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Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 20 June 2008 02:21

As can be expected, McBride is very funny in The Foot Fist Way, which he co-wrote and made with his buddies a few years back.

Everyone's saying that 2008 is going to be Danny McBride's year. With prominent roles in expected upcoming summer hits Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express, and with big-name fans talking about how funny he is at every turn (Will Ferrell among them), it seems that this speculation might just be correct. Factor in that he is as funny or maybe even more so than what people are saying; watch him in what is maybe the best film so far this millennium, 2003's All the Real Girls, and you'll see; almost all of his lines, with instant classics such as "When you're done being in love, you should come over to my place; I got a waterbed" are funny in a way that I'm not used to. For once the Hollywood hype machine is rooting for the same thing I am.

As can be expected, McBride is very funny in his sort-of-new vehicle, The Foot Fist Way, which he co-wrote and made with his buddies a few years back (I first saw it at Sundance 2006), and which has been a favorite of humor luminaries such as the aforementioned Ferrell or Patton Oswalt for a year or two now. Paramount Vantage's release of this film is really a quick cash-in on him, so they can kind of get his name out there and have something on the video shelves when people start seeking out his past work. But really, Foot Fist is maybe a little lacking in what it could be. Don't get me wrong, it is often very, very funny, but it has poor production values and pacing, and would generally be better suited to a short midnight run where its shortcomings would be lost to drunken audiences instead of the limited release that it is getting at respectable theaters during the day. Regardless, it is sure to find most of its audience on video, anyway.

McBride plays Fred Simmons, a Tae Kwon Do instructor in a small town. Simmons is unbelievably inept and confident at the same time (image Ricky Gervais as a young redneck and you've got Danny McBride playing Fred Simmons), but over the course of the film his confidence is shaken by his disgustingly tanned wife Suzie's (Mary Jane Bostic) constant infidelity and his hero Chuck "The Truck" Wallace's (co-writer Ben Best, playing a character obviously modeled after Chuck Norris) turning out to be a bigger dick than he is. Simmons regains his confidence by befouling his wedding ring and beating up little kids.

The Foot Fist Way digs a hole for itself when it tries to be about something, as the first 20 minutes or so before the plot kicks in are the best part of the movie. But if it maintained that tone throughout, it would be just as much of a problem that it never really was about anything. In other words, it was doomed from the start. Still, it is totally worth seeing for rising star McBride spouting such classics as "I'm so hungry I could eat a grown man's ass" or [to a young boy] "Derek, you got your cup on? 'Cause I will hit you there." | Pete Timmermann