As Good As It Gets

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This is not as fun as other Chow's movies but is great to watch with kids. It is rather a movie about family-based film with not a lot of "fighting" scenes like "Shaolin soccer" or "Kungfu Hustle." It talks about a poor family with a father and a son. The father usually goes to a "trash alley" to collect things that he can recycle and use it. He then finds a toy for his son, which turns out to be CJ7 - an alien. The little boy in the movie acted pretty well. Chow was quite old when he starred in this movie so he did not include many "silly" scenes like his other movies. P.S.: if you like the young boy's acting, just to let you know that he is actually a girl. She dressed like a boy in the movie. She is now grown up to be a beautiful lady.

Lovely movie with additions of wonderful CG effects and hilarious scenes to laugh out loud with a tragic moment in the end which turned out to be a blessing in making a child realize the value of his father words...Stephen Chow did a pretty good job. acting by characters is really good esp.by the children's and class teacher... Diki did nice acting precisely showing his emotions and feelings throughout the movie. Alien character is very cute just like a stuff toy with beautiful faces...Nice conception and deliverance of idea through a movie. Music is also good esp.the song I LOVE YOU,,, above all money is not everything...For me a must watch movie to relax

Another Chow movie has intrigued me yet again. Though, a little different to his other known humour such as ,'Kung-fu Hustle' and 'Shaolin Soccer', this particular movie has portrayed more than just the random bursts of laughter.The storyline may be somewhat average but because it's aimed at a younger audience, it mostly doesn't matter. What's most important, are the contents that are being portrayed. There's an underlying message conveyed to the audience, not only just to the children but to the adults as well and that is, you should cherish the things you already have in life, most importantly your family. Which, in this case the film has portrayed very well to the point where I almost shed a few tears.

I've seen both of Stephen Chow's excellent films that were distributed in America, "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle", and so I wasn't about to be dissuaded from seeing this film by negative reviews of "CJ7" such as the one that our local San Francisco Chronicle printed. Perhaps a word of warning is in order for this movie, so that nobody goes to see it or rents it hoping for a kung fu action film. This is more like Stephen Chow's attempt to make a Spielberg type of film, though I found it more enjoyable than any of Spielberg's recent films. It's a movie primarily for kids but which also aims to entertain adults.The story is very simple -- an impoverished construction worker (the director, Chow) cannot afford toys for his son because he has spent all of the money he has for private school tuition, hoping that the boy will have an opportunity at a better life than he has. He finds a strange ball in a heap of trash and brings this to the boy, and the ball ends up becoming a magical alien creature. The boy, Dickie (actress Jiao Xu, impressively playing across gender lines), hopes that the creature which he names "CJ7" will be able to use his magic to help him with all his problems, and then becomes very angry with the "dog" when it can't deliver. Drama ensues when the father is involved in a horrific accident at work.I would have liked the movie better if "CJ7" wasn't such an overtly cartoonish creation. The movie might have been a bigger hit if it didn't look so much like Pikachu or whatever you call those pokemon things. It's just a bit too cutesy for most adults, though I assume kids like it. It reminded me a bit of "Gizmo" in the "Gremlins" movies.The heart of the story is a very good one. I think it was interesting that they allowed Dickie to be so bitter and so angry; most children's films are too patronizing to allow their characters to be real human beings. The actors portraying the kids all did a wonderful job, especially Xu and the kid playing the evil boy (credits list here is incomplete). Chow himself had a touch of grey hair in this one and a corresponding gravity on screen as he assumed the role of a mentor and parent.There are a lot of very funny scenes. I especially liked when Dickie was scared of "ghosts" and makes a silent scream because he doesn't want to be punished. Also the battle at the schoolyard was very funny and reminded me of Chow's other films. And that scary dog is pretty funny all by himself! Some of Chow's humor is pretty weird and might seem inappropriate to some people, but I personally prefer something intelligent and ironic to the type of sight jokes that occupy most comedy these days.The reason I don't think it is a really excellent film, but merely a good one, is that it was a bit too predictable and formulaic. The climax of the story doesn't really surprise or produce much sympathy.I would recommend to my fellow English-speaking posters that they go ahead and watch the film in Cantonese, as I compared both versions and the English dubbed version left out some of the meaning (for example, it does not have him telling Miss Yuen "there is no limit to bitterness" and it does not show him realizing that he was never promised anything by CJ7).