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Kung Fu Killer
Originally released as a two-part, three-hour movie for the cable TV channel Spike, Kung Fu Killer's US home video release has been pared down to ninety minutes. The shorter cut unfortunately still doesn't address Kung Fu Killer's main problem -- it gets pretty damn boring at times. At first blush, Kung Fu Killer seems to hold some promise. While the director, Philip Spink, really has nothing of note on his resume, the vast majority of the crew are experienced personnel from Hong Kong and China, including the action director, Wi Lei, who worked on productions like Hero and House of Flying Daggers. There's a similar situation acting-wise, with the white leads (David Carradine and Darryl Hannah) being supported by a solid cast of locals such as Cheng Pei-Pei and Anya. Throw in a healthy dose of violence and gore, and you would think that Kung Fu Killer could at least deliver some fun cheesy post-bar viewing material. So what goes wrong? Like I said above, Kung Fu Killer does threaten to hit the snooze button during its' running time. The pacing is all over the map, and there's plenty of scenes included here that probably made more sense in the full version, but here only serve to drag down the story -- the sub-plots about Carradine's student defending a village and romancing a girl being prime examples.
And did we really need three drunken karaoke style musical numbers from Darryl Hannah? If you want to see old-timey songs performed on-screen in a good way, go check out Anita Mui in Miracles. As for the action, despite the copious amounts of bodily fluids and organs spurted forth, most of the excitement is drained out by an editing style that favors the too close, too shaky, and too quick style far too many productions seem to favor after the success of the Bourne films. I could highlight other things, such as Carradine being called a "gwai lo", a Cantonese term for a foreigner. This would be fine if the movie was set in Hong Kong, where that dialect is spoken, but Kung Fu Killer takes place in Shanghai, where they would be speaking in Mandarin. Actually, I'm not even sure the movie takes place in Shanghai, since Kung Fu Killer isn't exactly bent on historical and cultural accuracy. The movie is supposed to be in the 1920's, but more modern dress and machinery is clearly seen throughout. And, as you might expect, everyone speaks in a mix of Chinese and English, but can still understand each other just fine. Ah, screw it. Just trying to make Kung Fu Killer into something cohesive in my head is bringing on a migraine. The bottom line here is that Kung Fu Killer isn't the worst movie ever made, and in fact, it does have some good elements, but the film doesn't really warrant any more effort to see it than catching a late-night cable showing, or maybe (like this reviewer) on instant Netflix. RATING: 4.5 |
