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THE FOOT FIST WAY
Directed by Jody Hill
Produced by Erin Gates, Jody Hill, Robbie Hill & Jennifer Chikes
Written by Jody Hill, Danny McBride & Ben Best
Director of Photography, Brian Mandle
Edited by Zene Baker & Jeff Seibenick
Music by Pyramid
Released by Parmount Vantage/MTV Films
USA. 85 min. Rated R
With Danny McBride, Ben Best, Mary Jane Bostic, Ken Aguilar, Spencer Moreno, Carlos Lopez & Jody Hill

To give credit where it is due, first-time filmmaker Jody Hill (who also appears in a supporting role) and fellow North Carolina University alumni Danny McBride pulled off an impressive feat in just being able to make a movie with nearly no budget, using mostly friends and non-actors, and then making some waves at Sundance and Los Angeles Film Festival screenings. They even have Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay, having formed a production company, putting their names up front as presenters.

So it’s a shame then to report that this is not as good as one might expect from the minor hype. It has a promising premise for a dirty indie comedy: a brash and foul-mouthed tae kwon do instructor, Fred Simmons, (Danny McBride), discovers that his wife has been sleeping around with her boss, which puts him in a perpetual funk. At a martial arts convention, he meets his idol, movie star Chuck “The Truck” Wallace (Ben Best), and convinces him to come to his small town to judge a tae kwon do competition. But things get worse for Fred.

McBride is game for the role, and sinks into it as if Fred’s a leftover character from Reno 911!. He’s crude with his students (a good old prison rape/fat joke at one student’s expense), flat out dumb with some regular folks (“Dentistry? I can't even believe that's something that's real”), and somehow taken aback by his wife cheating on him. And there’s a good, if predictably sleazy, supporting part for Best as a partying, egotistical jerk.

But the problem is that Hill takes on the mockumentary approach for no specific purpose; the hand-held camerawork comes off as amateurish and rushed (the film was shot in an impressive if, again, rushed 19 days). And aside from McBride, Best, and Hill, the non-professional actors all fall flat in connection with comedy. There are a few big laughs to be had, mostly in the expected scenes that feel improvised between Fred and his wife (particularly their last one, which I won’t reveal here). It’s just that the laughs to be had are merely guffaws at the expense of a lot of comedic barbs and lines that feel forced. Then again, for the crowd coming based solely on the Ferrell endorsement, this might just be what they’re looking for, the obviousness of McBride’s Fred Simmons sticking out like a sore thumb. Jack Gattanella
May 30, 2008