I love movies. No really, I looove movies.

My favorite movies of all time are:

#10. North By Northwest

#9.   Do the Right Thing

#8.   Contact

#7.   The Color Purple

#6.   Pulp Fiction

#5. Artificial Intelligence

#4. Platoon

#3. The Wiz - Quincy Jones joint featuring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson before he lost his damn mind.

#2.  City of God - If you haven't seen this movie...see it.

#1. Kung Fu Hustle - The movie that defines life and nature through hilarious charachters and martial arts.



Kung Fu Hustle? You say.


Yes, Kung Fu Hustle.

The movie opens with a  mob boss terrorizing the local police who he evidently has in his pocket. The Boss' vengeance is short lived however, as upon leaving the police station he finds himeself a victim of the up and coming 'Axe-Gang', the new thugs in town.



I won't divulge any more of the film. but I will try to explain how I saw the film as opposed to the many critics who were suffice in trying to critique the movie by comparing it to other films of it's genre as well as Hustle Director Stephen Chow's first film Shaolin Soccer

Most critics missed the point of the movie, which was no matter how good you think that you are, there is always someone better.

In life, the most snug and secure of us are many times those of us who have managed to procure the guilty pleasures and comforts of life. We parade around our homes, cars, clothes, spouses and even faith as status symbols to the rest of the world, always looking to improve our standing on the social ladder of society.

As intangible and fleeting as that social ladder is, many of us cling to it not just to remind the world how how great we think that we are, but even more so to justify our greatness in our own minds.

Yet the most humble of us, those among men who sacrifice the most and own the least are ususally the ones who are more in tune with the ebb and flow of the actual universe as they understand one premise more than most of us; you can't take none of this stuff with you.

When you die they will stick you in the ground and maggots will eventually eat your flesh. Yes, that is true for each and everyone of us that doesn't choose to be cremated. Now, you may sitting at home singing and dreaming of a better place in Heaven, Hell or the next life, but maggots will be chewing on your body here.

In Kung Fu Hustle we watch as levels of so called superior kung fu fighters are humbled, always by individuals who on the surface appeared to be those who possessed the least and as such, were held in disdain.

Eventually the hero turns out to be the individual who has indeed suffered the most and it takes the brutality of evil of the worst kind to launch the hero's inner strength, which allows him to then protect the innocent who have been victims of society's vultures.

While watching China put on a superior artistic display during the opening ceremonies last week, I was thrust into this thought, they did it better than we did in Atlanta.

In fact it's almost a consensus that China's opening ceremony was far and away the best the world has ever seen. Did new technology have a lot to do with it? Yes, but only to a point. The vision and pride of the Chinese people is what was really on display last week. All this coming from a nation that is perceived as a country still growing economically and culturally on the world stage.

Of course we Americans collectively look down on the Chinese government as barbaric when compared to ours. We think their economy is second rate, when compared to ours. I mean we're the home of Brad and Angelina, Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey and freakin Bill Gates!

Yet, we could never in a million years muster up the type of pomp and circumstance that the Chinese offered up to begin these Olympic games, primarily because we are always too busy stepping all over each other to get what WE want, who has time to do something in the interest of the nation? (military personnel aside)

What this Olympics will show the world is that while we are sleeping on China, China is certaily not asleep. Not by any means.

And if Kung Fu Hustle does represent the nature of things in the universe and it's moral code does indeed hold true, then it's only a matter of time before we see the true might of China.