REVIEW: Kung Fury

Despite being born in the mid-90's, I've always had a real fondness for the media that came from the 1980's. Even though I wasn't born then, I was raised on movies like The Goonies and games like Duck Hunt; it was the kind of stuff that shaped the older, cooler people I knew, and therefore carried a sort of mystique that pushed me to explore things that were released before I was born. With my love of the 80's, I was naturally very excited for Kung Fury, a Swedish spoof that was funded entirely by Kickstarter and released earlier this year. The trailer looked promising and the 80's as a decade is so thoroughly ripe for comedic fodder; it's a period of time with near universal recognizability and appeal. It seems like the kind of project that would be almost impossible to botch, but Kung Fury somehow found a way to be bland, boring, and unfunny all at the same time.

Taking place in the year 1985, the plot follows the titular Kung Fury (David Sandberg), a Miami police officer with kung-fu superpowers. After a time-traveling Adolf Hitler (The Lonely Island's Jorma Taccone) attacks his precinct, Kung Fury enlists the help of the appropriately named Hackerman (Leopold Nilsson) to send him back in time. Once he is accidentally sent too far back, Kung Fury finds himself adventuring across time itself to accomplish the objectively noble goal of stopping Hitler. If that sounds like the kind of plot that was entirely developed over the course of an afternoon, that's because that's exactly the kind of plot it feels like too. Kung Fury is by far the shortest movie I've ever watched for this blog, clocking in at just over thirty minutes; I'm almost grateful for this, since I don't think I could have taken an extra hour of what little Kung Fury has to offer. This is an over-the-top parody with barely any real, genuine humor. There's some tongue-in-cheek puns and a lot of absurd action, but rarely is there ever an actual joke with a set-up and a payoff; instead, we get a lot of visual cues and references that I think are meant to be funny, but which I didn't laugh at once. If you decide to watch this movie, I hope you like dinosaurs, because Kung Fury seems to find them inherently hilarious for some reason.

These sort of "non-jokes" rarely pay off in any way; the only one I found even mildly amusing was Hitler's first appearance, in which he shoots a person through a cell phone. The only reason this joke works at all is because it is stolen whole-sale from Danger 5, an acclaimed Australian show about a team of international spies attempting to thwart Adolf Hitler. Plagiarism aside, this movie comes off as something that a bunch of people who have never watched an 80's action flick assume the 80's was like. It's a parody of a parody of the 80's and ends up being too ridiculous for its own good, to the point that it assumes a bunch of absurd, flashy visuals can stand in for humor. The whole thing is like an R-rated farce targeted at 12-year olds; there's swearing and yelling and comical gore, but that's literally as deep as any of the jokes go. Random humor can work well if used sparingly by talented people, but Kung Fury is nothing aside from neon fart-huffing from beginning to end.

It's the kind of movie that completely, 100% banks on the punchline being "the 80's", yet it barely has any connection to the era that it's supposedly lampooning. Yes, there's shots where we see a DeLorean and a character wears a Nintendo Power Glove and David Hasselhoff appears in an utterly cringe-worthy Knight Rider-esque cameo, but the main influences for the majority of this film seem to come from Streets of Rage (1991), Mortal Kombat (1992), and Jurassic Park (1993). It's not as if the 80's is an era lacking in subject matter to lampoon in an over-the-top action farce. Black Dynamite is a similar film that, unlike Kung Fury, actually worked because, while it was over-the-top, it kept itself rooted in the era and aesthetic it was trying to capture and portray. Kung Fury is just too all over the place; the jokes, plot, and set-up to the entire film more or less amount to "someone wacky does something wacky". There's a moment where the main character is attacked by a "laser-raptor". It's very clear that this is meant to generate a big laugh, despite there being no joke aside from the idea of a laser-raptor being more than a little ridiculous. It's random, sure, but it's not a joke. There's no finesse, no substance, and no cleverness to it, which is coincidentally a statement that more or less sums up Kung Fury as a whole.

While I admit that the visuals are honestly very impressive given the budget, and the fact that this film was made entirely through crowdfunding is an accomplishment in and of itself, it still stands that Kung Fury plays like a failed viral video made by the self-appointed nerdy/funny guy in a college screenwriting class. The jokes are either utterly cringe-inducing or nonexistant, the pacing is roughly equivalent to a candy wrapper that's been swept up by a raging river, and the entire thing is like watching a community theater troupe act out the cutscenes to Far Cry: Blood Dragon (only the cutscenes are no longer funny and you don't get to play a cool game afterwards). Kung Fury represents the 80's the way Panda Express represents Cantonese cuisine; it's all style and absolutely no substance and the only way I could see myself enjoying this is if I was twelve and easily amused by internet memes. This is the part where I'd say something like, "if you enjoy X, you should watch Kung Fury", except there's no real reason to watch Kung Fury. It's not even really entertainingly bad, it's more just a crummy way to waste a half an hour. If you really need a fix of over-the-top 80's action, go play Double Dragon Neon; I guarantee it'll be a better use of your time.