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OUT OF THE DARK - REVIEW

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Stephen Chow stars in Out Of The Dark , a black comedy from 1995 directed by Jeffrey Lau. He plays a mental patient claiming to be a ghostbuster who decides to train a group of useless security guards to handle some crafty poltergeists. Although he didn't direct this one himself, Out Of The Dark has all the trademarks of a Stephen Chow film from the gross-out humour to the cartoonish slapstick. The film pokes fun at thrillers and horror movies by following a selection of ridiculously clueless characters in a madcap plot that, unapologetically, makes little sense. This is a surprisingly brutal and gory comedy as people stab or shoot each other left and right prompting gallons of blood to gush in every scene. The humour throughout is dark, borderline sadistic at times but also completely juvenile so it's hard to take any of it seriously even when it's at its most violent. The plot, which is slight to say the least, is fully overshadowed by all the over-the-top gags that

KUNG FU HUSTLE - REVIEW

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Along with Shaolin Soccer , cartoonish martial arts movie homage Kung Fu Hustle introduced western audiences to Stephen Chow's films and his uniquely wacky style of humour, leaving people in Europe and the US wondering if all Chinese comedies were THIS insane when, really, this movie was pretty out there even by Chow's standards. Man was it fun, though. The film sees the shady and very dangerous Axe Gang threaten a small village. As it turns out, kung-fu masters secretly live in the village so, when this is revealed, the gang is forced to find new ways to take the place and its inhabitants down. The whole thing escalates and the fate of the village soon rests on whoever "the chosen one" is. As ever, Chow mixes silly, often pretty gross characters with cartoony action sequences and brutal moments. To give you an idea, the film opens with the Axe Gang slicing off someone's leg and shooting some woman in the back with a shotgun. Much like in Chow's Journe

JOURNEY TO THE WEST: CONQUERING THE DEMONS - REVIEW

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Based on the literary classic, Journey To The West: Conquering The Demons is actually a prequel setting up the iconic team of characters we all know and love and how Taoist priest Tang Sanzang (Wen Zhang) got to meet them and, eventually, journey with them. And, since Stephen Chow's in charge (along with co-director Derek Kwok), you can expect a pretty unique take on the familiar tale. To give you an idea, the film opens with a fish demon eating a father Jaws -style in front of his child (with blood spilling in the water) and, soon after, eating the child. From the get-go, this is a brutal, surprisingly dark affair. Which makes the more light-hearted tone of the humour feel quite mean-spirited. In a good way. Parts of this movie could comfortably be part of a horror movie in the vein of The Cell . Think a dark comedy like Delicatessen , with its odd bursts of disturbing moments, but with an omnipresent cartoonish feel. Chow is certainly not sugar-coating anything this time.