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| THE FOOT FIST WAY |
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| Actors: Danny R. McBride, Ben Best, Mary Jane Bostic, Ken Aguilar, Tyler Baum, Sean Baxter |
| Directors: Jody Hill |
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Distributor: MTV Films |
| DVD release: 23 September 2008 |
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Runtime: 85 minutes (1 disc) |
| Format: Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC |
| DVD features: Audio (Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, Spanish), Subtitles (English, French, Spanish), Commentary track, Gag reel, Deleted scenes, Making-of featurette, Alternate ending |
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Fred Simmons (Danny R. McBride) is a small-minded jerk. He's also a Tae Kwon Do instructor who often takes his aggressions out on his students. His wife, Suzie (Mary Jane Bostic), is not too concerned about his feelings most of the time. She's also not too concerned about marital fidelity. When Fred finds some photocopies of Suzie's chest, he asks about it. Suzie admits to an affair of sorts, but says it was because she was drunk - Myrtle Beach drunk. This shakes Fred's confidence, the confidence he needs as an egomaniacal instructor. The kids suffer. One child in particular is mistaken for the child of the man Suzie messed around with.
Fred tries to keep his Tae Kwon Do studio up and running, he tries to keep his marriage together, but it's difficult. His personality doesn't help him any. He gets together with an old martial arts buddy and a couple of students to go see a martial arts demo featuring Chuck "The Truck" Wallace (Ben Best). They manage to weasel their way into Chuck's hotel room to try to get him to show up at the next belt testing. He agrees to do so at the "Friend" rate of
$10k. When Chuck arrives, Fred finds him having sex with his wife.
Sparks fly with the testing looming the next morning.
The Foot Fist Way has some good gags and some truly amusing moments, as when Fred tries to come on to a new student and completely fails. It's a story about a man losing his footing in life and whose deplorable personality works against him. The film works in places, but it's hard to connect with Fred. The other characters are difficult to connect with as well - they are, for the most part, martial artists rather than actors and so not given much weight to carry.
If you have taken martial arts classes, you might recognize some of the procedures and typical student archetypes, but not enough is done to leverage this to any advantage. The film is recommended by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, as stated in the trailer. While it's got
some good stuff, it's not enough to promote it beyond green belt.
Enjoy the trailer, as you'll see most of the best bits here.
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