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It makes sense that the writer-director-comedian Stephen Chow might want to defuse expectations after the epic insanity of Kung Fu Hustle, and also that he would — like so many comedians before him — try to scrunch his hyper, elastic goofiness into a children’s story. Which, I guess, is how we arrive at CJ7, in which a poor man (Chow) and his son Dicky (Xu Jiao) discover an alien pet/toy hybrid: E.T., the Extra Pokemon. Chow hasn’t domesticated, exactly: much of CJ7 is in keeping with his Looney Tunes sensibility. This includes plenty of full-force digressions: Dicky’s schoolyard rivals are often hilarious, and when the creature briefly displays problem-solving skills worthy of Bugs Bunny himself, the film seems to be mounting an extended parody of the base wish-fulfillment common to live-action kid pictures. I say “seems” because the exact mixture of fantasy, spoof and sentiment may only be known to the filmmaker. The right audience feels equally elusive: kids might not be able to keep up with the subtitles, Chow fans may be disappointed by his relatively straight role, and the E.T. crowd probably won’t be wiping their eyes. For the moment, Chow’s imagination has gotten the better of him.
Opens March 7
Opens March 7
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