Hey_Sweden Review of The Kentucky Fried Movie

The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)

Why, if it weren't for zinc oxide, we wouldn't have this movie!

[8/10 · 8 February 2012]

Hysterical break into movie making for the talented Jim Abrahams and David & Jerry Zucker team that would go on to great fame with the classic "Airplane!" within the next few years. This movie functions as a hysterical spoof of any kind of programming one might see in the theaters or on TV at the time. And, as has been said, this is definitely a product of its era. Younger viewers may not get a good deal of the jokes. But, overall, "The Kentucky Fried Movie" is wild stuff with the Z.A.Z. team throwing all caution to the wind and coming up with some wonderfully raunchy and outrageous stuff. There's no real through line, merely a succession of parodies. The centerpiece is a lengthy "Enter the Dragon" mockery titled "A Fistful of Yen" which has hero Loo (Evan C. Kim) hired to infiltrate the criminal empire of a man named Dr. Klahn, played by Master Bong Soo Han. Some of the Z.A.Z. team's jokes may tend towards the crude and immature, but it's such a hoot that they just throw so much stuff at us (much like "Airplane!" three years later). The pacing slows a bit during "A Fistful of Yen" but otherwise things move along quite well. TV commercials for such things as oil, zinc oxide, board games, and beer dot the busy landscape, along with spoofs of black & white courtroom shows, disaster movies, and jabs at news programming. The mock sexploitation trailer "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble" and blaxploitation trailer "Cleopatra Schwartz" provide some of the brightest moments, and provide PLENTY of eye candy guaranteed to make many viewers happy. The "feel-a-round" segment is particularly funny, using director John Landis's recurring "See You Next Wednesday" in-joke (and featuring a poster of his debut movie, "Schlock"). Special guest appearances are made by such famous faces as Tony Dow from 'Leave It to Beaver', one time James Bond player George Lazenby, the great Donald Sutherland, and TV veterans Bill Bixby and Henry Gibson. Fans of 70's trash cinema will also note the presence of Marilyn Joi (as Ms. Schwartz), Tara Strohmeier, Lenka Novak, and well endowed Uschi Digard. Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker themselves appear throughout, makeup effects legend Rick Baker is the gorilla, Landis the TV technician thrown by the gorilla, and future "Airplane!" cast members Stephen Stucker and Leslie Nielsen (uncredited) are utilized as well. This is genuinely great, unrestrained material that makes a number of comedies in the years since look bland in comparison. Highly recommended to fans of sketch comedy. Eight out of 10.