Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) - USA - Rated RDirected by John LandisStars Evan C. Kim, Marilyn Joi, George Lazenby, Barry Dennen, Donald Sutherland
Uneven random collection of sleazy comedy skits makes for a sometimes funny, sometimes lame wrapper for a very funny martial arts parody that makes the movie worthwhile.
Kentucky Fried Movie is a collection of comedy skits somewhat in the vein of television, most notably television in the 1970s, but sleazed up for the movies. Skits include a guy going to a theater to see a movie in Feel-O-Rama, morning news parody, various commercial and movie parodies including a trailer for the faux Catholic High School Girls in Trouble, blaxploitation parody, and the centerpiece of the movie which is a parody of kung-fu movies.
From even before Monty Python's Flying Circus, comedy skit television was quite popular in American and British television. And like many of those skit oriented shows, Kentucky Fried Movie has winners and losers in the skits they present, but being this is the movies and not television, Kentucky Fried Movie ups the ante by sleazing it up with a decent amount of nudity in a presentation clearly aimed at adults. Overall this works, despite some lagging moments in the film, but especially worthy is the "A Fistful of Yen" kung-fu parody complete with an evil villain with an operation to show and a good guy who speaks like Elmer Fudd.
My Rating: 3 Fingers. A Fistful of Yen alone would be 4 fingers, but some of the other skits bring the whole movie down a notch.
Entertainment Magazine
