The Foot Fist Way

The Foot Fist Way



Nobody likes squeaky clean heroes any more. Well groomed incorruptible heroes like superman went out in the eighties. No, we like Anti-heroes these days; Deeply flawed men who would rather be doing anything else, than saving the day. The one thing an Anti-hero must have though, if the audience are going to like him, is at least one redeemable feature. What Batman lacks in humanity, he makes up for by fighting crime. What John McLane lacks in clean vests, he makes up for with witty one-liners. You get the picture.

Fred Simmons is the Anti-Hero of this movie, but unlike the ones mentioned above, he doesn't have any redeemable features.

Simmons(Danny McBride) is an obnoxious, self-aggrandising, misanthropic Tae Kwon Do Instructor, who uses his status to make himself feel powerful. He encourages his pupils to tell him how great he is at every turn. He drives a flash Ferrari with his lusty blonde wife in the passenger seat.
Well, when you're at the top, there's only really one direction left to go.

First, Simmons wife Suzie(Mary Jane Bostic) starts giving hand jobs to her bosses at work. He finds out in the worst possible way too – She brings pictures home.
With his marriage suitably in tatters, Simmons tries to hold it together long enough to teach his Martial arts class. But, it's not long before the once great Alpha Male is breaking down and crying in front of the kids.

To cheer himself up, he decides to take his friend and two top students to a Tae Kwon Do Exposition, featuring the one man he rates higher than himself, his idol, Chuck 'The Truck' Wallace (Ben Best). Things start to turn around for Simmons, as Chuck invites the guys to party with him and agrees to host the class' next belt grading.

Even better, when he gets home his recalcitrant wife comes back with her tail between her legs, begging for forgiveness.

Unfortunately, Chuck turns up as planned, takes a fancy to Simmons' wife and bangs her senseless. Simmons walks in as his wife is crying “Fuck the Truck, Fuck the Truck”.
In an attempt to restore his dignity, Simmons challenges Chuck to a fight, with all too predictable results.

The film is shot like a fly-on-the-wall documentary without the talking heads segments, giving it a faint sense of reality. It's similar to the Office in that respect, and they both also share a main character who's difficult to watch. Simmons abrasive personality is best displayed when his wife invites friends over and he unwittingly offends them with, what he thinks is charm.

For a comedy, though, the jokes are light on the ground. There are a couple of laugh out loud moments, but the rest is mostly cringeworthy. The high point of the whole movie was when the over-eager student with anger issues knocks out an old lady with an uppercut.

By the end of the movie, our Anti-hero has redeemed himself though. His lesson is learned and his mantra is changed. On that level this movie really works.

Verdict 7/10
Not all that funny, but an original tale all the same.