Rating: 
Summary: What a GREAT MOVIE!!
Review: Well, judging from the reviews, I'm not the only one that thought this was a great movie! It might not be like other movies that you're used to, but if you should see a foreign comedy from Hong Kong, this is it. We first saw it at the Comic-Con in San Diego in 2002 and have since bought the VCD. We've been waiting forever for it to come out in theaters and now it is going to be released on March 26th! It's a great story about how underdogs can beat the odds and really kick ass. It also has a lot of cool effects and so many funny moments in the movie. If you go to see this movie (and you really should give it a try!), remember not to take anything too seriously and just get ready to laugh and cheer for the underdog team. It's being released in subtitles though, but the trailer is dubbed and also when we saw it, it was dubbed. The subtitled version is good too! People might think this is a weird movie (Chinese comedy about soccer and martial arts??) but it really does have a great story and great characters. Watch this movie with your friends!
Rating:
Summary: Old skool w/ new skool
Review: This movie is actually a bit old to me. I saw about 2yrs ago when the DVD was released in HK/Asia. It's scheduled to be released in US theatres which I am strongly against since they will give it bad dubbing and a horrible soundtrack (Kung Fu fighting?). DO NOT WATCH IT IN US THEATRES. JUST DON'T. PERIOD. Foreign movies need to be kept in their original language and soundtrack. This changes EVERYTHING if you try to watch it in dubbed. Subtitles isn't even noticeable once you get used to it. As for the movie, brilliant and hilarious.
It's got the spaghetti western feel to it along with the old skool kung fu flick then throw in todays technology.
People who hate wire work and unrealistic fighting effects will probably abhor it.
The movie does start out a little slow but once the main part takes effect, you can't wait to see which poor soccer team they play next. The goalie scenes are the best.
They should've kept one of those outtakes.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie!!
Review: This movie is great!!! GREAT!!! It will not drastically alter the way you think about the world, BUT IT IS INSANELY ENTERTAINING! Its the kind of movie that leaves you feeling excited and happy about the world. I don't know how else to explain it. Do whatever you have to to see this movie!!
Rating: 
Summary: Good but uneven
Review: I found this DVD title at my local New York Public Library branch and was intrigued by the title and also I vaguely remembered a trailer I saw in theaters last spring or summer. First thing I noticed about the movie was how much better the print is compared to the typical Hong Kong flick. Most HK films are grainy and greenishly dark, plus they are edited in weird ways. (Admitted I haven't seen many HK movies but the ones I've seen always made me feel motionsick afterwards.) The visuals on this film, on the other hand, are clean and well-balanced, with good color tones, albeit a bit high on the orange/yellow side. The storyline is interesting but uneven at places. The first hour of the 100-minute film is about how the players come together to form the team, and then the final match for the rest of the film. There are a lot of funny moments, but also some jokes that could baffle a Western viewer. Furthermore, there's a lot of oblique references to homosexuality, such as when the fat boy eats his precious chicken eggs off the stockbroker guy, and an unnecessarily excessive amount of male leg exposes. A few scenes are superfluous and make the first half boring at times (e.g., the bar scene). The movie is dominated by computer-generated special effects. A "making of" featurette reveals much of the action was filmed with blue screens. But I have to say the effects are quite good, and more refreshing than the stuff put out by Hollywood these days. Most of the human-computer action sequences are well spliced together and therefore enjoyable. Overall, Shaolin Soccer is an enjoyable film for every comedy fan, but especially for the martial arts and soccer crowds. The HK version I saw feels uneven in many places, maybe that's why the U.S. theatrical release has been pushed back again and again. Whether you rent it or borrow it from the library, it's a worthwhile movie to watch.
Rating:
Summary: The King of Comedy's finest work.
Review: Words fail me when trying to describe this movie to those who have not been fortunate enough to see it. Imagine if the Matrix took place inside an 8-bit NES Super Dodge Ball cartridge, or if "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" were crossbred with "Solarbabies." Stephen Chow, the director and star of this film, is a comedic genius on the level of David Cross during the Mr. Show days, or Ben Stiller at his top cinematic form (Mystery Men, for example). In it, he plays an ever-optimistic kung-fu student who is desperately trying to reintroduce the ancient arts to a jaded world of cellphones and jetliners. A chance meeting with a once-famous soccer star, now elderly and crippled, sets up the plot for one of the most well-executed and hilarious kung-fu movies of all time: the two conspire to combine kung-fu with soccer, creating a nigh-invincible team of superhumans. This was obviously Chow's largest budget movie to date, as the special effects are on par with American films, but even without that extra boost the story would carry on just as well as it does in his other films (such as "God of Cookery"). I won't try to explain any further, as my pithy language skills could never do justice to the ever-increasingly preposterous scenes they would attempt to describe -- instead, I'll simply say: see it, and see it now!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly Funny
Review: This is a great movie for those who want to have a mind-numbing moment with soccer, special effects, good humour, and why not, man's greatest invention: football!
Rating: 
Summary: Read this, then decide
Review: This was to be a present for my 3 soccer-playing children; they saw the trailers for the American PG release, but we didn't get a chance to see it in theaters. I decided NOT to let the two younger children watch this DVD after previewing it with my sensitive 13-year-old.
This DVD version is subtitled (very poorly i.e. "kick the soccer" referring to the soccer BALL, etc., and some of the translation doesn't make any sense.) There is a lot of footage of adults grovelling at the feet of bad-guys and taking a lot of (depressing) abuse. There are smokers, drunks, and the "Evil Team" soccer players are injected with HUGE amounts of drug to be powerful.
There is some humor, but not enough. The good parts are at the very end in the soccer tournament; the Shaolin-style is fun to watch, like in "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon".
This may be your thing, but I didn't know what I was getting, so I wanted to make sure others do!
Rating:
Summary: One of the funniest martial arts movies ever made!
Review: What more can I say but get this movie. It had me laughing so hard! Great effects and action scenes! Buy this movie and see it before it comes out chopped up in the theaters!
Rating:
Summary: FUNNY! But stick to the Chinese version..
Review: Very funny! One of the funniest in my book. The US version is to be heavily edited. Do yourselves a favor and watch the original Chinese version the way it was meant to be seen!
Rating:
Summary: Just watch it!!!
Review: A movie about tradition, dignity, and beauty. Sometimes we need to be reminded of what is truly important in the world; this movie does just that! Just watch it!!!
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