This film may have been hyped and publicised by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s production company, but it is really little more than an average low budget comedy. Fred Simmons may have flourishing Taekwondo business, but his wife certainly has issues with staying faithful. The real comedy moments come within the classes, where Fred teaches to an array of wannabe black belt masters from all walks of life. He tries to impart his wisdom and ethics of Taekwondo onto his faithful students. Danny McBride is pretty good in the lead role, although he lacks the physical characteristics you would expect from a master. I’d rather not have gone down the route of the Chuck Norris clone Chuck ‘The Truck’ Wallace; the real interest comes from within the classes including some dubious match ups. Foot Fist Way would have sunk without a trace if the production company had not picked it up. While it does feature some laughable cringe worthy moments, these are too few and far between for a comedy.
Fred Simmons is a small town Tae Kwon Do instructor in North Carolina who expects every member of his class to aspire to one day be as good as him and his idol, B movie star Chuck "The Truck" Wallace. After his wife starts a new job and casually admits to giving a co-worker a hand job as a way of making new friends at work, Fred’s well organised life falls apart and as a disciplined Tae Kwon Do master he loses focus. As a way of recovering he sets on a pilgrimage to meet his hero Chuck Wallace in the hope of convincing him to perform a demo at his schools upcoming belt qualifying tests, though this leads to even more problems. As a fan of 'The Office' I absolutely loved this film, Fred Simmons is essentially a David Brent type character, obnoxious, arrogant, with zero self-awareness but deep down wishing to be liked, and as a viewer you always feel for him. At only 80 minutes long the story moves along at a decent pace and had me laughing out loud throughout. If you’re expecting a slick Will Ferrell type Hollywood comedy then prepared to be disappointed, ‘The Foot Fist Way’ is a low budget indie very much in the vein of the U.S version of 'The Office' and films like ‘Napoleon Dynamite’, Office Space’ and ‘Spinal Tap’, but if you liked those chances are you’ll love it.