Kung Fury
2015 · 31m · Sweden
Directed by David Sandberg
Genres: action, comedy, sci-fi
Tones: absurdist, humorous, tense
In 1985 Miami, a kung fu cop travels back in time to kill Adolf Hitler, teaming up with vikings, dinosaurs, and a sentient arcade machine in this crowdfunded homage to over-the-top 1980s action cinema.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Loud, dumb, knowingly stupid, and somehow exactly the right kind of self-aware idiot. Hasselhoff in a Lamborghini singing about true survivors — I'd be a liar if I said I didn't grin.
Sandberg's pastiche commits fully to its synthwave Saturday-morning hallucination, which is also its ceiling; the joke is the film and the film is the joke. I admire the conviction more than the result.
41M views and Kickstarter-funded — the page confirms the viral pickup — but it's age-restricted on YouTube which signals the gore commitment is real, not winking. Sandberg shoots intentionally bad VFX with deadpan compositions, and that gap between framing and content is the whole joke.
Reviews
Loaded with in-jokes and insane special effects, representing a Swedish superfan's hilarious homage to the best (and worst) of '80s action movies.
While Kung Fury is not for everyone (or even most people), it is a truly great film for its time — funny, self-referential, nostalgic, and so incredibly bizarre.
Festivals
- Cannes Film Festival 2015