Kung fu producer, director, writer and star Stephen Chow brings a stylized and exaggerated element to "Kung Fu Hustle" that undoubtedly reaches out to a Western audience. The film is an homage to decades of kung fu movie history but it embraces CGI and moves beyond traditional fight choreography.

In the film a wannabe Chinese gangster played by Chow gets the slum where he lives in trouble with the notorious Axe Gang (think the "Kill Bill" Crazy 88s with hatchets) by posing as an Axe Gang member. To fend off the Axe Gang, several villagers from the slum turn out to be kung fu masters, even the fat landlady and her bumbling husband. The Axe Gang retaliates by hiring seasoned killers to take them out.

"Kung Fu Hustle" is comical and action heavy, often times even comically action-heavy. It isn't violent in the "Kill Bill" sense, but nearly in the cartoonish sense, with characters chasing each other and their legs gyrating like the Roadrunner. Chow brings that cheesy '70s kung- fu sense of humor and mixes it in with the special effects martial arts of today's era. There's as much slow motion fighting as you'll see in "The Matrix" trilogy.

Chow is a good director, bringing a variety of skills as both an action and comedy director. He knows how to balance the two to amusing effect. He knows how to surprise us with comedic timing but also exactly what makes us think "ooh, cool." Instead of gore, he manages the effect of gruesome violence without showing it by great set up and then cutting away at the last second.

Sometimes the style is too forced or the humor too cheesy, but this is a very unique action movie with silly characters from the kung fu tradition, not the glamorous look of films such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and "Hero." This is one of those action movies with misfits, not serious heroes with something to prove.

Though Chow has yet to follow up "Kung Fu Hustle," he might be talented enough to bridge the Western world with the art of the Chinese (not American) kung fu movie in a way that hasn't been done since Bruce Lee, praying on our love for stylish and glitzy action. With a better budget, the CGI could be done to better effect and even the stunts too.