Stats:

Movie:
Kentucky Fried Movie

Stars:
Cast of Unknowns

Director:
John Landis

Writers:
Jerry Zucker
James Abrahams
David Zucker

Date: 1974

Bottom Line:
Highly recommended. Raunchy & dated, but shows that this is the predesessor to SNL & the later ZAZ projects.

Kentucky Fried Movie

"Kentucky Fried Movie" was an experimental movie in the mid-1970s and since then has become somewhat of a cult classic. The film is a string of skits strewn together. Clearly this film influenced the original Saturday Night Live format and skits.

"Kentucky Fried Movie" was also notable because it was directed by John Landis and written by Jerry Zucker, James Abrahams & David Zucker. A few years later, Landis would go on to direct "Animal House" and "Trading Places" (as well as the infamous "Twilight Zone Movie" segment where 3 actors were killed on set because of a helicopter). Zucker, Abrahams & Zucker went on to do "Airplane!", "Hot Shots" and the "Naked Gun" trilogy.

Much of the movie looks very dated by today's standards, but is still very funny. "Kentucky Fried Movie" was the first to take on the bad dubbing and chop-socky look of the Bruce Lee Martial Arts genre. This skit is the single funniest part of the film and one of my favorite film sequences of all time. There is a lot of experimentation with background sight gags as well as comedic elements coming from left field.

Not everything works and some of it is just plain raunchy. Parts of the martial arts film as well as some of the other sections can be considered offensive. But then again, the same could be said of early Saturday Night Live, present SNL, "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles."

Highly recommended. If you've never seen this before, this will probably join your guilty pleasure list. If you have already seen it, pop some popcorn and rent it again.