The Foot Fist Way (Paramount Advantage)
By Raymond Mai
While sitting in my seat for the 85 minutes of The Foot Fist Way (opening June 6 throughout San Diego), I looked for tiny pieces of popcorn in my bag, moved my straw around in my drink, and tied my shoe. I was as uncomfortable watching this movie as a small freshman on a varsity football team. I've read some positive reviews written by regular people, and I quite frankly disagree with them. If you thought The Foot Fist Way was hilarious, you shouldn't have brought drugs with you into the movie.
Fred Simmons (Danny McBride) runs a Tae Kwon Do class ranging from little kids to senior citizens. After being cheated on by his wife, Suzie Simmons (Mary Jane Bostic), his life begins to go down the drain. His 5th degree black belt friend, Mike McAllister visits, and Fred, Mike, and two students go on a road trip to visit Chuck "The Truck" Wallace (Ben Best), who is supposedly the best martial artist of all time. A small dilemma happens at The Truck's party. He is convinced to come visit Fred's class for their belt-qualifying test. As soon as he arrives, he's attracted to Suzie. Fred comes home to find his wife cheating on him yet again. To settle this once and for all, Fred is forced to turn on his martial arts idol in a showdown!
The movie made me uncomfortable for numerous reasons. First off, some parts drag on way too long. If I had a remote, I would've been pointing at the screen and pressing the fast forward button on those particular scenes. Another thing is that the movie was intended to be a comedy, yet some parts really felt like a dramatic movie. It didn't go well because the drama scenes didn't correspond well with the scenes that were attempting to be funny. Another thing that bothered me about this movie is that it relied mostly on the actor's expressions to make you laugh, not what he would say or do. This was bad because it wasn't acted out well at all and it kept doing the same thing to try and make you laugh. I could only recall a couple scenes being funny. Most of the film was just the actors trying too hard to be funny. Fred Simmons' obnoxiousness grew old quick and it was just tiring to see him continue to be this way through the whole film.
What I can compliment this film on is that the storyline was actually decently written. It wasn't too cliched for a martial arts film, and it was believable. I definitely admired the fighting scenes. They were choreographed well and they were especially entertaining. This film starts off putting you in an uncomfortable mood and continues in that mode, but once you get past that, the movie isn't half bad. It's an entertaining movie with occasionally funny scenes but it has the potential to be better. You'll only love The Foot Fist Way (rated R for strong language and some sexual content) if you thought Epic Movie was a good comedy. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend this as a must see, even for people who jump from room to room watching free movies, because this movie deserves only 1 1/2 stars out of 5 in my book.
Raymond Mai is a soon to be sophomore at Mount Miguel High School where he's on the football and baseball team. When he is not studying or playing a sport, he loves to have fun, whether it's watching movies or just kicking it behind the TV with his Nintendo Wii. He enjoys the opportunity to voice his opinions about movies.
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