"Actor: Steve Oedekerk"

• Barnyard | DVD | (19/02/2007) from £4.25   |  Saving you £1.74 (40.94%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A carefree party cow has to find the courage to be a leader in this animated outing.

• Kung Pow - Enter the Fist | DVD | (20/01/2003) from £15.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (12.51%)   |  RRP £17.99

  A shamelessly low-brow parody, Kung Pow: Enter the Fist is a scrambling of footage from the 1975 Hong Kong martial arts epic Tiger & Crane Fist with new material shot by director Steve Oedekerk (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) in which he doubles for original star Jimmy Wang Yu. Following the style set by Woody Allen in What's Up Tiger Lily?, Oedekerk also dubs all the voices, rendering the basic revenge story even more formulaic and ridiculous. The villain turns out to be working for flying saucers manned by French aliens (!) and the Chosen One hero has an odd habit of using animals as weapons (gopher nunchakas, squirrel padding) and, in the stand-out scene, doing a full-on Matrix/Crouching Tiger battle with an extremely agile killer cow. A lot of the film is just dumb, but it still manages to beat laughs out of you with its relentless goofiness. Though it might seem an ego trip for Oedekerk, he is actually a likeable leading man, pulling funny faces and deliberately dubbing even his own voice badly. On the DVD: Kung Pow: Enter the Fist on disc includes an animated draft of the kung fu cow scene, with special effects elements shown pre-mixing. There are also several deleted sequences and a director's cut of one extended fight scene. --Kim Newman

• Thumb Wars | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £31.55   |  Saving you £-21.56 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Thumb Wars is a parody of Star Wars in which all the characters are played by real human thumbs with equally real human eyes and mouths grafted onto them through the wonders of computerised image tweakery. Obvious, really. If you're a fan of the toy and puppets dramas on The Adam and Joe Show or, frankly, even if you're not, you'll love this. Quite apart from the inherent wonderful silliness of mastermind Steve Oedekerk's creations, the mickey-taking is of a high order as Loke Groundrunner, Hand Duet and Princess Bunhead, aided by Oobedoob Benubi, battle the forces of the evil Thumbpire (the stormtroopers wear thimbles) in order to destroy the "big dangerous weapon thing that can blow stuff up". Along the way, Luke and Oobedoop replay Bunhead's holographic message while lying on the floor so they can look up her dress, the two robots have sex and Hand Duet insists on being paid in girly giggles. The eventual destruction of the "big dangerous weapon thing" will have you in stitches, with Groundrunner attempting to use "the power of the Thumb" while the spirit of Oobedoob urges him to "use the instrument panel, Luke--that's what it's there for". --Roger Thomas

• Kung Pow - Enter The Fist/Bulletproof Monk/Kiss Of The Dragon | DVD | (05/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Bulletproof Monk (Dir. Paul Hunter 2003): 'Bulletproof Monk' begins in the 1940s as a Tibetan Buddhist monk charged with protecting an ancient scroll passes on his legacy to his pupil. As the student receives the power to safeguard the scroll his aging process is halted and he gives up his name only to be known as the Monk (Chow Yun-Fat). Suddenly the monastery is raided by Nazis led by the ruthless Strucker (Karl Roden). As they attempt to seize the relic the Monk is shot and falls off a cliff taking the scroll with him... However six decades later the Monk appears in America and crosses paths with Kar (Seann William Scott) a tough city kid with a talent for picking pockets. Together the unlikely duo must contend with the forces of the now-elderly Strucker still determined to possess the mystical scroll. As Strucker's granddaughter Nina (Victoria Smurfit) leads his thugs to track down Kar and the Monk the two heroes receive help from the mysterious Jade (Jaime King)... Kung Pow: Enter The Fist (Dir. Steve Oedekerk 2002): Writer/Director Steve Oedekerk kicks the karate film genre up a notch by inserting new scenes new dialogue and himself into an obscure Hong Kong chop-socky flick from the '70s. The result is ""ridiculously funny and must be seen to be believed!"" (Slant Magazine) In order to avenge his family's death a legendary warrior named ""The Chosen One"" (Oedekerk) wanders the countryside in search of the murderous Master Pain also known as Betty. Filled with fist-flying action incredible special effects and outrageous kung foolishness this martial arts mockery delivers knockout laughs from beginning to end! Kiss Of The Dragon (Dir. Chris Nohon 2001): China's top secret agent visits Paris on a pleasure trip only to encounter government espionage at the highest level...

• Kung Pow - Enter The Fist / Dude Where's My Car / Austin Powers - International Man Of Mystery | DVD | (15/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Kung Pow: Enter The Fist: In order to avenge his family's death a legendary warrior named The Chosen One (Oedekerk) wanders the countryside in search of the murderous Master Pain also known as Betty. Filled with fist-flying action incredible special effects and outrageous kung foolishness this martial arts mockery delivers knockout laughs from beginning to end! Dude Where's My Car? Jesse (Ashton Kutcher) and Chester (Seann William Scott) got really wasted last night. The fridge is packed with pudding their girlfriends - The Twins - are ticked off and somehow Jesse's car has disappeared. So the hapless stoners set out to find the car which happens to have their girlfriends' anniversary presents in it. But they soon discover that losing the car isn't half the story. High school hottie Christie (Kristy Swanson) is mysteriously hot for Jesse Chester is a favorite customer at the local topless club and they owe a suitcase full of money to a transvestite stripper. On top of all that they're being pursued by a minivan full of geeks horny space babes and a couple of totally gay Scandinavian dudes - all trying to find the continuum transfunctioner the device that can save or destroy the universe... Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery Frozen in the 60's secret agent Austin Powers (Myers) is thawed back into action to once again battle his archenemy Dr. Evil. With his sexy sidekick Ms. Kensington (Liz Hurley) Austin must stop Dr. Evil's outrageous plot to control the world. But first this time-warped swinger must get hip quick and discover that there's no free love in the 90's...

• Frankenthumb | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A half-hour parody, Frankenthumb is one of a series of featurette pastiches of famous movies masterminded by Steve Oederkerk (Kung Pow: Enter the Fist) cast with human thumbs with CGI-inset mouths and eyes, a process that is weirder than it is funny. A précis of the 1931 Frankenstein, shot on impressive (and beautifully-lit) miniature sets, the film tells the old, old story: megalomaniac Dr Frankenthumb and his inept assistant Humpy create life in the laboratory, unleashing a monster named Pepper ("because he's brought spice into our lives") who goes on a rampage, menaces the daughter of a somewhat irritating Italian man, and is pursued by a mob into a burning windmill, whereupon a guest star from an earlier mini-epic (Bat Thumb) turns up to deliver some sort of an ending. One or two good jokes pop up, but probably not enough. On the DVD: Frankenthumb on disc is a very nice package, containing storyboards, manufactured outtakes and cast interviews, trailers for this and the rest of the series (Thumb Wars, The Blair Thumb, Thumbtanic, Bat Thumb, The Godthumb) and a mass commentary track by the entire creative team that makes a cheerful accompaniment. --Kim Newman

• Thumbwars - The Phantom Cuticle | DVD | (23/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Every Hand Has A Thumb... Created by Steve Oedekerk the writer of The Nutty Professor Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and Patch Adams this hilarious ""thumbation"" spoof features reluctant hero Loke Groundrunner and his tasty companion Princess Bunhead as they try to stop Black Helmet Man and the Evil Thumbpire from doing really bad things! So hold onto your cuticles eat your peas and get ready for the first and only all-thumbs space epic. May the thumb be with you!

• Thumbtanic | DVD | (10/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  At the beginning of Thumbtanic, thumb-puppet/animation maestro Steve Oedekerk's superb parody of Titanic, the camera pans over the wreckage of the, err, Thumbtanic, revealing a quantity of unopened crates marked HULL PATCH KIT, SURPLUS BINOCULARS, ICEBERG RADAR and 1200 INFLATABLE RAFTS. From there on it just gets funnier. Oedekerk specialises in bizarre "filmettes", as he terms them, in which the characters are played by real human thumbs with faces grafted onto them via computer wizardry. Quite apart from the startling realisation that Leonardo DiCaprio actually does look like a thumb wearing a wig, the laughs don't stop from beginning to end. We see the passengers lining up, talent-contest fashion, so they can all have a turn at doing or saying something memorable at the sharp end of the ship. There's a topless scene involving the thumb-incarnation of Kate Winslet. As the ship goes down, one enterprising thumb sells male passengers babies and sex-changes, while the brief love affair between Jake and Geranium is finally eclipsed by the realisation that all the passengers survive and there are "plenty of snacks" for everyone! The perfect antidote to all those unfunny film parodies, Thumbtanic elevates post-pub, kebab-in-hand viewing to the status of an art form. --Roger Thomas

• Bat Thumb | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Superhero Bat Thumb (aka Wuce Bane) and his trusty sidekick Blue Jay are called upon to save Gaaathumb City from the evil despicable not to mention poorly dressed 'No Face'. Will the city survive? Will Bat Thumb's true identity be revealed? Will Vicky Nail learn to control her unruly waves?

• The Godthumb | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99