“In the 1940s, Adolf Hitler was a kung fu master…”
Part Naked Gun, part Miami Connection, part Too Many Cooks, this short film from writer/director David Sandberg is a lightning bolt to the crotch of ’80s cinema, and it might be the greatest thing ever of all time this week. I can’t articulate what the best part about it is, because all of it is the best part.
Hyperbole aside, it’s the best parody since Black Dynamite. Easy.
The crowdfunded Kung Fury features Barry Pepper/Ralph Macchio lovechild Sandberg starring as a renegade cop imbued with magical martial arts powers who travels back in time to fight Hitler (The Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone in his finest role). Every second is bathed in awesomeness, channeling the synth-smothered absurdity of low budget ’80s action and the beautiful nonsense that came with it. Unnecessary post-punch posturing, unnecessary intensity and unnecessary plot holes are all very necessary in Kung Fury.
I want to rave about all the individual wonders of the film, but I don’t want to deprive anyone of discovering them on their own. Around every corner is a new, ridiculous, kick-butt element that cranks everything past 11 again. This movie gives Chuck Norris night sweats. It’s pitch perfect both as loving mockery and as its own entertaining animal (probably a viper-corn).
The result is a short film that feels like a singular vision made with the help of dozens of other highly capable filmmakers who are all in on the joke. It makes me slightly sad that they didn’t hit their feature film crowdfunding stretch goal because, like Black Dynamite, this could have easily crushed 90+ minutes.
I’m not sure what Sandberg is doing next, but someone either needs to give him a ton of money to make the feature or give him a ton of money to make a weekly Kung Fury TV show.
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