TheRetroCritic

Stephen Chow takes on the world of acting in this typically goofy comedy about a clumsy but driven extra and his struggles to make it big in movies and doesn't disappoint. Although this isn't quite as cartoonish an outing as we've come to expect from Chow there's still plenty of silliness to enjoy. Watch out for a dramatic death scene involving gross dangling nose fluid and a shameless, cockroach-loving prostitute. There's also a fun Jackie Chan cameo and repeated piss-takes of overblown John Woo-style thrillers complete with gun face-offs, black trenchcoats, flying doves and churches. The film gradually grows a heart and introduces a promising romance between a young "club girl" and Chow's character but when a big name actress gives Chow the role of his life the film loses confidence and takes an odd sudden turn. The third act turns into some kind of dark cop thriller and a lot of the romance is washed over and is left under-developed making the

Mad genius Stephen Chow has a ball in this send-up of cooking contests and turns Iron Chef into a live-action Tex Avery cartoon complete with "pissing beef balls", Shaolin monks and random spontaneous violence. Yes the story is pretty predictable: a Simon Cowell-style harsh TV critic/chef loses everything and goes back to basics to try and get back to being the titular god of cookery. That said, the film is self-aware and pokes fun at every rags-to-riches movie cliché any chance it gets. The humour is pretty childish throughout and the whole thing is undeniably very silly but it's the kind of silliness that's so out-there (think Jackie Chan meets Bugs Bunny) it's just too much fun to dislike. Visually, Chow throws everything at us from ingredients to...clothes (yes, clothes can self-combust in this film) and brings us a vast array of, shall we say, colourful characters? You've got a chubby brown-noser ready to defecate outside elevators at the drop of a