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The Foot Fist Way (2006)

Director: Jody Hill

Time Out rating

Average user rating

1 review

Synopsis

A hilarious ‘mockumentary’, ‘The Foot Fist Way’ follows the adventures of former champion turned small town Tae Kwon Do instructor Fred Simmons as he travels to meet his idol, B-movie star Chuck ‘The Truck’ Wallace. But his school is going downhill, his life is spiraling and he’s losing his temper and worst of all his ‘power’. Low budget but high on laughs, ‘The Foot Fist Way’ is a sharp, inventive comedy in the style of ‘Kenny’ and ‘Spinal Tap’.

Movie review

From Time Out London

Jody Hill’s intermittently hilarious curveball from 2006 has presumably been slotted in to ride on the back of Danny McBride’s comic turns in ‘Pineapple Express’ and ‘Tropic Thunder’. What the similarly styled ‘Kenny’ did for waste management, this one does for Tae Kwon Do. Fred Simmons (McBride, above) is a plump, smarmy, deluded and lecherous instructor. His North Carolina gym attracts a mix of clients, most of them adults feeling sorry for themselves. They turn to him not only for exercise but some kind of counselling, even though Fred can’t keep his own marriage together…

The concept relies on doc-style dialogue and performances and a cast of eccentrics you might wish to avoid. While most of the deadpan remarks hit the spot, the erratic sketch-like editing and overall slapdash structure give it an air of incompleteness. Fun in parts, slipshod in others.

Author: Derek Adams

Time Out London Issue 1988, Sept 25 - October 1

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User reviews of this film

Marsellus said...

Posted on Feb 24 2009 12:32 A weird yet engaging odd-ball comedy in the vein of Napoleon Dynamite. McBride's brilliance shines through and some sequences are hilarious but on the whole the film is hit-and-miss. Even though the budget is low, the film still has a bit of character. I love it - yet I can't quite explain why.

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