After breaking box office records and nabbing six awards - including Best Picture - in Hong Kong, Stephen Chow Sing-chi's Kung Fu Hustle has made its way to the United States. It opened in Los Angeles and New York last Friday.
But while the Hong Kong press could not praise Chow's comedy enough, the Americans - although they are in the midst of kung-fu mania these days - had mixed feelings about the film.
David Germain of the Associated Press gave the film two out of four stars and criticised it for 'lacking a strong human element'.
He called it 'one long gag reel, a visual marvel with no dramatic payoff'.
The New York Times' A.O. Scott said: 'For all its punches, kicks, whacks and thumps, the movie does not have much impact, and for all its affectionate nostalgia, it produces a strange kind of amnesia.'
Other reviewers had a better time at the film.
