CJ7 Review

There are no spoilers in this review.

PLOT: A poor Chinese laborer learns important lessons after his son gets a strange new toy.

THE GOOD: CGI. I've been quite impressed with the special effects in Stephen Chow's previous movies. They're much better than most of the stuff coming out of Hong Kong these days. CJ7 is no different and has some of the best visuals effects ever done in his films. There are also some shots that looked quite difficult to animate over, like petting CJ7's hair. While the effects aren't as frequent as Shaolin Soccer or Kung Fu Hustle, they're still up to par. Keep in mind that the CGI is not going to be as good as Hollywood's quality, but foreign films are not getting as much of a budget as most Hollywood films.

Main characters. While I had issues with the story, I felt that we really got to know the two protagonists, the father and son, really well. This is accomplished easily with Chow's attention to detail.

Jiao Xu. Jiao Xu plays the son and I think she did a wonderful job. Catch that? That's right... "she." Jiao Xu is a girl, but plays a boy in this movie. I hope she has a successful future in Hong Kong cinema.


THE BAD: Story/Unoriginal. The one thing that makes this movie bad is arguably the most important part of any movie. The kid befriending an alien thing has been done before, again, and again. So, there's no point in me trying to prove how unoriginal the story is. That being said, the story itself seems to shift so much through bizarre tones. First it's about being poor, then it's about acceptance, then it's about loneliness, then it's about friendship, then it's about pride, then it's about family, then it's about... I could really go on for a while. I wonder if it has anything to do with being co-written by five additional people.

Comedy. I enjoy the comedy style of Chow, but this was terrible. I laughed once during the whole thing. The rest of it was slap-stick and poop jokes. One of the main reasons for this was because Stephen Chow did not act like Stephen Chow. Going for a more serious approach is just not his style and it hurt the tone of this movie very much. What happened to the man that was the King of Comedy? Even Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle used brilliant dialogue outside of its slap-stick comedy.


THE END: Right now, I'm kind of looking at CJ7 as Stephen Chow's first mistake as a writer. I love all of his previous movies that I've seen. CJ7 is not very similar to Chow's prior films. I've certainly seen movies of this genre worse than this, but I really could have done without viewing this movie. Don't bother watching this movie until it's completely free on basic cable, if it ever gets that far.


DISCUSS: What Stephen Chow movies have you seen? Did you like them? Do you appreciate Chow's sense of humor? Are you looking forward to Kung Fu Hustle 2?