The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)

This "movie" presets a series of shorts which parody famous movies and real life situations in a hilarious way. TV commercials, news bulletins, horoscope, Kung-Fu movies with their typical sounds and even "The Wizard of Oz"... nothing escapes their mockery. Although funny by themselves, they sometimes tend to become exaggerated and thus resulting in a state of boredom from which only some more laughter can come to the rescue. It is funny, as a whole, but when you don't rely on anything else (a story or some kind of connection between them), it becomes hard to make a proper movie, let alone a very good one. It's good for raising up your mood, or for a good time with some friends but nothing more.

Directed by John 'An American Werewolf in London' Landis and written by Jim Abrahams and David & Jerry Zucker of Airplane fame, Kentucky Fried Movie is a scattershot skit comedy in which the gags come thick and fast. Fake movie trailers, faux news reports, and mock adverts abound, with the occasional cameo from a recognisable face.As is often the case with the sketch format, the comedy is very hit and miss—perhaps even more miss than hit—but when KFM scores, it does so brilliantly, as evidenced by the film's 'feature presentation', A Fistful of Yen, a keenly observed spoof of Enter The Dragon that sees Evan C Kim mercilessly lampooning Bruce Lee with deadly accuracy (best gags: Mr Loo's speech impediment, the guy with the bullhorn, and the three kung fu dudes, Hung Well, Long Wang and Enormous Genitals).Other moments worthy of mention are the trailer for the ultimate sexploitation flick Catholic High School Girls In Trouble (so many boobs!), the appearance of Big Jim Slade during The Wonderful World of Sex (a skit that also gives us the unforgettable line the line "the female, if she is so inclined, may latch onto his honker"), the very silly Courtroom sketch ("I'd like the ladies and gentlemen of the jury to listen to a tape"), and my personal favourite, Donald Sutherland as the Clumsy Clown.6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

This funny sketch comedy movie is, like Airplane, which came from the same writers a few years later, a vehicle for a lot of insane jokes. As with other films from Abrahams and the Zuckers, not all the jokes land, but enough succeed to generate consistent laughs.My favorite piece is a take-off of a school informational video on zinc oxide. It's short but hilariously funny. The longest piece is a dead-on parody of martial arts movie. While it doesn't achieve the laughs-per-second of Airplane or Naked Gun, it is still an excellent example of the gag-fest approach to comedy that Zucker/Abrahams perfected later on.

"The Kentucky Fried Movie" specializes in the tasteless. This isn't inherently a bad thing and, given the right material, can be genuinely funny. But this is not the right material.The movie is hit-or-miss on a good day, but the misses far outweigh the hits. Most of the jokes never land, and they usually wear out their welcome (Fistful of Yen just draaags, man). There were a few highlights - "Catholic School Girls in Trouble", "Big Jim Slade", "That's Armageddon", the film at eleven bumpers - but this is one of those movies I can say I've finally seen and move on. I'll stick with "Amazon Women on the Moon".5/10