Review of Kung Fury (2015) by Steve G — 29 May 2015

As Kung Fury mutters "Yeah. That's my bicep" as his first line in this short film after a bonkers '80s intro involving a homicidal arcade machine, the Swedish writer-director-actor David Sandberg makes it blatantly clear which niche demographic the film is targeted towards and what Kung Fury is about; a satire of '80s action and science fiction films that made their home on VHS, employing everything from Nazis to buddy cop tropes, dinosaurs, Vikings, time travel, an eclectic score and an oddly fitting cameo by The Hoff.

Boasting impressive CGI given the limited budget and draped in a permanent VHS filter, Kung Fury, clocking in at half an hour of runtime, cuts through all the bullshit in normal action movies and gets right into thick of things, as Kung Fury forgoes a prolonged backstory by simply saying "I was hit by lighting. And bitten by a cobra", and proceeds to travel back in time with the help of Hackerman (Leopold Nilsson) to stop Kung Führer, played by Jorma Taccone of The Lonely Island fame, and a heavily composited Nazi army, which at one point the ex-detective takes on in an impressive, FX-fied 'long take' fight scene.

Shot almost entirely against green screen due to the budget, numerous takes and extras, Sandberg's hyper-exaggerated love letter to films of that particular era, Kung Fury is a grassroots realized 30-minute short film that began through Kickstarter and made its way to Cannes after nothing but a gradual, meteoric rise through hype, and Sandberg effectively delivers bags of laughs, absurdity, and memorable one-liners through a series of aptly preposterous sequences. Joined by others, including two of Sweden's most popular comedians (Magnus Betnér and Björn Gustafsson), Sandberg, in all his kung fu moves, splits, face-scrunching, hard-ass gruff voiced performance, does justice in what he and everyone involved with this passion project had set out to do. Do yourselves (and the creators) a favor, and watch Kung Fury on Youtube for free.