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8/10
This movie was a small bang, not a whimper
19 March 2008
This movie was better than I expected. Really, after all the commotion the Cannes showing caused, I expected this movie to be extremely bad. I'm not going to lie, I gave it an 8 to help encourage more people to see it. It was more a 7 or high 6.

The Rock, Stifler, and Buffy all pulled out some good performances. I really expected it to be worse. Their acting was fine. It was the other side characters that drew some horrible performances. In fact, I'm really surprised Kelly didn't try to put some unknowns or independent film stars in this instead. He basically worked with unknowns in Donnie Darko and that worked out well.

Some of the themes were good. The story itself is actually good. It mirrors extremes of what's going on right now. I applaud him for taking risks.

The dialog leaves much to be desired though. The Baron and his buddies needed to reworked or perhaps they just needed a better Baron. I mean really. That Wallace Shawn should be nothing more than a side character. That was a big role and I got the impression that the director hated this character. It really could've been played better.

Justin Timberlake's narrating was obviously making up for the shortcomings. There were a lot of good ideas, but using someone to explain it to the audience made up like 30% of the movie. I'm not sure if there was a better way since he it was a big task.

SNL comedians, have to go. Seriously. I don't need to elaborate, watch the movie.

Otherwise, I liked the movie. I think there was some good imagery in it. There's lots of areas where you can see brilliance trying to rear it's head out. Perhaps Kelly didn't hit it with this movie, but he had the right idea. Had he fine tuned it, perhaps had a producer that kept him in line, this movie would've satisfied all fans.
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10/10
The best worst Kung Fu movie ever
15 February 2006
Warning: Spoilers
You really have to give it to these guys. The copy I saw was called "Bruce Lee's Secret" starring Bruce Li. Gotta love that. This is perhaps the best rip off of Bruce Lee, not because it's well made, but because it's so bad you can't but help to laugh. Bruce Li (or Bob Lee) takes on the entire kung fu school and yet no one can take him out. They should have never of insulted him at the restaurant.

You have wonder, for a place like San Francisco, they could have used more locations than the wharf and some grassy valley (those mountains look great in the background), probably because it was never shot in San Fran nor did it try really hard to convince you it was.

There's a part in the movie where Bruce Li beats up these unruly customers, one of the patrons of the restaurant later appears (like in the next scene) considering giving Bruce Li and his friend a job at HIS restaurant after they got fired from the one he was sitting at in the scene BEFORE! Confusing? Yes, you shouldn't get bogged down in the technicality of everything, this movie is pure comedic gold! Bob's a good guy too. When his roommate talks about doing better for himself in school, Bob tells him to stop with the books. Bob tells him it's better to prove to the world that Chinese aren't wimps. Amazing! The dialog is great too. From Grace talking about the news of his pupils getting their butts kicked spreading all around NY (keep in mind this movie takes place in "San Francisco") to the Bob's boss seeing his workers getting their ass kicked and only giving a very nonchalant "you can handle it after work".

I could go on and on, but why do that when you can watch it yourself?
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Stella (2005)
Wow, hilarious, irreverent, absurd, and surreal
2 July 2005
This show really took me by surprise. It's just so off-the-wall and different that most people don't know how to react to it at first. David Wain is by far the funniest of the trio. It's like they took all the expected cliché sections of movies and sitcoms, then replaced them with craziness and absurdity.

It's really a lot to take in the first time. I don't think this is for everyone, but give it a chance, you may find yourself coming back for more. And anyone who only watched it for 5 minutes and decided to write a review deserves to have their review taken off this site. The jokes are clever and in some cases subtle.
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