Comedy doesn't always travel well, and I admit that many supposedly-funny foreign moviesparticularly those from Chinahave left me scratching my head in confusion. However, being a fan of some of Stephen Chow's earlier work, and with Kung Fu Hustle receiving praise in the West from practically all who have clapped eyes on it, I expected this film to have me laughing uncontrollably from start to finish.

Unfortunately, it didn't, partly because much of Kung Fu Hustle's comedy is based on stale, decades-old routines 'borrowed' from Hollywood's silent comedians and Looney Tunes cartoons, and partly due to the fact that I just didn't understand some of the humour (which I'm guessing is based on cultural references that I am just plain unaware of).

The film also failed to impress me with its martial arts scenes, which have been choreographed to within an inch of their lives by wire-fu expert Yuen Wo-Ping, and then further meddled with by digital artists. The result is extremely cartoonish, and bound to disappoint those who, like me, prefer their fight action to be as bone-crunchingly realistic as possible (Yuen Wah, one of my favourite kung fu stars, is completely wasted).

As far as I am concerned, Kung Fu Hustle works best when it enters the realms of pure fantasy, such as the scene when three fighters do battle with a pair of evil assassins armed with a magical musical weapon, or the bit when when one character uses her incredible vocal powers to defeat the enemy; it is these visionary moments that are the most entertaining parts of the film, and if there had been more of this kind of stuff and less in the way of silly slapstick, I'd be rating this film a lot higher.