"CJ7" is the name of a squeezable alien toy that comes into the lives of an impoverished father and son in Stephen Chow's peculiar follow-up to his cult successes, "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle."

Chow plays the slum-dwelling father to 9-year-old son Dicky (played by Xu Jiao, a girl). He works construction to pay for his son's private school education. (Tuition must be a bargain in Hong Kong.) Because Dicky comes to school in torn clothes taken from the local dump, he is an outcast at school. That is, until his father finds the aforementioned toy, which has sprung from a spaceship. This cute and fuzzy addition to the family (although I found it repellent) proves quite transformative: It fixes broken fans and even cribs other kids' answers for Dicky during math tests. And suddenly, Dicky becomes popular.

The movie is littered with thematic elements from Chow's previous films: a poor antihero, the tyranny of bullying and cartoonish superhuman stunts, as Dicky briefly develops superhuman powers. But these are tired cribbings; they only remind us we've seen better and funnier. And "CJ7" is too bizarre an amalgam of sappy sentimentality and life-on-the-streets edginess. Its use of minor expletives and a depressing chapter late in the movie will not satisfy parents seeking something sweet and lively for their children; nor will it charm art house audiences up for a smart adult fairy tale. This is neither the Ryan O'Neal father-daughter movie "Paper Moon" nor the alien-and-the-kid classic this movie so obviously and ineptly copies, "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial."

-- Desson Thomson (March 14, 2008)

Contains profanity, sad events and rude humor.