I Want a CJ7!

I spend more time talking about bad movies then good ones; partly because I like to complain, and partly because if a movies good, then chances are you already know it because everyone else is talking about it, so why bother saying what's already been said?

Earlier this week, I finally got around to watching CJ7, and thought it was worthy of a blog--mostly because no one else is talking about it. Stephen Chow is one of the most original writers/directors in cinema today in my opinion, but he is also pretty unknown to most of the United States. Most people stateside only know him for Kung Fu Hustle and perhaps Shaolin Soccer, which is a shame, because he has so many other movies. 

CJ7 came out last summer (2008), and received average reviews. It made less then $300,000 in the United States, but over $40,000,000 overseas (mostly Asia), which just shows how big Chow is elsewhere. This was mostly because only 30 movies in the U.S. bothered to show the movie. I'm not going to say it was one of the best movies I've seen in awhile, but it was certainly better then a lot of other movies that got much bigger releases, and it deserved far more coverage.

I think part of the problem with the movie is it was a PG family flick, and Hollywood figures kids are too dumb to want to see a movie from another country even if it's dubbed (perhaps they are right?). But the little furry star of the movie, CJ7, would have got any kid interested because he is so darn cute.

The movie is about a poor father who is trying to raise his son to be virtuous; his son is a bit of a misfit, and is always getting into trouble. One night, his father discovers an alien critter in the trash and takes it home to his son as a toy. Throughout the course of the movie, the father and son form a bond in part because of the foreign creature.

The movies plot is zany and weird, but that's sort of Chow's style. It didn't have the humor of his best movie, Shaolin Soccer (if you haven't seen it, then do yourself a favor and rent it), but it was nonetheless sweet and worthy of more attention then it got. 

It also left my wife and I wondering where we can get a CJ7; they are way better then dogs!

Kentucky Fry This

Spoof movies aren’t what they used to be. I had a chuckle or two during some of the Scream movies, but not as much as I did during Airplane or even Naked Gun.

For quite sometime, I just thought I had grown out of them—that spoof movies were the same as they have ever been, but you have to be in seventh grade to the enjoy the humor of them.

I recently watched the Zucker Brother’s first movie Kentucky Fried Movie, and was reassured that indeed my taste have not changed, rather spoof movies have just gone from bad to worse.

What makes this spoof movie so great and so many others like it so horrible? The same thing that made The Simpsons season 1-11 great, and seasons 11 and onward just okay…it all comes down to originality. FYI, The Simpsons used to be great, but now I think they just copy themselves and redo episodes and themes they explored long ago—maybe if they spent some time investing in real writing talent (also the creator of the show is a jerk; I saw him at a book festival a few years back, and asked for his autograph; he let out a sigh and said, “If I sign for you, I’ll have to sign for everyone”…I pointed out that there was no one near us and I was the only one who recognized him, but he ignored me and walked away.)

Spoof movies are making fun of something that’s been done—how do you make that original? It’s definitely not plot; these movies have plots so horrible it’s funny. What they do so great is they don’t make fun of the obvious.

Kentucky Fried Movie is basically a spoof on pop culture; more specifically, seventies pop culture. It really has absolutely no plot—it’s just a bunch of vignettes that are only sometimes connected. At the core of the movie is a movie within a movie that is quite possibly the worse kung-fu movie ever made.

So when you’re tired of watching spoofs about gladiator movies and end of the world movies, return to the classics and give this one a shot. And when you’re done, re-watch Airplane and reminisce about the good old days.