The Kentucky Fried Movie

Rating:
Summary: I'm Building An Army of Immense Magnitude
Review: From the guys who brought you the hilarious "Airplane" and the unintentionally funny "Ghost" and "First Knight" and John Landis, director of "Animal House" and "Blues Brothers," this is one hilarious movie. It's crude, it's sloppy, it's rude and wildly inconsistent, but when it's rolling it will actually injure you with laughter.

"KFM" is the evil mutant lovechild of Mad Magazine and the underground video movement that also spawned the original "Saturday Night Live." It features parodies of everything from commercials to those incredibly boring films your teachers made you watch in class when they felt too downtrodden by their crappy pay to actually make a lesson plan. The film's centerpiece is a pitch-perfect Bruce Lee/"Enter the Dragon" parody called "A Fistful of Yen" that devolves into a "Wizard of Oz" parody.

Features no budget, no stars (although Donald Sutherland makes a non sequitor cameo) and about 5 million laughs. Buy it, rent it, own it, live it. Dare to dream it.

Rating:
Summary: The Popcorn You Are Eating Has Been Pissed In...
Review: That happens to be a line from the film, "Kentucky Fried Movie". Tasteless, huh? Yeah, well, so is the film. But it also happens to be one of the funniest films of the '70s. And also one of the most forgotten.

The film itself is a collection of skits similiar to those of early "Saturday Night Live" and "Not Necessarily The News" . But, thankfully, there are no pesky TV censors to hold back any of the vulgarity. Some of the stars that are included in these unbelievably nasty sketches are Donald Sutherland (JFK, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), Bill Bixby ("The Incredible Hulk") and Tony Dow (The Beav!). Also, the film has many very funny moments. Some of my favorites: "Fistful of Yen", which is a cross between old Bruce Lee movies and "The Wizard Of Oz" and "High Adventure" with explorer Claude Lamont!

The film was directed by John Landis, who went on to direct "Trading Places", "Coming To America" and "Spies Like Us." The film also includes David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams ("ZAZ"). They went on to do such classic spoof comedies, such as "Airplane!", "The Naked Gun", and "Hot Shots!"

If you are a fan of any of these other titles I've mentioned in this review and are not easily offended, then "Kentucky Fried Movie" is for you!

Film At Eleven.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastically FUNNY
Review: Words can not express the amount of laughter I had when I watched this last week. I rented it and heard about it for years. I couldn't believe it was made in the 70's, I wonder what the writers are doing today.

Rating:
Summary: A Movie of Extraordinary Magnitude
Review: Wildly unevenly funny spoof of movies and TV from the team of John Landis and Zucker-Abrams-Zucker, who went on to do Airplane and the Naked Gun franchises.

KFM is notable for its crass humor, celebrity cameos and several unrelated bits. Most of the bits are short and some aren't very funny anymore (Bill Bixby's Headache Clinic and Henry Gibson's United Appeal for the Dead are notable in the aspect, although it is great to see the former "alive again"). Working better are the movie spoofs from "Samuel L. Bronkowitz". The classic is "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble", with its gratuitous nudity and inane jokes. "That's Armageddon" (with Donald Suterhland as the clumsy waiter" )is a great parody of and would probably be better than the future movie of a similar title. ZAZ also use the Bronkowitz name in their later movies.

The centerpiece of the movie is Evan Kim in "A Fistful of Yen", which is part Kung Fu Movie, part adventure movie and part Wizard of Oz (this begins with Dr. Klon melting a la the Wicked Witch of the West and ends with Kim as Dorothy, complete with Auntie Em, Toto, and a very familiar figure from Klon's Mountain.) This sketch comes complete with the evil villain ( Klon, who has a number of attachments such as a hair dryer to an artifical hand), a damsel in distress (Anna) and Kim as the hero. Of course, Kim gets to use his kung fu skills to kill about 50 or 60 men. Pay attention to the end, when Kim returns to Kansas. Some of his dialgoue finds its way into the credits of a future ZAZ movie. Also used in in the future Airplane is the basketball bit, only this time it is martial arts fighters playing basketball instead of aborigines.)

Another longer form sketch is "Courtroom" a black and white parody of the 1950's court shows (and better than the ones on TV today). This is replete with Tony Dow and Jerry Zucker as Wally and Beaver Cleaver, a morph into "What's My Line", and Steven Stucker as a gay court reporter, a role he would revise twice in the Airplane films. Colin Male, who was the reporter on the old Divorce Court, appears as the reporter in this spoof. Incidentally, Male's character is named "Steven McCrosky", a name that ZAZ would later use in Airplane. Also used again in Airplane is the character named "Rex Kramer".

Paying their usual homage to sports, the two opposing attorneys in Courtroom are named "Hornug" and "Taylor". No doubt inspired by Green Bay Packers greats Paul Hornug and Jim Taylor.

Some of the other bits include "Eyewitness News" where a news team watches a couple having sex, a spoof of the Today show (with Academy Award winning makeup artist Rick Baker as a gorilla) and a science film showing that zinc oxide is in everything.

ZAZ and Landis were just warming up for their future endeavors and while KFM is very uneven, it gives us a glimpse of the genius that was yet to come.

Rating:
Summary: Udder stupidity
Review: I recommend Survivor: Borneo on DVD. A lot better than this "non sense" ROFL

Rating:
Summary: This is the funniest thing I have ever seen.
Review: I doubt you will ever see a movie like this again.
It starts off with a bang. When I first rented it a few years
ago, I watched it with a few freinds. And after the opening theme song, which is strange enough. A reporter comes on and
says "The popcorn you are eating has been pissed in."
One of my freinds nearly choked on a ciggarette from laughter.

There are so many funny moments to this movie. One is where a family makes there dead kid part of the family again. As they take him to the dinner table and ball game.
Another is a spoof of a porno called "When Catholic Girls Go Wild" This is just too funny, I laugh as I'm typing thinking about it. My 3rd favorite is The Joy of Sex which is like an instructional video on how to have sex narrated by Shadow Stevens formerley of American Top 40. I could go on and name scene after scene. But they are all funny.

If you like sketch comedey and have a open mind to humor.
This is a must own. It is old but this is a classic.

I love this stupid movie.

Rating:
Summary: Uneven mishmash prototype for future films
Review: A hodgepodge of sketches and parodies, based on a theater group of the same name, featuring ample breasts and crude bathroom humor, KFM ultimately succumbs to its mindnumbingly slow pacing and poor production values. Just because a film is old doesn't mean it has to be outdated. Here we simply have a case of half-bakedness. The gents behind this film would find greater success with future features and with good reason. Movies like Airplane and Naked Gun kept the lulls at a minimum and the jokes coming like a shotgun, plus they have a budget. KFM on the otherhand has far too many lulls between the sight gags, slapstick and jokes to keep it afloat. There is also little continuity to the film. It reminds me more of a college film project, which makes sense, as these directors were barely out of school when they made this. KFM will always be legendary for its launching a new style of raunchy sightgag movies with tons of scatological and sexual double entendres but it was only a prototype of a genre-in-progress and as such should be seen in its true context.

Rating:
Summary: Uneven, but hilarious
Review: Ah... there's nothing quite like sitting back and spending an afternoon watching a series of sophomoric jokes, uproarious site gags, and ample naked breasts to make just make the time fly by. The team of Zucker/Abrahms(sp?), that wacky team that done brung (poor grammar is intentional here) you great films like "Airplane" first cut their teeth on a sketch comedy forum they called "The Kentucky Fried Theater". By having the audacity to go places that Saturday Night Live and their censors could only dream about, the Brothers Zucker and Jim Abrahms were able to create raunchy, racy, and hilarious sketchy comedy. In the late 1970's they finally made the big leap and took their 'talents' the big screen with the cult hit "The Kentucky Fried Movie".

"...Movie" is a somewhat uneven compilation of sketch comedy that is crafted in the Monty Python mold. Don't let the uneven aspect deter you, though. When "Kentucky Fried Movie" hits its targets, it makes for some of the funniest and most titillating comedy on film. One of the raunchiest skits is a 'promo' for an upcoming movie called "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble". The shameless display of naked females, graphic (but, humorous) sex, and crude humor make this sketch one of the all-time classics. Even people who have never seen "The Kentucky Fried Movie" know about this famous sketch. There are some other fairly inspired bits in this film, including another extremely raunchy skit called "Eyewitness News (Nudes?)" where a young couple gets quite amorous while watching the evening news. "Cleopatra Schwartz" which pairs a Hassidic rabbi with a Pam Grier-type as a crime fighting couple seems just plain wrong, but is just plain funny. Other skits like the 'Feel-O-Rama' movie theater and 'Big Jim Slade's love record' are quite funny.

However, the true crown jewel of this movie is an inspired spoof of the old Bruce Lee movies called "Fistful of Yen". By far the longest sketch, it also packs the most comedic punch per square inch. The Bruce Lee type character must break into an evil criminal mastermind's palace and rescue a damsel in distress. This mastermind has a secret weapon, a prosthetic arm that looks like it was made by Snap-On Tools. Nothing is spared in this set. Shots are taken ridiculously sexual names that are given to Asian characters in these movies; the easy duping of an 'expert' bodyguard is spoofed; and, even Detroit is spared no punches. For me, the most hilarious aspect is the criminal mastermind's palace 'alarm system'. When you see it, you will know what I mean. This one sketch, alone, makes the movie worthwhile. The shameless amount of raunchiness doesn't hurt, either. If you're curious about how the deranged minds that created "Airplane" got their start, or just enjoy a good film that seems to have been the inspiration for every sex comedy to come along since, then "The Kentucky Fried Movie" will be time well spent.

Rating:
Summary: Funny At Times But Very Corny!
Review: I saw this movie a long time ago. When I was a kid and wasn't really supposed to see it. The funniest skit was the parody of the kung fu action flick. The other skits were all right but more corny than anything. The movie is more for camp value. Many people probably don't remember ever having seen it way back when.

Rating:
Summary: Stupid & uneven but VERY funny at times
Review: The Zuckers and Abrahams honed their craft with this movie, and it shows. Not non-stop joke & gag assault that audiences got in "Airplane!" is in evidence here, but one can tell that it is definitely a work in progress. The gags can be really stupid at times, not to mention crass & vulgar. Yet the totally unashamed presentation of them is somehow redeeming.

There are times, such as in "A Fistfull of Yen" where the schtick drags on too long and loses momentum, and the viewer is left simply waiting for it to end so that the next sketch can begin. However, there are enough laugh-out-loud moments (like the blind boy in "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble") to make the movie worthwhile.

There are lots of so-called comedies (Adam Sandler comes to mind) that are just simply stupid; then there are comedies that are stupid but still funny enough to make the viewer happy.