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OFCS Rating: 90% Fresh |
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B- | "Simple ideas resound the loudest in Hustle, never the overtly choreographed fights or blistering visual effects. Chow is at his best when it’s just him to contend with." |
| FilmJerk.com |
| Brian Orndorf |
| "The first thing you see in this rock'em-sock'em kung fu picture is a butterfly." |
| PopMatters |
| Cynthia Fuchs |
82/100 | "Simultaneously and paradoxically irreverent and loving. A terrific piece of cinematic entertainment" |
| Cinemania |
| Dan Jardine |
5/5 | "Imagine a Jackie Chan movie on amphetamines and steroids with an LSD chaser, and you get some idea of what Stephen Chow’s new movie Kung Fu Hustle is like." |
| eFilmCritic.com |
| Dan Lybarger |
4/5 | " It’s an explosion of solid silly fun." |
| eFilmCritic.com |
| David Cornelius |
B | "A brilliant kung fu "nonsense style" special effects action/comedy film." |
| Ozus' World Movie Reviews |
| Dennis Schwartz |
| "Avoids the slickness and self-congratulatory winks of many other comic action films." |
| ReelTalk Movie Reviews |
| Donald J. Levit |
3/4 | "Like Shaolin Soccer, the film is positively insane, a genre-defying spectacle of postmodern signs colliding at rates seemingly faster than the speed of light." |
| Slant Magazine |
| Ed Gonzalez |
A | "Wildly funny and inventive, a giddy re-imagining of martial-arts flicks that might be one of the most audaciously entertaining films of the year." |
| EricDSnider.com |
| Eric D. Snider |
B | "In the end what Chow has here is a good gag, not, as he seems to think, a genre." |
| Film Blather |
| Eugene Novikov |
3/4 | "Joyfully chaotic and impishly outrageous, Kung Fu Hustle has a schizophrenic imagination in the way it insists on presenting its wacky charm" |
| Movie Eye |
| Frank Ochieng |
C+ | "As an exercise in craftsmanship it's certainly a success, but in the end it offers lots of sound and fury but not a great deal else." |
| One Guy's Opinion |
| Frank Swietek |
3.5/4 | "...like a smorgasbord of high-pitched artistry and homages..." |
| eCinemaCenter.com |
| Gabe Leibowitz |
B- | "With everything bigger and grander in Chow's singular universe, it's easy to overlook one small detail...that Kung Fu Hustle is less satisfying than its predecessors." |
| Mixed Reviews |
| Gabriel Shanks |
3/4 | "Viewers will discover that the film has something to offer nearly everyone, whether they are a novice or a black belt in kung fu cinema." |
| ReelViews |
| James Berardinelli |
3/4 | "a maniacally comical blitzkrieg of slapstick humor, movie parody, musical numbers, and chop-socky action" |
| Q Network Film Desk |
| James Kendrick |
| "It is everything KILL BILL wanted to be, but actually wasn’t." |
| Movie Gurus |
| James O'Ehley |
4/5 | "Stephen Chow's pure, pop blast of martial arts action, giddy physical comedy and sheer movie love bursts off the screen." |
| Netflix |
| James Rocchi |
4/4 | "A deep river of imagination flows through Stephen Chow’s indiscriminate fairy tale." |
| Palo Alto Weekly |
| Jeanne Aufmuth |
9/10 | "Chow knows what his audience wants, and what that audience wants appears to be utter comedic insanity." |
| Window to the Movies |
| Jeffrey Chen |
| "It may be premature, as we’re only four months into 2005, but I’m going to go out on a limb and call Kung Fu Hustle the funniest movie of the year." |
| Pajiba |
| Jeremy C. Fox |
8/10 | "One thing’s for sure, if you love cartoons, martial arts, humor and fun…this flick’s for you." |
| JoBlo's Movie Emporium |
| JoBlo |
| "Stephen Chow masterfully blends and bends genres like no other, and Hustle is no exception." |
| Planet Sick-Boy |
| Jon Popick |
3/5 | "Not so much hustle, a lot of kung fu, and a surreal cartoon ride inbetween." |
| Cinerina |
| Karina Montgomery |
3/4 | "As... Shawn of the Dead did for zombie pictures, Kung Fu Hustle does for chop sockey: both honor and spoof the genre that spawned it." |
| MovieCrypt.com |
| Kevin A. Ranson |
B+ | "inspired silliness at 100 mph" |
| Reeling Reviews |
| Laura Clifford |
3/5 | "You don't have to be a kung-fu freak to revel in the film's energetic silliness, but it helps." |
| TV Guide's Movie Guide |
| Maitland McDonagh |
B | "Part live action cartoon, part love letter to the cinema, Kung Fu Hustle is one of a kind." |
| Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
| Mark Pfeiffer |
8/10 | "The supreme battles are brushed away by the ultimate battles and the ultimate battles are pushed aside by even more absolute battles." |
| rec.arts.movies.reviews |
| Mark R. Leeper |
2/4 | "An entertaining cartoon, but if there is anything more to it than that, it gets lost in translation" |
| Movie Habit |
| Marty Mapes |
| "[C]ompletely pointless except as a silly diversion... and that, when you need to check out from the all-too-palpable insanity of the real world... is a very good thing." |
| Flick Filosopher |
| MaryAnn Johanson |
3.5/4 | "Stephen Chow is a nut--and I mean it with the utmost affection." |
| Mr. Brown's Movies |
| Michael Dequina |
3/4 | "The fighting scenes are so ridiculous that they ultimately achieve gloriousness...Kung Fu Hustle sweeps you away with its unrepentant silliness." |
| Aisle Seat |
| Mike McGranaghan |
4/5 | "Absurd insanity that would make even Jackie Chan gasp" |
| Filmcritic.com |
| Nick Schager |
4/5 | "Dono de um senso de humor interessantíssimo, Stephen Chow recorre constantemente ao absurdo para provocar o riso do espectador." |
| Cinema em Cena |
| Pablo Villaca |
5/5 | "Brilliantly original and very highly recommended." |
| Film Threat |
| Phil Hall |
3.5/5 | "Not only is it hilariously funny, but it's also a fiendishly entertaining (albeit somewhat cartoonish) action movie." |
| Shadows on the Wall |
| Rich Cline |
B+ | "Equal parts Chuck Jones, Buster Keaton, Bubsy Berkeley and Bruce Lee, Kung Fu Hustle tows every line perfectly." |
| TheFilmJournal.com (Ohio) |
| Rick Curnutte |
5/5 | "The laws of physics no longer apply, if they ever did; characters leap, run at neck-breaking speed, bash each other through several walls with one blow." |
| eFilmCritic.com |
| Rob Gonsalves |
B+ | "A film that is not only very entertaining, but also emotionally satisfying for a broad international audience." |
| Laramie Movie Scope |
| Robert Roten |
B+ | "There is so much slapstick humor, so many comic book like characters and outrageous special effects that Kung Fu Hustle should easily cross demographics" |
| Reeling Reviews |
| Robin Clifford |
4.5/5 | "Imagine a movie in which Wile E. Coyote, Jackie Chan and The Three Stooges share top billing. That's Kung Fu Hustle." |
| eFilmCritic.com |
| Scott Weinberg |
B+ | "Chow packs a lot of action, a crazed cascade of comedy, a parade of characters and a non-stop barrage of loving jabs at classic martial-arts adventures into 99 minutes." |
| Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
| Sean Axmaker |
3/4 | "Rockets forward on creative sparks of pure adrenaline and excitement we rarely find outside of carnival rides." |
| Charlotte Weekly |
| Sean O'Connell |
6/10 | "While it needs emotional coherence and better timing, it offers manic, madcap, wacky, over-the-top kung-fu justice." |
| Modamag.com |
| Susan Granger |
3/4 | "A delirious-verging-on-surreal send-up of Kung Fu attitudes and traditions mutated with a Tex Avery cartoon." |
| Film Freak Central |
| Walter Chaw |
2.5/4 | ""Hustle" attempts to bring a different style to the forefront of popular cinema but fails to be more than a shoddy mischaracterization of the Asian culture." |
| Oscar Guy |
| Wesley Lovell |
| "Click here to see review" |
| Wolf Entertainment Guide |
| William Wolf |
2.5/4 | Read review |
| Big Picture Big Sound |
| Joe Lozito |
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OFCS Rating: 90% Fresh |
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