The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
Three years before the trio of comedy writers of Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker (Top Secret!, Ruthless People) would score their mega-hit Airplane!, they made this sporadically funny, screwball vignette comedy flick which would give us a preview of the type of projects they would score time and time again with. This is a series of spoofs and satirical takes on popular television shows and films, with a ton of commercial parodies thrown in. Think of it as a very adult version of “Saturday Night Live”, and you’ll get the idea.
The film succeeds in that it is actually quite funny most of the time, yet the sum of its parts are greater than the whole. It does tend to drag here and there, especially during its longest segment, a Bruce Lee take-off called “A Fistful of Yen”.
If you are in the mood to laugh, Kentucky Fried Movie gets a definite recommendation, but you may find watching it about 15 minutes at a time much easier (and funnier) than muddling through all one-and-a-half hours in one sitting.
Qwipster’s rating: B-
MPAA Rated: R for language and nudity
Running Time: 90 min.
Cast: Evan Kim, Bong Soo Han, Bill Bixby, Donald Sutherland, Henry Gibson, George Lazenby, Stephen Bishop (cameo), Uschi Digard (cameo), Tony Dow (cameo), David Zucker (cameo), Jim Abrahams (cameo). Jerry Zucker (cameo), John Landis (cameo)
Director: John Landis
Screenplay: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker