The girlfriend made me watch this last night. Is this some sort of Chinese genre of film whose subtleties are lost on me? I thought it was ridiculous, and I liked the Mighty Ducks movies when I was a kid.
Thoughts? Does Crouching Tiger meets The Waterboy peak your curiosity? 
Roll with it. Rent Kung fu Hustle and bask in the WTF. Love it.
Agreed–Kung Fu Hustle is greatness.
Kung Fu Hustle is the Stephen Chow’s follow-up to Shaolin Soccer. Personally, I think it is a far better film. Both have numerous funny cultural references that can be tough to understand (so I’m told).
This. Except Kung Fu Hustle doesn’t have <nearly so much of> that deliberately-stupid-comedy attitude about it. (The parts that do, like the landlady parts, are just awesome) It’s really very…just good. Excellent. The violence is stylized in a way that I actually enjoy, whereas I can’t stand it normally. The musical duels, as well as the physical ones, just blow my mind. Love it, love it love it.
Saw Kung Fu Hustle first, then Shaolin Soccer. Didn’t care for Soccer much at all; apparantly Chow prefers the Hustle stylings as well, given the opening to Hustle is him stomping on a soccer ball and saying, “No more soccer”. 
It also helps if you’re already familiar with Hong Kong wuxia films in general in order to get the jokes about what he’s parodying.
You have to embrace the WTF.
I actually love Shaolin Soccer, the point is it’s just ridiculous.
Those films are made of awesome. Not sure which I like more, though I do agree that Kung Fu Hustle is more accessible to Western audiences.
They’re both hysterical.
Right. It’s the ridiculousness that makes it great.
Thirded.
There are a lot of different versions of this movie out there. IIRC, the US theatrical release cut a number of scenes.
I prefer it to Kung Fu Hustle.
Quick question - did you watch it with English dubbing or subtitles? Because this is a movie that is* exponentially* better with subtitles. Half the fun is the ridiculousness of the Engrish.
This. I saw the orginal HK version back when it was released and it is pure awesome. I don’t know what they were thinking with the US version. The edits didn’t make it more accessible to an American audience (that’d require a complete remake, a la Infernal Affairs → The Departed). It’d been better kept in its full HK glory–let the American audience either sink or swim. And with subtitles, of course. The dub’s voice actors are never as good as the original actors.