ti (stephen chow) is a lowly construction worker and single parent to dicky (xu jiao), who he struggles earnestly to put through an expensive school. ti doesn't have much spare cash, skimping, saving and salvaging from the local dump to kit dicky out for school. dicky seems pretty happy with this, until the release of cj1; a robotic dog toy, which he wants. ti cannot afford it, but finds a strange ball at the dump, which he gives to dicky instead. it's hardly a substitute, but when it transforms into a friendly little space dog-type creature, dicky thinks that his new best friend might just sort out his problems and help him overcome the school bully and his nasty teacher (steven fung)...

this film marks a bit of a change for stephen chow; after scoring many successes in asia and reaching an international audience with 'shaolin soccer' and 'kung-fu hustle', he's tried to create a family film. this is something that he does, but with limited success; i'd say that it would appeal to children, much more, than it would appeal to adults, unlike 'shaolin soccer', which i would say appealed to all ages in equal measures.

in essence, 'cj7' is a bit of an 'e.t.' clone, with a little bit of stephen chow thrown in. unfortunately, there's not quite enough of the comedy and touches which make stephen chow films special, but there is enough to make it perfectly watchable. still, i'm not sure there's quite enough to extend its appeal beyond an audience that are already fans of his previous work and, i'm pretty sure that, some of those just won't really be that pleased by this.

on the plus side, chow is just as good on-screen as usual, xu jiao does a pretty good job for a newcomer and delivers a performance which reminded me of the impact that macaulay culkin had, as a child actor, in 'home alone'. it's pretty clear to see why chow really warmed to her. there's also some pretty good c.g.i. and enough comedic moments to keep you smiling.

on the negative side, the film is short and seems to lack depth; i'm not sure if it was constrained by the money they spent on the c.g.i. or the fact that kitty zhang had some much publicised eyelid surgery during filming, but it does feel as if something is missing and some narrative strands / characters are quite undeveloped. and, as i already mentioned, there's just not enough chow-ness and it does seem to be more child, than adult, friendly.

now, if i was a child, who wasn't familiar with stephen chow's style or back catalogue, then i would probably love this. however, as an adult (even a adult who likes a lot of children's films) who is familiar with chow's output, this feels like a very watered down effort, which just does the bear minimum to keep ticking over.

overall, it is a quite successful children's film, which has some good performances, humorous moments and quality c.g.i. but, from someone with the talent of chow, it can only be seen as a step backwards. bring on 'kung-fu hustle 2'...

reasonable...