Review: Kung Fury

Earlier in the week, the satirical film "Kung Fury" was released on YouTube. A spoof of various action movies from the '80's, the film is the brainchild of a group of Swedish filmmakers, funded on Kickstarter and produced over the course of a year and a half. In short, the film follows the adventures of a Kung Fu master who travels through time to duel his biggest rival, Adolf Hitler. It includes robots, dinosaurs, Norse gods, Nazis, tanks, and more. If you haven't seen it, check it out at the following link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5P_LAqiVg). It's just about half an hour long - you should have time for that much at some point in your day. This should go without saying, but spoiler alert.

Ultimately, I think the movie could have been quite a bit better. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy it - quite a few things were done very well. The effects, for instance, are phenomenal, considering that the filmmakers were using green screens and the like for most of their shots. The explosions, the deaths, the fight sequences...all are very well done. The acting isn't half-bad, either. The main character is an excellent satire of Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, and others. Heck, he's the archetypal '80's cheesy action movie hero. The story itself is pretty good, considering the fact that it's a highly satirical script. And it's pretty funny, to boot. A lot of the characters have pretty good one-liners, and others (particularly Kung Fury himself) have lines that especially reflect the cheesy '80's style. At the end of the day, my main issue with the film is that it takes itself too seriously.

It doesn't seem logical for a film as satirical as Kung Fury to be taking itself too seriously, so allow me to clarify. The film knows it's a spoof, and it takes the fact that it's a spoof too seriously. Of course, that's my personal opinion, and you're free to disagree. But here's my case: one of my favorite film satirists is Mel Brooks. Watch just about any Mel Brooks film - be it The Producers, or Blazing Sattles, or Spaceballs, or Young Frankenstein, or Men in Tights (and so on and so forth) - and you'll see what I'm talking about it. Mel Brooks knows he's making satirical movies, but he doesn't let that get in the way of comedy. Characters in his film make references to the stereotypes and pop culture that exist in the real world at the time Brooks made the film, not just references to the period they're in. Imagine Young Frankenstein without the "Puttin' on the Ritz" bit, or the brain depository, or the wooden-armed Inspector Kemp. Or imagine Spaceballs, the Star Wars spoof, without the references to other sci-fi shows and movies of the day, to say nothing of the jokes made at the expense of 80's culture. Brooks knows that he's making satire, and he has fun with it. Kung Fury was too rigid, too structured...too '80's. If you're making a satire set in Decade X, but you're in Decade Y, you should have some references to Decade Y in the film. Otherwise, what's the point of releasing the film for audiences in Decade Y?

I can't help but feel that Kung Fury wasn't really flexible enough. It's an excellent spoof of '80's action movies, but it isn't quite an excellent work of satire in my eyes. They could have done so much more. My biggest issue with the film is the focus the main character receives. Probably two-thirds of the film is focused on Kung Fury alone, or on faceless extras. And that's almost a sin in my book, because these side characters are great. Hitler, the profane antagonist, has very few lines. Most of his screen time is spent sitting in the background, watching Kung Fury fight his Kung Fu Nazis. And Hitler's undoubtedly one of the funniest characters in any production that satirizes the Nazis. Look at The Producers - hippie Hitler. Look at Inglorious Bastards - whiny Hitler. And look at Kung Fury - foul-mouthed Kung Fu Hitler. There's so much they could have done with that character, but they did so little. Thor is hilarious in his ridiculousness, and what about the stuffy British Triceratops? The filmmakers could have capitalized on these characters to exponentially increase the hilarity of the film. But they did nothing of the sort. At the end of the day, Kung Fury wasn't half as funny as I'd hoped it would be.

One more issue - the scene with the two Nazi soldiers and the tank. We have ancient Scandinavians speaking English. We have a Norse god speaking English. Hitler's speaking English, both to the main characters and to his Nazi cronies at his rally. The rogue Kung Fu master has perfect, albeit accented, English. Hell, even two dinosaurs are speaking English! So why are these two German soldiers the only two characters speaking another language? It wouldn't bother me, if it weren't for the fact that their dialogue would have contained the film's funniest lines, if only those lines were spoken in English with a heavy German accent (just like Hitler's lines were). Subtitles and foreign dialogue just don't cut it for me in an otherwise-English film. That scene just dragged on and on.