03.07.08
Review: CJ7
Stephen Chow once again stretches his comedic acting chops in another CGI laden film that blends together his edgy writing and penchant need to go over the top. This time with an E.T. tale almost so cute that the films heaviest moments are a welcome change of pace in order to maintain a steady balance between the overly sweet and moderately sour. Its hard not to mention Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, as those are his two most popular films in America. Unfortunately I get the feeling we are seeing an over reliance on special effects when Chow at times lets them take over his films in order to claim box office gold over seas.
CJ7 has a very simple family friendly premise: Ti (Chow) is a poor but hard working father who struggles to get his son, Dicky, even the simplest of things; such as a fan for those hot summer nights or a pair of new sneakers for gym class. Everything changes when Ti discovers a tiny egg sac, that he mistakes for a toy, that turns out to be a cute alien life form that amounts to a big eyed dog creature that would easily come out of a Hello Kitty factory. Don’t get me wrong CJ7 is adorable and will insight many “awwws” from its audience but purely on the most superficial level since it really doesn’t have much of a personality like say E.T.
Chow has a knack for taking popular genres and turning them on their heads and then once again spinning them around so they become completely unaware of what genre they were in the first place. CJ7 doesn’t stray too far from its family film roots but Chow fans should find enough edgy humor and surprisingly sad moments to authenticate what would have been an otherwise purely studio film. CJ7 is obviously designed to sell plenty of toys, it’s adorable eyes and funny faces are a seed of consumerism planted into the heads of every child that will sit down in front of this film. Not so much so in America seeing as Sony Pictures Classics decided to release this film with little to no advertising. Even the screening I attended had no reserved seats for critics and was barely even filled to capacity which is rare considering how may folks in New York City are always up for a free movie screening.
The film offers a little bit of everything even if it all feels slightly under developed. Many questions are left unanswered for possible sequels. Stephen Chow does manage to breathe some dimensionality into Ti, who is a stern father that loves his son but doesn’t pull punches about their situation. The two of them are poor but in a far more “cartoon” kind of poor where Dicky comes to school with dirt on his face, something I don’t think any of us have ever witnessed. Poor or not everyone can wash their face in the morning before going to school. I admit I succumbed to CJ7’s cute antics and Dicky could give Jaden Smith a run for his money but theirs not much here to warrant you running to your local theater (if its even playing near you) to check it out.
2.5/5
