Bill Bixby, Branscombe Richmond, David Zucker

Brothers David and Jerry Zucker, along with partner Jim Abrahams, hit it big with the parodies Airplane and The Naked Gun, but first came Kentucky Fried Movie, a collection of comedy skits. Included a...( read more  read more... )re the arts spoof "A Fistful of Yen" and the legendary "Catholic School Girls in Trouble." Donald Sutherland, Bill Bixby and George Lazenby (of James Bond fame) lose their inhibitions and discover their funny bones in these irreverent sketches.

Flixster Users

69% liked it

7,877 ratings

Critics

77% liked it

26 critics

R, 83 min.

Directed by: John Landis

Release Date: August 10, 1977

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DVD Release Date: July 4, 2000

Stats: 690 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (690)


  • September 21, 2009
    It has its moments but it?s not very good and it hasn?t aged well either!
  • October 17, 2008
    How does one review a plotless series of spoof and parody sketches? Not easily, I can tell you that.

    If you know Airplane!, The Naked Gun and Police Squad! (or Top Secret! or a handful of other films) then you know the kind of humour on display here, ...( read more)because this, too, is written by "ZAZ"--David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. This is prior to their directorial careers (at least in film) and is in fact helmed by none other than John Landis (so yes, you can expect a "See You Next Wednesday). It wouldn't be fair to describe most of the sketches, because few are long enough to be able to write anything without giving away the gag, which is the whole point. It can be noted, though, what (in general) is parodied, which is largely (as one expects) 70s pop culture. Television, commercials, films (both mainstream and even pornographic and blaxploitation) and more films, commercials and television. Around both edges (beginning and end, I mean) we have a sort of "wraparound" of a fake "Eyewitness News," jumping on the "Film at 11" bumpers and other largely expected phrases from news crews. We have commercials about companies like oil-magnate Argon, or the board game "Scot Free," and high school science films ("Zinc Oxide and You"), public service announcements ("United Appeal for the Dead") and so on. As is always the case with Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker, some jokes work and some fall flat, but this often varies from person to person. They're all doled out by good comedic actors (apparently coming from groups like the Groundlings and Second City--if that means anything to those of you reading this, as it does mean something to me), who have greatly expressive faces and know how to play everything, be it straight or over-the-top, rarely (if ever) mistaking one for the other and sliding between the two comfortably.

    The centrepiece is probably "A Fistful of Yen," with Evan Kim as (essentially) Bruce Lee, in an obvious parody of Enter the Dragon (which I have thankfully seen, so this made more sense than it might have). All I could think watching this was how smartly it was written--as with most of the film, it pokes at clichés, expectations and techniques used in what it criticizes, but never in such a way as to regard them as lacking in quality, so much as ridiculous at worst. Instead of the painfully obvious liquid consonant switch that most Asian parody does, Bong Soo Han (whether in actuality or just a brilliant recreation) reads his lines as they have often been done with non-English speakers in English-speaking films--phonetically. This ridiculously phony approach is taken for what it is--it's already hard to understand and pretty goofy, so they don't enhance it, detract from it or point fingers at it (except with amusingly repeated words). Evan Kim's style (I have no idea if he's actually a martial artist) does look enough like Lee's that the joke isn't ruined--even if he is a martial artist, he's probably not as good, but it's filmed so that that doesn't show or matter enough to be a problem.

    Of note are appearances by Donald Sutherland, George Lazenby, Bill Bixby and Henry Gibson (who worked a fair bit with Landis, Joe Dante and Robert Altman--and apparently was part of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In) who mostly appear as themselves (or at least as characters in trailers in the movie advertised as being played by themselves). Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker all make their most visible film appearances, too, appearing more than once each.

    It's a fun film though, moves quickly and throws another joke at you quick enough that you don't have time to complain about or analyze the preceding one that failed. I'm resisting the urge to talk about Zucker's current abomination, so let me just put it this way: at least this film put itself in a place that the only way you'd be offended is if you were a prude, instead of having anyone with any particular political affiliation.
  • October 21, 2007
    This was my absolute number one movie when I was 16. Who knows maybe I'll rent it out again soon to see if I still like it - lol
  • August 26, 2007
    A mix of short sketches spoofing, film and TV shows. The highlight a great spoof of Enter the Dragon. Made by the same people behind Airplane, Hot shots and Naked gun films. Loud, rude and crude but has plenty of laughs along the way.
  • January 12, 2007
    One of the far better spoof films ever made, Kentucky Fried Movie is a bar that all comedy 'spoof' movies should be measured against. This is a film that derives ingredients of not only creating satirical humour of other films, but also infuses satire of life and society in gener...( read more)al. One of the true highlights of this film's greatness is that it strays from typical slapstick, school humour present in such atrocities as the recent Scary Movie films, as it holds a far greater social relevance and irony that is sorely missed these days. This is the kind of comedy that David Zucker should be sticking to. And, with one final note, the Enter the Dragon scene is without a doubt one of the funniest scenes in a film of the 1970's, it's brilliant. "Send him to Detroi!"
  • November 22, 2009
    Friggin awesome! very silly spoof, but unlike the "spoofs" today (i use that term ever soo loosely here) this isn't just spewing out scenes from other movies, slightly askew, and it actually has jokes. -gasps- Amazing right? Only problem, some of the jokes go on too long.
  • November 19, 2009
    I admire the talent involved, but I did not particularly care for the movie. I thought most of the humor was just stupid. I understand it was supposed to be stupid humor, but it didn't make me laugh, like Airplane! did.
  • October 20, 2009
    An early Film from the guys behind Airplane, Naked Gun and Hot Shots. This is more a series of long sketches than an actual film and to be honest, looks pretty dated. But it has some hilarious moments and is definately worth hunting down if you're a fan of the films above.
  • September 23, 2009
    ok this isn't from the 80's but it should have been !?
  • August 15, 2009
    Some friends in college bugged me to see this because they thought it was the funniest movie ever made. They were highly retarded.

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The Kentucky Fried Movie Trivia


  • Name the movie!  Answer »
  • Name the movie!  Answer »
  • 2. Which James Bond actor was in all the following movies/films? Universal Soldier The Kentucky Fried Movie Death Dimension Gettysburg The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss  Answer »
  • Who Directed the Kentucky Fried Movie?  Answer »

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