STUDIO: Paramount
RELEASE DATE: September 23, 2008
STARRING: Danny McBride
WRITTEN BY: Jody Hill, Danny McBride, & Ben Best
DIRECTED BY: Jody Hill
FEATURES: Commentary with Danny McBride and Director Jody Hill
Bloopers
20 Deleted & Extended Scenes
Alternate Ending

Danny McBride could easily be called the breakthrough star of 2008. His work in Pineapple Express was nearly movie-stealing and he was great in Tropic Thunder and even Drillbit Taylor. How does someone go from a struggling comedian to the go-to character actor for Ben Stiller and Judd Apatow? Well, McBride did it with a little festival hit called The Foot Fist Way. I actually interviewed Andy Samberg last Summer about Hot Rod, which also co-starred McBride, and the SNL star couldn't stop raving about Foot Fist Way. He kept saying how it was going to be huge and make McBride a star. Well, Foot Fist is an interesting comedy in that it's clearly a calling card for a very talented comedian. You can see why it made casting agents drool. McBride has his own unique style and he's the reason to see the film, now on DVD. But he's the ONLY reason to see the film. Foot Fist Way is from the vein of comedy that Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre pulsated through and it's just not my cup of comedy. I find these man-child comedies more annoying than humorous but fans of McBride's work this summer should see it just to see where it all began.

McBride plays Fred Simmons, a man who takes his job as a mini-mall dojo karate teacher WAY too seriously. He stresses the lessons of martial arts to his students and tries to practice them in his own life but this is not like David Mamet's Redbelt. No, Fred is kind of a moron. His gigantic ego gets roundhouse kicked when he discovers that his wife gave a co-worker a hand job at work. Fred kind of snaps and the job he took too seriously gets even more so. (A scene where he beats up the kid whose father he thinks had the encounter with his wife is pretty funny.) Fred becomes even more obsessed with a Jeff Speakman-esque martial arts movie star named Chuck "The Truck" Wallace. He's a total jerk, of course, but Fred has to learn that the hard way. The Foot Fist Way is one of those comedies that mistakes meandering as pacing. It's clearly a largely improvised affair and McBride is great but it's a one-man show. No one else in the film comes close to matching his energy or performance. If you're comedy viewer who doesn't mind one-man shows like Napoleon Dynamite then Foot Fist Way should satisfy you but those with a low threshold for dorky comedy should stay away.

The DVD from Paramount looks and sounds great, especially considering the film's very low budget. Indie filmmakers with massive loans just to pay their rent dream about having their films polished and presented this nicely. And the special features on Foot Fist Way are extensive, including almost two dozen deleted scenes, an alternate ending, bloopers, and an entertaining commentary track. McBride is a talent and he'll probably prove so in star vehicles much better than Foot Fist Way in the future but fans should be satisfied with this excellent presentation of where this star began to shine.