The Foot Fist Way

70

THE FOOT FIST WAY, an uproarious, full-contact comedy featuring one of this year’s least likely heroes, is the first project from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Gary Sanchez Productions. Included in Ain’t It Cool News’ Top 10 Films of 2007, THE FOOT FIST WAY became a sensation at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, as audiences fell in love with the seriously self-deluded Tae Kwon Do instructor Fred Simmons, who talks a big, macho game, but falls to pieces when his wife betrays him.

Self-control, courtesy, perseverance, integrity and an indomitable spirit – those are the basic tenets preached by the proud but stern Master instructor Simmons at the Concord Tae Kwon Do Studio. There “the way of the foot and the fist,” a.k.a. the definition of the featured Korean martial art, turns boys into black belts and suburbanites into great warriors.

That is, until Simmons’ seemingly perfect life starts collapsing when he discovers his wife having an affair on him. Twice. A chance to resurrect his life by battling his hero - the 8-time undefeated champ and star of the “Seven Rings of Pain” trilogy, Chuck “The Truck” Wallace - gives Simmons’ life purpose as he winds up on a wild, comic journey that will take him from egomaniacal bluster all the way to becoming the stand-up man of his delusional dreams.

THE FOOT FIST WAY is the comedy that some of the funniest guys in America think is the funniest movie in America. The film was shot in just 19 days on a credit card-financed micro-budget with a cast of mostly newcomers. Featuring the debut of North Carolina native Jody Hill as writer, director and producer and two hilariously tough-yet-tender performances from co-writers Danny McBride as Fred and Ben Best as Chuck “The Truck,” the film helped Hill, McBride and Best garner a place on Variety’s “Ten Comics to Watch” list.