Kung Fu on Sale (1979)

How sad is this?

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

"Kung Fu on Sale" (1979) is a pretty good movie (6/10) IF you enjoy the earlier martial arts genre. If you are not a fan of martial arts & kung fu flicks, you probably won't appreciate this film. I would suggest watching more popular martial arts movies... when you develop a taste of the genre, return and check this one out for historical reasons.As with many of the kung fu films I have seen, "Kung Fu on Sale" follows a person on their path to learning a martial art. In terms of artistry, the dubbing is entertaining in how horrible it is. The poor voice acting and western "hoedown" music adds to the silly nature of this already half-comedy.I would equate this to a B-level Jackie Chan early years movie.This film is slow to start and picks up around the middle. The beginning is full of comedic bits that probably get lost in translation. The physical comedy is more of a sad-trombone music style that isn't laugh out loud funny. What balances this movie in general is the comedy, action, story and morals rolled up into one.Morals presented in the movie include the power of family, money vs dreams & practicing moderation.Not bad for a 1979 movie I have never heard of.

A very ultra low-budget martial arts film. I did not recognize anyone in this supposedly action/comedy film. It was so frustrating to see the main guy (our hero a Jackie Chan wannabe) get beat up time and time again. It wasn't until his own grandfather taught him some skills , was he able to defend himself somewhat. But by then you don't care. Interesting use of sample music from other films though.The grandfather scenes, reminded me of Jackie Chan's Drunken Master. very well done and nicely paced. Plus somewhat funny. The main guy looked a little to old to be playing the hero in this one. I'm into the martial arts, so I was gonna watch this regardless.

ej's kung-fu capsule review for films of the chop-socky old-school - 1. basic plot type - young man comes of kung-fu age 2. plot construction - pretty good 3. dramatic - okay 4. funny - sometimes 5. dialog - not too bad 6. cast performance - pretty good all around 7. crew performance - solid 8. amount of fighting - fair amount 9. quality of fighting - okay 10. special any cast or crew notes - appears to be a transitional film for director Joseph kuo, made roughly at same time as the superior 'cavalier' 11. big positive - rarely dull 12. big negative - annoying leading actor who looks too old for the part bottom-line - who should see this movie - a solid martial-arts entertainment for any seeking such

As one of my first ventures into old style, dubbed Kung Fu movies, this was very entertaining. I was expecting some hilariously bad movie, however I was pleasantly surprised about how well it was put together. It should show many critics that you do not need big budgets to make an entertaining film. Yet, on the flip side I guess it goes to show that to make a movie that can create a buzz, it will probably be need to have a larger budget. (Just look at _Gigli_, it was worse than this movie but had a much higher budget)The direction is stereotypical for this genre or sub-genre of film. The comedy, of course, is on the slapstick side--but it achieves its purpose for a kung fu movie. Outside of it being a rather stereotypical attempt for this genre, I would recommend it others and have--but good luck finding a copy, but I have found it on DVD.