The actual dialogue in “Kung-Pow” feels almost like the robot commentary provided on “Mystery Science Theatre 3000.” The old kung-fu master is constantly making passes at his male students, informs The Chosen One that he has trained one of his students wrong as a joke, and the dread Master Pain changes him name to Betty halfway through the movie. The more kung-fu movies you’ve seen, the funnier some sequences will be. Zooming in on someone’s face from about a mile away has always been a staple, and “Kung-Pow” gets a laugh or two out of it.
Oedekerk, as The Chosen One, does not simply stand around and occupy the same space as those in the original footage, like Charlie Kane, Zelig, or Forrest Gump, but he is able to fight with them, carry them, and even make out with his honey. The trickery is partially explained in the end credits, and moreso on the DVD; we see Oedekerk, in costume in front of a blue screen, with motion sensors attached to various parts of his body. Often it is only his head, face, and hand that have been inserted on top of an existing character. The technique is impressive as long as you don’t think about the ridiculous end to which it is being put.
Oedekerk, who was the writer or director behind movies such as “Patch Adams,” “Ace Ventura,” and “The Nutty Professor,” has grafted his features onto digital creations before, but so far only in short pieces like his parody of “Star Wars,” entitled “Thumb Wars: The Phantom Cuticle,” and “Thumb-tanic,” his “Titanic” spoof. “Thumb Wars” is perhaps the most satisfying, in no small part because it is short and to the point, while “Kung-Pow” probably goes for twenty or thirty minutes longer than it needs to. Crappy as they tend to be, real kung-fu movies knew about pacing, and used stuntmen and professional martial artists, instead of digital effects, so that their fight sequences achieve a kind of ballet-style elegance, even when two guys head-butt each other in mid-air. As for “Kung-Pow: Enter the Fist,” it is what it is: colossally stupid, mercilessly childish, but at times pretty entertaining.
Finished December 7, 2002
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