Movies You May Have Missed: 9/20/08
A giant among children, Danny McBride teachesThe Foot Fist Way
It’s not the best week for undiscovered DVD releases, but this is definitely a Movie You May Have Missed.
The Foot Fist Way (2008) ***
Danny McBride made a pretty big splash this summer with high-profile appearances in both Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder, but he landed on LiC radar back in May with this R-rated micro-budgeted slob comedy about Fred Simmons, the world’s worst Taekwondo teacher.
The good news for Fred is that no one around his low rent strip mall dojo knows any better, but the bad news is that his world comes crashing down when he finds out his wife is cheating on him. In order to reclaim some of his mojo, he rounds up a couple of his students and heads out on a road trip to meet his Taekwondo idol, film star Chuck “The Truck” Wallace. Unfortunately, Chuck isn’t quite the hero he plays on screen and Fred is instead forced to look inside himself for redemption.
The Internet fanboy crowd started going crazy for this one when it played a midnight show at Sundance way back in 2006. Eventually it drew the attention of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay who made it the first release of their newly formed production company.
I wasn’t as taken with The Foot Fist Way as some, but I think it will appeal to those in tune with its crass yet surprisingly character-based humor. If you’re one of those, especially if you enjoyed McBride in his other summer movies, this might be just the thing to watch some weekend night with a few friends and a few beers.
Pathology (2008) *
Quite simply one of the worst movies of the year. Read the LiC review here if you must.
Filed under: DVD
Tags: Adam McKay, Danny R. McBride, Pathology, The Foot Fist Way, Will Ferrell
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- Review: The Foot Fist Way (2008) ***
I agree with Craig that the commercial DVD scene this week is dire, but world cinema is offering up some staggering masterpieces, beginning with Yasujiro Ozu’s final film, AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON (1962), a typical familial drama filmed at floor level in color, but exuding the humanism he is the top-rank master of. Only TOKYO STORY, LATE SPRING and TOKYO CHORUS rank above this story about a man with a daughter who is to be married in Ozu’s canon. I remember the master once saying that AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON proves yet again that “I don’t make anything besides tofu.” DVD Beaver has reported that the color transfer on this newest Criterion tops the one on the Hong Kong Ozu 100th Anniversary Region 3 that many of us have owned for several years. In any case I will be picking up my own copy tonite at Kim’s.
I will resume this discourse shortly on another post.
Another must buy this week is the Facets set of THE BILL DOUGLAS TRILOGY on Region 1. I have owned the Region 2 on BFI for awhile. This austere autobiographical, cinema-verite-styled black and white chronicling of a young boy raised in Scotland in poverty, deprivation in a small mining town is emotionally shattering, yet it’s spare, low-key and devoid of any kind of manipulation. It puts you squarely in the middle of it’s remote setting, and you experience yourself what the main character does. It is a defining moment in harrowing realism. The three parts are: “My Childhood,” “My Ain Folk,” and “My Way Home.”
Jean-Luc Godard’s seminal marathon, HISTOIRE (S) DU CINEMA is essential not only for fans of the director, but for true lovers of challenging world cinema. I have owned a very fine copy of an import, but this Artficial Eye Region 2 release is definitive in more ways than one.
Two Masters of Cinema Region 2 releases are up this week, both by French master Maurice Pialat: POLICE and L’ENFANCE-NUE. I have never seen either of these two films, despite seeing other Pialat works, so I’m excited to check these out in these Criterion-style packages with comprehensive booklets.
Finally, this month’s Eclipse box is out this week. KIt is AKI KAURISMAKI’S PROLETARIAT TRILOGY, and it includes “Ariel,” “Shadows in Paradise” and the director’s best film, “The Match Factory Girl,” which is a finally brutal revenge tale patterned in large measure on Chabrol’s LA CEREMONIE, or it is the other way around? Anyway, I own this set and the transfers are quite good.
Thank you for that Sam. I haven’t seen the Ozu and I’m looking forward to it.
We would be remiss without noting the newly remastered and restored Godfather trilogy, which hits DVD and Blu-ray on Tues. This set was extensively restored to Gordon Willis’ visual specifications and the audio for the first two movies has also been extensively worked on too. Word on the street is that this version is the closest possible match to what was originally intended when the first two movies were released and corrects many of the flaws of the previous box set.
I’m not a fan of double-dipping and I’ll probably wait to see the price on these drop a bit but I am looking forward to checking them out.
Oh, and I should mention that Paramount is offering a $10 upgrade rebate for the Blu-ray version if you already own the previous DVD set.
It’s funny, seeing McBride be so awesome in PE and TT almost made me like The Foot Fist Way retroactively. It was just too inconsistent for me, but I wonder if with multiple viewings it could become funnier. I definitely have more of an appreciation for McBride now, in any case.