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1. Hustle & Flow -- Hustle Flow
   Unapologetically formulaic and shamelessly entertaining, Hustle & Flow had its world premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival, where several major critics seemed to take its presence in the competition lineup as a personal affront. These people should chill. Yes, the storyline — soulful pimp at moral crossroads decides to pursue long-held dream of hip-hop stardom — is risible at best. No, writer-director Craig Brewer isn't the next Todd Haynes or Wes Anderson. But then, Hustle & Flow doesn't aspire to be an art film. Perhaps no movie you'll see this year is as hell-bent on giving you a raucous good time, and it succeeds, by and large, thanks to the most precious commodity a commercial movie can possess: sheer conviction.
2. Hustle & Flow
   [T]hat's what ultimately drives Hustle & Flow--those genuine, universal vulnerabilities and yearnings for something bigger and better than the hand one is dealt. If the circumstances setting DJay off on his journey do feel a bit rushed, it pays off in that Brewer is then quickly liberated for the rest of the run time to flesh out not only DJay's pursuit of his goal but ... the dreams of those around him. Everybody gotta have a dream, and as it comes clear, everyone in DJay's world has one, spoken or unspoken, earth-shattering or modest. Key has designs on being a big-time producer; DJay's main moneymaker Nola's (Taryn Manning) wants to make things happen for herself for once. While those read as typical movie goals--though in execution they certainly do not--Brewer goes the extra mile in painting the whole spectrum of dreams; resonating particularly poignantly is DJay's pregnant girl Shug (an astonishingly unrecognizable Taraji P. Henson in a revelatory performance), for whom singing the hook on a demo track is far more than anything she could have ever thought to achieve in her downtrodden world.
3. Hustle & Flow -- Movies
   Hustle & Flow [I]s an enjoyable film that benefits from an interesting premise, great rap music, and splashy visual style (cinematographer Amelia Vincent was cited by the jury). Nonetheless, Hustle & Flow is not a particularly good film; it suffers from a naive and simplistic philosophy of life (a vulgarized version of the American Dream), unwarranted plot points, radical changes of tone, and even misogyny, in the way that the movie treat all of the female characters particularly in the first reels.
4. Kung Fu Hustle
   Like her “Kung Fu Hustle” co-star Yuen Wah, Yuen Qiu was one of the famous Seven Little Fortunes (the childhood Peking Opera performing troupe which ... included Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung). She started her martial arts training in the Peking Opera school at the age of 10. After 7 years of training, Yuen Qiu began her movie career as a stunt person and became one of the very few well-known stunt women in the Hong Kong movie industry at that time. Her first feature film role was in the 1973 movie “Not Scared to Die”, starring Jackie Chan. Later, she had a brief appearance in the James Bond film “The Man with the Golden Gun”.
5. Hustle & Flow -- Terrence Howard
   As is duly noted in the chorus of the catchiest of the songs used in Hustle & Flow: It’s hard out here for a pimp. Especially when said pimp only has three girls working for him (one pregnant, all with pretty lousy attitudes), his car has no air conditioning, and he’s sliding into a mid-life crisis. In Craig Brewer’s hot and sticky Memphis homebrew of a film, the pimp is far from what we’re used to seeing. He's not a character of impossible swagger or campy ridicule (no fur coats, it’s too damn hot). He’s just DJay, a guy stuck in his way of life because he came from nothing but has a gift for bullshit that lends itself to the profession. As personified by Terrence Howard, this pimp becomes far more than the sum of the job’s cliches, even if the film itself doesn’t always know how to be quite as original as its star.
6. Kung Fu Hustle -- Movies
   The funny, kicky, leave-all-seriousness-at-the-door "Kung Fu Hustle" is the epitome of martial arts movie magic. Plot? What plot? It's slight, but that hardly matters. Over here are the good folks. Over there are the bad.
7. Kung Fu Hustle -- Steven Chow
   Wang Zhong Lei, CEO of Huayi Brothers Films, was pretty confident of Kungfu Hustle doing well at the box office. He said, based on the cast alone, Stephen Chow himself already commands a strong box office presence. But having good cast is only one step forward in the right direction. What a movie really needs is a good script. That which accounts for House of Flying Daggers' failure is the lack of a good story. Wang Zhong Lei said Feng Xiao Gang's cameo was very impressive and funny and appears in the beginning of the movie.
8. Kung Fu Hustle -- Axe Gang
   Like The Warriors, Kung Fu Hustle is set in a society divided up into distinctive and warring gangs. The film’s over-the-top action style, blending intricate choreography and real violence with cartoonish mayhem, influenced the fight sequences in A Little Less Sixteen Candles.
9. Kung Fu Hustle -- Stephen Chow
   Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle may be the pinnacle of Chow’s unique vision. Prior to Shaolin Soccer, he painstakingly developed his unique brand of comedy – one that is very visual without resorting to old school slapstick. The visual gags could be very subtle (the parked car and lamp post in Magnificent Scoundrels) or over the top (the transvestite with a beard that is a staple of most Chow movies). Chow’s genius is in pacing. He knows how to put together scenes to maximum effect. With Shaolin Soccer he perfected his visual trademarks, borrowing heavily from anime and wuxia.
10. Kung Fu Hustle -- Hong Kong
    Kung Fu Hustle had its world premiere at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. It was then released in China, Hong Kong and other countries in Asia with significant overseas Chinese populations in December 2004. The film was first shown in the United States at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2005, and then opened in a general release on 22 April 2005 after being shown in Los Angeles and New York for two weeks. The film was released to most of Europe in June 2005.[37] Kung Fu Hustle is rated IIB (not suitable for children and young persons) in Hong Kong, R in the United States for sequences of strong stylized action and violence and is rated to be viewed by people with a minimum age ranging from 13 to 18 in other countries.[38]

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