Got a chance to see "The Foot Fist Way" in theaters...my quick review:


Danny R. McBride's performance is decent, but I think that even at his best, he couldn't save this film.

Some might believe (by the trailers), that this film would be a cheap shot and/or diservice to Taekwondo. I viewed the trailer with a lot of potential to simply be "all in good fun".

The problem was, it wasn't really fun at all--not the TKD aspect, but the movie in general. I remember laughing at one or two of the jokes, but even those jokes were forgettable. The pacing seemed slower than necessary, and some of the scenes ran much too long (not to mention some of the longer scenes were very predictable).

As far as TKD was concerned -- it wasn't really a bad portrayl. In fact, I would say that despite the setting, it had little to do with TKD. When watched, I think it's somewhat obvious that the movie deals with egotism & idol worship, and the hurt that occurs when the facade is cracked. Using that theme in a martial arts movie (a comedy no less) is extremely refreshing and directors of martial arts films would do well to learn a little from this.

However, with that being said: it's still a poorly executed movie.


Grade: I'm on the fence between a 'D+' and a 'C-'


NOTE: I had a lot of high expectations from the extremely funny marketing. The movie's website and trailer (worth the look:  http://www.thefootfistway.com) are unfortunately much funnier than the theatrical release


Also, I felt as far as the martial arts go: Despite the bumbling characters and organization of the school (e.g. Swearing in the dojang, a child teaching adults), it did portray some positive aspects of what TKD can do for people. And in case anyone was wondering, they did Chang Hon forms.

Tags: Movie Review