hustled? no way.

went to kung fu hustle last night. for some reason, the promos really touched me. and you know how easily influenced i am.

did enjoy it quite a bit. maybe you might enjoy it too. even if you feel like you might not like movies. it did not try to shock me. did not try to teach me what is cool. did not try and make me horny. doesn’t even try to make you think. but it is subtitled. so you gotta read. that might be an issue for some.

there was a scene though, where i found myself laughing, but also heard others in the audence doing a little “awww”. so i tried to do an “awww” as well, but my heart wasn’t in it – which made it funnier for me. so i went back to laughing.

all in all, it’s a nice blend of kung fu movie and benny hill. i have seen a few movies in hong kong and their action heros are a little different than ours. conan the barbarian, where he gets strong by pushing the spoke for years and years – that’s a common theme. the movie i saw in hong kong was all about learning kung fu through buliding scaffolding. none of that here, but i bring it up just cause you get a different culture’s sense of humor.

and the benny hill aspect i don’t mind. some might say that the fight scenes aren’t as well done as the matrix type fight scenes. but i don’t mind that. if anything, i appreciate it more. they aren’t pretending to be real – they say – we’re fake and we’re enjoying it. not that we’re trying to fool you with our special effects. it’s like fire and water in animation – i respect the people who pour years of their lives into making it more realistic – i know it ain’t easy. but it still looks bad. and bothers me for some reason. it must be frustrating how hard it is to trick the brain. how you can see models and realize that the scale is off because the waves aren’t the right size somehow. but not be able to articulate why. it just feels wrong. very hard to improve on that.

i’m not saying the actors/stunt people aren’t athletic – but its got more of a low budget film feel than a matrix type movie and they aren’t quite as skilled as jackie chan. but i have not seen a kung fu movie with a fairy in it. and that was kind of fun too.

kind of an ‘el mariachi’ movie feel to it – before rodriguez what tainted by the tarantino money. but chinese based instead of mexican. maybe if i watched both movies side by side – i’d learn a bt more about myself and my heritage. maybe not. but i’d enjoy myself either way.

update: if you want a real review though, goto my favorite critic – it got 3 out of 5 fingers – though he usually tells the whole story and if you don’t like that, you’re better off just going to the movie first, then reading the review afterwards. at least that’s what i do if i want to see the movie – i’ll read his review afterwards…like i just did. this review seems to have a lot of typos in it – not up to par with his usual stuff…and quite distant from my favorite review of his.