Blogger’s note: First of all, I’d like to apologize to my followers for the unannounced long hiatus from my review blog. Life can be quite a snag with ambitions and hobbies. Anyways, moving on…our first review of the summer of 2015.
Blogger’s note #2: This review is not a “preview review” as the previous ones I’ve (by the way, we are dropping that “blogger” moniker verbal tic) done. It is advisable to watch the film beforehand.
Special thanks to Jon from TastyTufts for proofreading!
To view the full movie (free of charge, and brought to you by Laser Unicorns), head to the following link here!
Kung Fury (2015)
Tagline: “It takes a cop from the future to defeat an enemy from the past.”
A cop from the future (well, Miami in 1985) must travel back in time to battle an evil from the past: Adolf Hitler. Written and directed by (as well as starring) David Sandberg, Kung Fury is best described as an explosive mash-up of kung-fu, dinosaurs, explosions and neon lights.
Cast:
David Sandberg, Jorma Taccone, Steve Chew, Leopold Nilsson, Andreas Cahling, Per-Henrik Arvidius, Erik Hörnqvist, Frank Sanderson, Eleni Young, Helene Ahlson, Yasmina Suhonen, Magnus Betnér, Björn Gustafsson, Eos Karlsson, David Hasselhoff
Plot Summary – SPOILER WARNING (Highlight to read)
Miami 1985: Kung Fury (David Sandberg), a cop who gained knowledge to the secrets of martial-arts after a freak accident, becomes a vigilante cop who fights crime with the power of kung-fu. After Chief McNickles (Per-Henrik Arvidius) enforces Triceracops, as a new partner for Kung Fury, the now-renegade cop refuses to take his partner under his wing and turns over his badge. Shortly after, a time-traveling Adolf Hitler (Jorma Taccone, of Lonely Island fame) attacks the police precinct, killing the Chief in the process. With the help of Hackerman (Leopold Nilsson), Kung Fury goes on his biggest mission to uphold the low against Kung Führer, the most dangerous criminal he’s ever faced yet.
Plot summary – without spoilers
Kung Fury (played by David Sandberg), a cop who gained knowledge to the secrets of martial-arts after a freak accident, must now face his greatest challenge yet. Joined by a band of new acquaintances, he must stop the Kung Führer (Jorma Taccone, of Lonely Island fame) from his evil plans and uphold the law.
Review:
Now, how do I express this…? Kung Fury is the type of homage movie that is intentionally overloaded from top to bottom with shout-outs, and goes lengths to make itself as authentic as it source materials; it is an overly-affectionate parody of the 80’s action flick and martial arts film genre which has took on a life of its own. Watching this movie, there was no shortage of references to video games (Mortal Kombat and Wolfenstein 3D, among others) and overused movie plot devices of the time (played for laughs, of course). Throughout the film, mullets, Ray-Bans, sports cars – notably the DeLorean DMC-12 – make an appearance, as well as the ZX Spectrum and the infamous Nintendo Power Glove (it’s so bad). Kudos to the details that matter, from props, scenery and beyond: the establishing shots of Miami probably even stock footages (or as the crew has stated, replicated in CGI onto green screens). Moreso, the film itself uses filters that transform its cinematography into an old VHS: think fuzzy pictures quality, and bad video tracking. You could even say it’s parodying its B-movie status.
Kung Fury came about with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, which nowadays is relied on by plenty of independent filmmakers for funds. Whilst not all of these are successful, to call Kung Fury a success is an understatement – the hype surrounding it since the trailer came out paid off, much to the delight of the Internet. Now for you folks out there who are confused as to why this is a big deal: Kickstarters are often an ‘iffy’ deal for backers, the folks who ‘back’ projects, as it’s never a guarantee that the final work will live up to the previews or that it would be abandoned mid-way or worse, a scam. This film, however, has proven to be quite the contrary. It’s even spawned it’s own Streets of Rage-esque video game, although one could say it’s also reminiscent of Bad Dudes and other titles of the SNES/NES era of beat ’em up game genre.
Before its official Ustream premiere on the 28th of May, the timeline of Kung Fury first appeared on the radar back in 2013, when a trailer and Kickstarter was started. The project successfully raised $630,020 USD with 17,713 backers on January 25, 2014, and from the looks of the Kickstarter descriptions, it does not seem like the Laser Unicorns crew has plans to stop at a 31-minutes film either.
At the time of this writing, the number of views on the Kung Fury trailer had soared up to 11 million; the Hasselhoff music video at 13 million; and the movie itself at 12 million. These views are climbing rapidly as the Internet spreads it by word-of-mouth.
Verdict:
The awkward antics combined with the bad one-liners in the right (or rather, rightly wrong) places is really what makes the film so good at what it does. And even if you don’t get the visual references, the over-the-top action scenes and outrageous plot makes up for it in many ways.
I particularly like this film for personal reasons as I am avid retro culture enthusiast. Inclinations aside, I still highly recommend this film for (a short) movie night – so gather some buddies and grab the popcorn!
And now I sign y’all off, with The Hoff!
introvertedskunkreviews 