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The
Kentucky Fried Movie review by Lee Peterson
The prototype 1970's sketch-comedy movie, The Kentucky Fried Movie spawned a venerable genre of irreverent, "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" gag flicks and launched the careers of John Landis (Animal House , The Blues Brothers ) and the team of David & Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams (Airplane! , Police Squad and the Naked Gun series). A loose grab-bag of bogus movie trailers ("Catholic School Girls in Trouble", "That's Armaggedon!"), TV commercial parodies ("Nytex P.M.", "Willar Beer") and politically incorrect jaw-droppers ("United Appeal for the Dead" ,"Scot Free", a JFK assassination board game), The Kentucky Fried Movie keeps the jokes coming so fast and so furious, itıs hard to ever get bored. The centerpiece is the 30-minute Bruce Lee parody, "A Fistful of Yen", which hilariously, yet affectionately, sends up every cliche of '70's chopsocky flicks you've ever seen. A spoof of TV courtroom reality shows ("Courthouse") plays as a virtual blueprint for the Police Squad! TV series. Anchor Bay Entertainment presents The Kentucky Fried Movie in both widescreen (1.85:1, 16X9 enhanced) and full-frame, open-matte versions. The framing on the open-matte version opens up the top and bottom of the frame a bit as expected, but either presentation looks fine. The transfer looks exceptional, especially considering that the film was shot on a shoestring budget. Some segments look better than others ("A Fistful of Yen", for instance, has never looked this good). The Dolby Digital Mono track sounds fine, though it does reveal quite a few flaws in the original audio mix. The main attraction on the DVD is a boisterous audio commentary track with all the principal players: Director John Landis, Producer Robert K. Weiss and Writers David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker. These guys hadn't seen the film in quite some time, and their giddy excitement on the track is infectious. A trailer, a photo gallery and a reel of silent home movie footage that some of the crew members shot on the set "to prove to their parents that they were really working in Hollywood!" round out the supplements. Unlike some of its contemporaries (The Groove Tube , Tunnelvision ), The Kentucky Fried Movie' s topical humor actually still holds up. Look for offbeat cameos by Donald Sutherland (whom Landis would also use in Animal House ) and former James Bond George Lazenby (whom Landis claims was completely drunk during his half-day on the set! ). Jerry Zucker eased into the mainstream with the obscenely popular Ghost , while his brother's attempt at Kentucky-Fried humor, BASEketball , was one of the biggest bombs of the decade (though it will one day be considered a classic, mark my words!). Official Website: http://www.anchorbayentertainment.com
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"The popcorn you're eating has been pissed in...film at eleven."
