Kung Fury (2015) Short Film Review

Back in December 2013, Swedish filmmaker David Sandberg started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to produce his all-encompassing tribute to 1980’s action movies, “Kung Fury”. While the Kickstarter fell short of its feature film goal, it far exceeded its initial $200,000 and the result – 30 minutes of gloriously insane, gratuitously over the top action that’s enough to make your eyeballs bleed neon – is free to stream on YouTube.

When self-styled Kung Führer Adolf Hitler travels through time to assassinate the Miami Chief Of Police, it’s up to Kung Fury, Triceracop, Hackerman and the rest of the gang to stop Hitler’s evil plan once and for all.

Borrowing from B-movies and video games in equal measure, Sandberg’s short film is exactly what a live action version of “Regular Show” would be and I mean that as a huge compliment. It shares the twisted and surreal humour of that show, albeit with a more adult edge. The green screen realised vision is a ludicrously affectionate and acutely observed pastiche; the concentrated essence of everything that ever was and would have been awesome in the eighties, fused into a garishly iridescent diamond of almost pure breath-taking insanity. The overall effect is heightened by clever production gimmicks which really sell the idea that this is some long-lost classic rediscovered on VHS, complete with tape distortions and tracking issues. There’s a sprawling fight sequence staged exactly like a sideways scrolling fighting game, dinosaurs, rail gun wielding Valkyries, Gods, more dinosaurs (this time with lasers) and to top it all off there’s even a cameo from The Hoff himself.

With “Pixels” barrelling towards cinemas this summer, a feature-length outing for “Kung Fury” is surely only a hastily offered studio deal away. It’ll be interesting to see if Sandberg can sustain this level of manic inventiveness and energy over a longer running time but for now, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Robert Rodriguez’ Troublemaker Studios snaps him up so that we can get a “Machete“/ “Kung Fury” crossover movie so epic, even Chuck Norris would wet his pants.

Gory, gratuitously silly and laugh-out-loud, punch-the-air exhilarating, its overt stupidity hides a sharp set of satirical teeth and some pretty sweet fight choreography.

9/10