While this shares some of the wonderful sense of the surreal and absurd that made Chow's 2008 "Kung Fu Hustle" a true classic comedy spoof of marshal arts films, it's nowhere near as consistent or as inventive in it's comedy. There are some real laughs, but also some serious dead spots and too-easy jokes in this tale of a bunch of once Shaolin trained Kung Fu masters giving up their hum-drum and largely unsuccessful work-a-day lives to team up and become the mightiest soccer playing force the world has ever seen.
Or are they? Team Evil is waiting to take them on in the $1 million soccer tournament.
Good-hearted and original enough to be worth seeing once, but unlike it's even wilder and smarter descendant I can't imagine feeling a need to go back and see it again, or to own it. If that later film is like a Hong Kong action Monty Python film, this one is more Three Stooges.
Or are they? Team Evil is waiting to take them on in the $1 million soccer tournament.
Good-hearted and original enough to be worth seeing once, but unlike it's even wilder and smarter descendant I can't imagine feeling a need to go back and see it again, or to own it. If that later film is like a Hong Kong action Monty Python film, this one is more Three Stooges.