Movie Review: CJ7
By Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune Movie Critic
1-1/2 stars
Hong Kong filmmaker and actor Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle," his fourth feature, introduced Chow to a wide international audience and won over many new fans of his zero-gravity martial arts slapstick - bloody but, to some tastes, bracing.
Chow's latest, the determinedly cuddly "E.T." homage "CJ7," has made about half as much money globally as "Kung Fu Hustle." For good reason: It's only half as fun, if that. I don't doubt the man's talent. With this one, though, I doubt his story sense and his borderline-insane mixture of tones. One second someone's suffering a horrible construction-site accident, but it's set up like a sight gag, so you think, well, maybe it'll come off, and then the next second, the victim's in the hospital, near death. And then you get a cute alien interlude. And then you get another fat-kid joke. And then you're meant to feel bad about being set up to laugh at the overweight preteen.
Chow stars as a poverty-line construction worker who spends each paycheck on the education of his young son, Dicky (played by the female Xu Jiao). Dicky must cope with a horrendous school bully named Storm Dragon, who clearly got ahold of a pirated DVD copy of "Drillbit Taylor" before anyone else in his province. Surrounded by privileged little jerks for classmates, Dicky longs for the coolest new toy on the market, a robotic dog by the brand name of CJ1. His father can't afford it, but into their humble lives comes an alien fuzzball from outer space. Dicky nicknames it CJ7. It's quick on its alien feet, like Bruce Lee. It's pliable, like "Flubber." And "CJ7" is roughly as grating as that "Flubber" remake.
MPAA rating: PG (for language, thematic material, some rude humor and brief smoking).
Running time: 1:26.
Opening: Friday.
Starring: Stephen Chow (Ti); Xu Jiao (Dicky); Kitty Zhang (Miss Yuen).
Directed by Stephen Chow; written by Chow, Vincent Kok, Tsang Kan Cheong, Sandy Shaw Lai-King, Fung Chih Chiang and Lam Fung; photographed by Poon Hang Sang; edited by Angie Lam; music by Raymond Wong; production design by Oliver Wong; produced by Chow, Chui Po Chu and Han San Ping. In Cantonese with English subtitles. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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