts this entire situation by placing Bart into the Rock Ridge township, and he suffers consistently as a result. Hedley is actually a very intelligent man, but he tends to associate himself with imbeciles, causing his plans ultimately to backfire. He also has to field the consistent botching of his name - everyone always mistakes him for actress Hedy Lamarr. Harvey Korman is absolutely brilliant as Hedley - in my opinion, he gives the best performance in the film. He's manic, he's over-the-top and he's utterly amazing. There's a scene in the film where Hedley says, "Now you men will only be risking your lives, whilst I will be risking an almost certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor." He didn't get a nomination, but he definitely should have.
Lili Von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn): Lili, a burlesque dancer and part-time whore, comes into the story after Hedley asks her to seduce the sheriff and get him out of town. She agrees to the plan despite her dislike for Hedley and his awkward sexual advances. Lili asks Bart to come see her after her stage show in the hopes that she can seduce him, but the tables quickly turn and it is she who is seduced by him. Lili becomes enamored with Bart and his massive...gift, vowing her undying love for him as he leaves her in the morning. There's a story that Madeline Kahn, who nabbed an Oscar nomination for her supporting role, got this part after a very strange audition: when she went into the audition, Mel Brooks simply asked her to show him her leg. She did so, and he instantly knew he had found his Lili Von Shtupp. She went on to star in other big-time comedies like Young Frankenstein and 1985's Clue.
We've also got some fantastic performances from supporting actors like Slim Pickens and Mel Brooks himself, who makes his standard appearances. Also be on the lookout for Alex Karras's performance as Mongo and a great cameo from Dom DeLuise.
The screenplay is also rather incredible, considering all of the childish humor that's strewn about. Don't get me wrong - there's a lot of fantastic jokes to be found inside Blazing Saddles, many of which are still socially relevant to today's society. Yeah, a lot of the references probably fit more back in the 1970s, but there's no reason that you shouldn't be rolling with laughter throughout this film's entirety. If you get the references, then that's fantastic, but even the distasteful humor - such as a prolonged sequence of men eating beans then engaging in the subsequent bodily functions - proves to be so hilarious. I think the reason these scenes of potty and slapstick humor work so well is because Blazing Saddles never tries to be something its not. It never has delusions of grandeur; rather, it knows that it's a silly, goofy movie that's simply meant to be laughed at. I don't know about him as a person, but Mel Brooks's movies are never full of themselves, so to speak.
Just so you know: Blazing Saddles is a little bit openly racist, but it does so for comedic effect. Basically, you never actually think that the filmmakers, the cast or the crew are actually this explicitly racist; rather, it really does feels like they're doing it to that extent just to forward the comedy. It might seen a little unnerving at first, hearing so many drops of the n-word and and other racial slurs, but you get used to it after a while and chalk it up to the fact that Blazing Saddles is really just trying to make fun of extremely racist people. So just kick back and go with it.
I'd also like to take a moment to mention the film's music, which is stellar to say the least. The musical score is very good, but it's definitely upstaged by some of the original numbers written for the film. Madeline Kahn has a rather funny number called "I'm Tired," and the theme song for the town of Rock Ridge is pretty hilarious if you can keep up with the lyrics. But the real cake has to go to the film's theme song, which comes in as my eleventh favorite movie song of all time. Frankie Laine provided the vocals, and it just fits the film so perfectly that it's hard to forget. Here's the song, in case you're interested:
Overall, Blazing Saddles is truly a fantastic comedy and it's definitely worth your time. It's one of the greatest comedies ever to grace the silver screen, and it's made its stamp in cinematic history for a reason. Do yourself a favor and give it a watch. You won't be disappointed.
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is a 2001 comedy film directed by Larry Blamire. It's a send-up of those all '50s B-movies like Plan 9 from Outer Space that have garnered so much ridicule over the years. In The Lost Skeleton, the audience finds themselves amidst a battle between three couples over a meteor containing the ultra-rare element "Atmospherium." As I've done with my recommendations for Clue and Star Wars, I think it will be easiest to break down each character in a bullet-ed list:
Dr. Paul Armstrong (Larry Blamire) and Betty Armstrong (Fay Masterson): Paul is the central hero of the film. He's a scientist who's interested in finding the meteor and using the Atmospherium to further the advances of science. Science is his life, and he knows nothing more than expanding the knowledge of science. Paul's wife Betty somewhat serves as our female lead, but the actual female "lead" is a little more open to discussion. She's a good-natured, at-home wife who will do anything to keep her husband happy. Her and Paul are the perfect stereotype for the type of couple you'd imagine in the 1950's.
Kro-Bar (Andrew Parks) & Lattis (Susan McConnell): Kro-Bar is an alien male from the planet Marva who's spaceship has crashed on Earth. His ship needs Atmospherium to power itself back to Marva, establishing his and his wife's - Lattis - need for the element. Unfortunately, the mutant that they have held captive escaped in the crash, and they must find a way to capture the creature before it can kill "millions" of people on this strange planet known as Earth.
Dr. Roger Fleming (Brian Howe) and Animala/Pammy (Jennifer Blaire): Fleming serves as our main antagonist for most of the film. In the beginning, he's searching for the Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, a skeleton with supposedly supernatural powers. When he finds the Skeleton, it tells him that it needs Atmospherium in order to summon all its powers. Fleming steals one of the aliens' weapons - the Transmutatron - and uses it to change a group of forest animals into a woman whom he calls Animala. He uses Animala to help steal the meteor and do the bidding of the Skeleton.
As you can see, each individual character has his or her own reasoning behind attaining the Atmospherium, and the battle to maintain possession is rather stunning.
One of the things you need to know going into The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is that you need to watch it with the right mindset. If you go into the film expecting a solidly good movie in the traditional sense of "good movie," then you're going to be sorely disappointed. You'll just think it's a stupid movie that might be bad enough to be considered entertaining. And that's exactly what the filmmakers were going for. They deliberately attempted to make a film that's "so bad, it's good" in order to poke fun at and pay homage to the terribly laughable B-movies of the 1950s. The screenplay was deliberately written as poorly as one could imagine. The acting was deliberately performed at a very low level. Everything about this film oozes "badness," and that's what makes it so damn brilliant.
Blamire, who also wrote the screenplay in addition to starring and directing, pulls no punches in crafting a dreadfully hilarious script. The basic storyline is pretty laughable on its own. I mean, the main nemesis ultimately ends up being a re-animated skeleton - how can't you laugh at that? But the real beauty of the screenplay is the dialogue. It's absolutely horrendous, and that makes it all the more perfect in a film like this. There's a lot of repetition of seemingly unnecessary words and phrases. For example, the word "science" - or some derivative thereof - is used twenty-nine times throughout the film. Now, that may not seem like much when you read it here, but while you're watching the movie, you're definitely going to notice. Blamire hits the nail on the head in creating the feel of a '50s B-movie, from the terrible one-liners to the low-budget feel. Everything they do is done on purpose, and they go just about as far as they possibly can with everything, from the terrible special effects (see picture to the right) to a pitch-perfect score that enhances the ridiculousness of it all.
I couldn't possibly go without talking about the acting because it's also pitch-perfect. Everyone is so over-the-top that it's almost unfair how hilarious they all are. The cast of this film tends to do a lot of movies together - they were all in this film's sequel (2009's The Lost Skeleton Returns Again) as well as 2009's Dark and Stormy Night, which I reviewed a few weeks ago. They're a very close group, and they have yet to make a bad film, in my opinion. However, it all started here, and The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra still ranks highest among all of their collective endeavors. As I've said in recent posts, a film can have a fantastic screenplay, but poor execution by the cast can result in disaster. In this case, we have a perfectly terrible screenplay - again, because it was intentionally made that way - and it's executed flawlessly by these brilliant comedic individuals. They each play their respective roles to a tee, and you'd be hard-pressed to sit through this film without bursting into laughter. Remember: don't delve into this film without understanding what you're getting yourself into. If you go in taking it too seriously, you won't get the whole point of the film. Prepare yourself for something that's deliberately bad. This is easily one of the best parodies I've ever seen, and I could watch it over and over and over again and cry with laughter every time. There's a reason that it ranks as the 44th greatest movie I've ever seen. So if you can take it for what it is, this is a definite must-see. I can guarantee you'll enjoy it.
(Side note: I'm going to start doing one "movie recommendation" every Saturday night. These will always be films I've already seen and think that other people should see. I know that my past recommendations are pretty well-known flicks, so I'm going to do my best to bring movies you've probably never heard of. Hope you can enjoy my recommendations!)
It's really tough to make a spoof that touches on the source material while being hilarious without diving into silliness. Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, which I will simply call Don't Be a Menace for the rest of this post, is a spoof from the Wayans brothers. They wanted to create a spoof of coming-of-age "hood" films, and they predominantly take situations presented in 1991's Boyz n the Hood and 1993's Menace II Society.
Don't Be a Menace, which was directed by Paris Barclay, follows Ashtray (Shawn Wayans) as he chronicles his life in the hood. He always aspires to leave the hood and finds a potential path when he meets Dashiki (Tracey Charelle Jones) who also wants to leave the hood. However, he has quite a few bases set in the hood, with friends like Loc Dog (Marlon Wayans) and Preach (Chris Spencer) rounding out his gang. The film basically shows a number of situations that one would be familiar with if they have seen the aforementioned films (and I strongly recommend watching those before Don't Be a Menace, if you can; you'll get more out of the spoof experience).
The screenplay does touch on quite a few of the "hood" film conventions, and it crafts a comedic twist to a number of situations that I recognized from the other films. As I said previously, however, it's hard to create a spoof that doesn't delve into silliness, and unfortunately, silliness is a key component of Wayans brothers' films. In the beginning of the movie, I was rolling with laughter, but as it went along, I found those guffaws turning into chuckles and scoffs. It just got to be a little too much ridiculousness for me, but that's not to say that someone else wouldn't absolutely love it.
The acting, on the other hand, stays pretty consistent throughout the movie, and Shawn Wayans is definitely a good lead to follow. He brings a wide range of emotions to such a comedic role. Marlon is typical Marlon, if you've seen any of his other comedic ventures. I think the best parts of the films involve a number of cameos, from Keenen Ivory Wayans to Bernie Mac to Vivica A. Fox.
For me, Don't Be a Menace is a fun little movie that's good for a day of boredom, but it's definitely not making its way up the annals of great comedy for me. It's a solid little piece of entertainment, and that' probably exactly what the Wayans brothers were going for.
Movie Review Summary: Grade: B- Thumb... Slightly Up
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
realm in order to garner its laughs. There's a lot of slapstick comedy and a lot of raunchy humor, but aside from that, we're not getting any legitimate laughs.
