Review by Tom Burns 

Despite how you feel about the final product, you have to admit that The Foot Fist Way, a long buzzed-about indie comedy about a strip-mall Tae Kwan Do sensei, has a pretty damn original marketing campaign - a campaign that basically boils down to "Very funny people think this movie is hilarious, so you should too." Originally released back in 2006 at the Los Angeles Film Festival, The Foot Fist Way travelled the festival circuit until it was purchased by the production company owned by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay (i.e. the men behind Anchorman and Ricky Bobby), who quickly became the film's biggest cheerleaders. Ferrell and McKay used their already-famous names to promote the film and recruited a who's-who's selection of comedians to publicly give the movie their stamp of approval (one poster for Foot Fist includes endorsements from Ferrell, Patton Oswalt, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen, Ben Stiller, and Jonah Hill). Meanwhile, the star of the film, Danny McBride, has leveraged his new comedic cache in Hollywood into supporting roles in Hot Rod, Drillbit Taylor, The Heartbreak Kid, and the upcoming Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder. Pretty good for a movie that's barely been released so far, eh?

Well, The Foot Fist Way is finally being graced with a wide release this week and, even though Rod Burgundy thinks it's one of the funniest movies he's ever seen, prepare yourself for the sad fact that the things that make comedians laugh don't always translate to general audiences. I'm not saying that Foot Fist isn't funny. It is, and I can understand why McBride has been able to turn his bravado performance as the delusional dojo dolt Fred Simmons into a Hollywood career. But this is a movie being sold by Ferrell and McKay as one of the funniest films in recent memory, and it simply doesn't hold up to the hype. Foot Fist is essentially a one-man show, with Bride as a redneck Tae Kwan Do instructor who knows the mechanics of how to break a board, but knows nothing about the mental or physical discipline that normally goes hand-in-hand with martial arts. He's pudgy, he's crude, and he never seems to know exactly what he's talking about, but (for unexplained reasons) Fred has been able to win the allegiance of his students and his big-haired trophy wife Suzie (Mary Jane Bostic). He's living the white-trash suburban dream, that is, until Suzie's infidelity and a confrontation with his movie martial arts idol, Chuck "The Truck" Wallace (Ben Best), throws Fred's life and his absurdly inflated sense of self-esteem into complete chaos.

Here's the sad fact - If you're telling friends about The Foot Fist Way and you want a quick way to sum it up, if you said "It's pretty much an entire movie about that karate guy from Napoleon Dynamite", sadly, you wouldn't be too far off. Not only does Foot Fist resemble Napoleon in its low budget suburban aesthetic, but also, both films deal with similar types of characters - uncomfortably oblivious idiots, living on America's fringes, who we end up rooting for because, despite their thick-headedness, they're actually surprisingly sweet. Foot Fist definitely falls into this category, however (and strangely), McBride's performance brings to light both the strongest and weakest aspects of the film. In terms of sheer performance, it's a tour-de-force. McBride performs Fred Simmons so naturally that, at moments, the character feels real, as if the movie is more of a documentary. And that's where the movie excels - as a one-man performance piece. The problem begins when The Foot Fist Way tries to have a plot. Fred Simmons works fantastically in a vacuum, but the film (and the comedy) falls apart when we're supposed to believe Fred's interactions with the people around him.

Granted, this is a comedy, so, of course, it's entitled to its fair share of the suspension of disbelief, but as Fred ventures out into his plotted movie world - with his caricature of a wife, students who never question his apparent lack of ability, and final mano-a-mano with an exaggerated Chuck Norris parody - the character becomes less and less real and, as a result, becomes less and less funny. I'm almost convinced that shooting Foot Fist Way as a Fog of War/Errol Morris-esque documentary would've been the better way to go. An hour and a half of Fred Simmons starring at the camera, trying to explain the tenets of Tae Kwan Do and convincing the audience that people like this really exist in strip malls across America. Perhaps the realism of Fred's character is why so many comedians seem to be embracing this film. It's certainly a fantastic comedy creation. It's only unfortunate the rest of the film surrounding Fred is so lacking. Ah well, you can take my word for it or Will Ferrell's. I'm expecting he'd win that showdown, but then again, I never starred in Bewitched, so that evens things up a little.

Rating: TWO BONES

Release Date: June 6, 2008

Rating: R

Starring: Danny McBride, Mary Jane Bostic, Ben Best, and Jody Hill

Director: Jody Hill

Writers: Jody Hill, Danny McBride, and Ben Best