HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Kentucky Fried Movie, The A Film Of Extraordinary Magnitude
Year: 1977
Director: John Landis
Stars: Evan C. Kim, Bong Soo Han, Marilyn Joi, Saul Kahan, Joseph G. Medalis, Barry Dennen, Richard Gates, Tara Strohmeier, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker, Henry Gibson, George Lazenby, Bill Bixby, Donald Sutherland, Uschi Digard, Rick Baker
Genre: ComedyBuy from Amazon
Rating:  8 (from 2 votes)
Review: After a surprising announcement from the newsreader, we can settle down for the evening's entertainment, but before that there are the commercials, the first of which details an oil company finding new product not from conventional oil wells, but from such sources as teenagers' faces, Italian men's combs, and fast food restaurant meals - they are even looking into securing gas from chilli restaurants. Then we have the news, which is having some technical hitches with their reporter on the spot not being able to hear the studio, but not to worry as there's the lighthearted animal segment to come...

Before they made Airplane!, the Kentucky Fried Theater, which was led by the team of David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, recruited up and coming director John Landis to bring their vision to the screen. It was one of those seventies comedies that prospered in the wake of the popularity of Saturday Night Live, whose sketches provided the template for, but was not original to, the rash of such efforts. If Monty Python's And Now For Something Completely Different was the opening gambit in the decade's sketch movies, then the Americans took this idea and ran with it for the remaining ten years.

Sketch comedy in the United Kingdom was a staple of television, but in America it was the likes of Your Show of Shows that had set the style in stone, except that with The Kentucky Fried Movie there was material that would never have appeared on the small screen, not even the Not Ready for Prime Time Players would have touched it. It wasn't that the Zuckers and Abrahams set out to be deliberately offensive, it was more that they were luxuriating in the freedom that the loosening censorship of the day supplied, and so took comedy into a new domain, where anything went as long as it got those laughs.

Nevertheless, this item sticks closely to what the audience would have been familiar with on television, as the skits can be divided into small screen spoofs and big screen spoofs. Obviously the news broadcasts were part of the former, with Rick Baker appearing in a gorilla suit to run rampage during the nature section, destroying the studio in the process, but then that will be back to back with a movie trailer for, say, Catholic High School Girls in Trouble, which proudly proclaims it is "More offensive than Mandingo!" where "Never before has the beauty of the sexual act been more crassly exploited!" For much of the running time it looks as if the creators could not make up their mind which medium they were targeting.

But it really doesn't matter when the humour is so unafraid to be so silly, and as a result so funny. The centrepiece of this ridiculousness is a feature spoofing Enter the Dragon called A Fistful of Yen, starring Evan C. Kim doing a superb Bruce Lee impression ("We need total concentwation!"); at this time there were a plethora of Lee impersonators hitting the cinemas, and in a way this was the best, certainly if you had a sense of humour about them. But the other segments are just as funny - possibly the most hilarious is the one which is the least potentially objectionable as an explorer is interviewed while the boom mike acts very strangely, although cases can be made for each and every one of the sections, from the JFK assassination boardgame and the courtroom recreation where nothing is taken seriously to the Joy of Sex record that comes with its own safety net for the lady or the disaster movie spoof starring George Lazenby. It's not deep, it's not big and it's not clever, but The Kentucky Fried Movie was one of the funniest comedies of its era.
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

This review has been viewed 6518 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 

John Landis  (1950 - )

American writer-director who made a big splash in the comedy genre, starting with The Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House and The Blues Brothers. An American Werewolf in London was an innovative blend of comedy and horror, and remains his best film.

Mega-hit Trading Places followed, but after a tragic accident on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie, Landis' talent seemed to desert him, and he offered up some increasingly unimpressive comedies. He returned briefly to horror with Innocent Blood, and after a long spell away helmed Brit comedy Burke and Hare; he also directed Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and "Black or White" videos.

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
  Stuart Watmough
Paul Shrimpton
Darren Jones
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
   

 

Last Updated: