After Swedish filmmaker David Sandberg raised over $600,000 on Kickstarter, his dream of producing a wild parody of 1980s action movies became a reality with the viral sensation “Kung Fury.”
Initially released on Netflix in May, the 30-minute short film is jam-packed with absolutely ridiculous exaggerations of stereotypical action scenes.
For example, within the first few seconds, a group of three men in sunglasses, bandanas and tattoos flip a cop car using only a skateboard. Naturally, the vehicle flipped in the air and the gang shot at it until it exploded in flames.
Most people’s first reaction to this opening scene would be to roll their eyes and mark it off as yet another cheesy film, but ultimately, mocking bad action movies is the whole point of “Kung Fury.”
The plot follows a cop (Sandberg) who becomes Kung Fury after being simultaneously bitten by a cobra and struck by lightning while chasing a kung fu master. This absurd coincidence allows him to fulfill the prophecy of “The Chosen One” and learn a special new type of kung fu just for him.
In any quality action movie, the star can’t fight crime alone. Kung Fury originally has a partner who is gruesomely sliced in half, and the trauma leads the main character to refuse to work with his new companion, Triceracop, who is literally a triceratops wearing a police uniform.
Other important characters include: Hackerman, the most powerful hacker of all time, whose abilities allow him to send Kung Fury back in time and “hack” away his bullet wounds; Adolf Hitler (Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone), the worst criminal of all time, who desires to be “The Chosen One” himself; and Thor, whose strong pecs allow him to hammer out a time portal for the hero.
As someone who struggles to follow action movie plots, I appreciated the fastpaced transistions throughout. Audiences are not expected to keep up with the story, but rather enjoy the crazy effects and unbelievable circumstances.
I would highly recommend this short film to those who do not like action movies because it makes fun of the negative aspects. However, this feature also serves to entertain action lovers because it includes rapid stunts and gory violence.
