The Foot Fist Way Movie Review

By Prairie Miller

Less tongue-in-cheek than foot in mouth, fist or no fist, the martial arts satire The Foot Fist Way strips the sport of its spiritual credo and basically settles in for the lowest common denominator gross-out yucks. Following on the heels of the just released contrastingly far too self-serious Redbelt judo gladiator beatdown, Jody Hill's The Foot Fist Way dabbles in the sport for an occasion to flaunt bad behavior, including adult pummeling of small children, lewd training bouts, and female slut spouse sideshows.

Danny McBride is Fred, a sorta legend-in-his-own-mind low rent Tae Kwon Do instructor, mostly of eager neighborhood kids. When Fred discovers that his wife Suzie (Mary Jane Bostic) has been doing her boss at work, he deals with his resentment by beating up one of his plastic Jud-o dolls in the studio, along with the unfortunate kid in his class that he suspects is the offspring of that office loverboy in question.

When Suzie leaves home, Fred takes to hitting on a young female student who reacts with revulsion. But he is soon distracted by the return home of his contrite wife, and the arrival in town of Chuck 'The Truck' Wallace (Ben Best), a somewhat mythic martial arts superstar hunk who agrees to participate in the upcoming local Tae Kwon Do competition.

But upon returning home one day, Fred finds his compulsively unfaithful hottie spouse locked in lust with Chuck on the living room rug. A subsequent showdown between these two wacky warriors over the bimbo leaves Fred seriously beat up but not beaten down.

A Foot Fist Way has occasional chuckles sprinkled among the nearly uniformly grotesque proceedings, but the entire production in the end amounts to little more than the equivalent of an extended dirty joke with no punchline. A Foot Fist Way is the first project from Will Ferrell and SNLer Adam McKay's Gary Sanchez Productions. Fingerprints Alert.

Paramount Vantage
Rated R
2 stars

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com

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