Flying Monkey Dragon Crane Ninja Lightning Kick

I saw a trailer for Shaolin Soccer back... oh, over a year ago. It was on some tape I'd rented, and it hooked me into the movie. Apparently, this action/comedy had set quite a buzz on the Chinese circuit (which, having seen some of their "great" films, I can't always say is a selling point), and was eventually planned for release here in the states.

Now, if you haven't seen any trailers for it before, you could probably at least guess that with a name like "Shaolin Soccer," the movie wasn't going to be that serious an affair... and it's not. But we'll get to all that.

Here's the in movie skinny. Golden Leg was a great soccer player back in the day. But he threw a game, got beaten up by an angry mob, and ended up a cripple with aspirations of greatness. He worked for the owner/coach of Team Evil, which, as you can tell, are bad guys. Aside from Golden Leg, there's also Steel Leg, who is a Shaolin Monk living in China as a bum. He wants to make Shaolin style Kung Fu famous and eventually make a ton of money.

It all comes together when Golden Leg and Steel Leg team up and make a Shaolin soccer team.

It's a crazy concept, but hey, it works to move the plot along and throw in lots of crazy action. Be warned though, if you aren't much for obvious CG and wire-work being mixed into kung fu action, this aint the flick for you.

Now, there is a bunch of humor in the movie, and most of it works. There are a few gags that don't play well... at least, not for the American crowd. But eh, more misses than hits.

If it seems like I'm not getting too into specifics about all the good things in the flick, it's because I don't want to ruin any of the great gags that go on. I will say this, though, it's a great send up on the kung fu genre, and, more importantly, a great way to waste an hour and a half.