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Kung Fury – a comedy funded through Kickstarter [video]
- dragontamer 11y agoKung Fury is more about the faux-80s that was brought about by Far Cry: Blood Dragon. Not that that's a bad thing, but "true 80s" flicks are a bit different IMO (ie: Breakfast Club, Back to the Future and the like).
- m0nty 11y agoSaw two (was it three?) decapitations in the first two minutes. One thing which distinguishes the 80s "genre" was that those things were rarely shown outside movies like The Omen. TV was deliberately sanitised, protagonists developed nice, tidy holes when they got shot, they had time for a few last-minute words, they expired with dignity.
- shmerl 11y agoIt's grotesque on purpose. Note the burning baby carriage and "Try cocaine" billboard in the beginning. And that goes all way through, as core of its satire.
- m0nty 11y agoI realise that, but "80s action comedy" isn't really true. 80s action comedies include such gems as The Naked Gun, Beverly Hills Cop and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. What's the referent for this movie, if it's "80s action comedy"? I can't think of anything like it, it's more like Duke Nukem frankly.
- shmerl 11y agoIt is a parody on '80s action comedy. That's exactly how I understood it. Given that films like The Naked Gun themselves are a parody, Kung Fury came out pretty much as it did :) References here are obviously Knight Rider and the like.
- modfodder 11y agoYou're aiming to high when you reference The Naked gun, Beverly Hills Cop and Bill & Ted. This film references the lower budget fare more than the popular big budget films. Don't think of the films you'd see of the cineplex in the 80s, think of the films you'd either see late night on one of the local UHF TV stations or on VHS, often starring Chuck Norris or some no-name mediocre white martial artist. Also emphasis on Action, not the Comedy (or think of Kung Fury as a comedic take on 80s low budget action films). I was a backer, but also grew up in the late 70s/80s and this film skewers my childhood movie memories to near perfection.
- pnut 11y agoEscape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China, maybe even Howard the Duck
- twp 11y agoPretty sure that the baby carriage is a reference to Battleship Potemkin [1]. [1] https://www.google.ch/search?q=battleship+potemkin&espv=2&biw=1278&bih=1345&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Y6JoVezND8n4UsvIgZgJ&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=2#tbm=isch&q=battleship+potemkin+baby+carriage+scene https://www.google.ch/search?q=battleship+potemkin&espv=2&bi...
- shmerl 11y agoYeah, seems like it.
- pstuart 11y agoI think the baby carriage is an homage to the Odessa Steps scene of Battleship Potemkin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_Potemkin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_Potemkin
- genericuser 11y agoWell that or whatever they were in gets blown up and you never actually see them die. But explosions have remained a popular death to this day, so they don't really date 80s movies.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoSpeaking of movie patterns, I noticed that Hollywood seems to be dropping sex scenes lately. In the 90s/early 2000s had to have protagonists in romance and a sex scene. Recently, it's hard to find a popular movie with one.
- m0nty 11y agoLet's face it, studios liked sex scenes because they were low-cost and (for many people) compelling. Often the most boring and irrelevant part of the movie, though. Conversely, I am struck by how much really unpleasant violence there is today.
- agumonkey 11y agoI believe it peaked in the 80s and is going down since. I just watched the magnificent "Slugs" (80s gore). I didn't expect so much nudity.
- moskie 11y agoPaul Verhoeven and David Cronenberg would beg to differ.
- pkroll 11y agoSearching IMDB for 1980-1989 keyword "Decapitation" shows 259 movies.
- talmand 11y agoBut those aren't action movies from the 80s.
- shmerl 11y agoI asked them to release it on GOG, to have an official DRM-free download option. If you buy it through their site: http://kungfury.com http://kungfury.com (to support creators) you get access to it on vhx.tv, but you can't download it from there. Of course you can download it from Youtube using something like youtube-dl, but it's not as straightforward.
- hedwall 11y ago(I was a backer though) But I can download it from vhx.tv (an .mp4 file).
- shmerl 11y agoBackers can, but those who buy it now - can't and I don't really see any good reason for it.
- rosser 11y agoAn exclusive perk for backers only?
- shmerl 11y agoLooks like it, but it's weird since it's released for free on Youtube anyway. So why should they prevent you from downloading it especially when you paid for it?
- rosser 11y agoAssuming my theory is true, because they wanted to encourage funding via Kickstarter. Offering exclusive perks is a pretty effective way of doing that. It's worked for every campaign I've backed, anyway...
- shmerl 11y agoSee my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9626713 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9626713 IMHO such approach reduces the number of potential backers instead of increasing it. Clear cut DRM-free release on the other hand attracts more supporters. All campaigns I participated in clearly saw DRM-free release as helpful for attracting more backers (those who reject DRM).
- yankoff 11y agoThis movie is amazing. Every scene is just genius :)
- steve19 11y agoIs it though? I watched more than half of it. It is a bunch of satirical scenes full of memes copy n pasted together with almost nothing in the way of actual storytelling, which makes it less of a movie and more of a collection of youtube clips.
- state 11y agoThe production quality is surprisingly good for something I found through a link that includes the text 'funded through kickstarter'.
- shmerl 11y agoCheck this trailer out too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTidn2dBYbY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTidn2dBYbY
- state 11y agoYeah, this is pretty impressive. I assume the production team probably has a lot of experience. Thanks!
- MrBuddyCasino 11y agoThat guy is 28! What is it with swedes that makes them so non-dilettantes?
- zxexz 11y agoThis is wonderful. Does it remind anyone else of Danger 5?[0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYXHzOqnMpk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYXHzOqnMpk
- zxyzzxxx 11y agoSurprisingly similar.
- zxexz 11y agoOne might almost imagine Kung Fury was heavily inspired by Danger 5. At around 7:30 in the YouTube video, they add Hitler. And then he shoots the phone; a trope memorably used in Danger 5. Also, the cop with the triceratops head - people with dinosaur and animal heads are another major trope of Danger 5. I'm still appreciating Kung Fury, though. Just an observation.
- msie 11y agoYes, especially with Triceracop and Hitler. And lots of guns shooting. And the vocal styles.
- diego 11y agoA couple of "mistakes" that I caught while watching, thought HN might find them interesting: - There's a reference to Viagra (6:20) but it hadn't been invented yet. - The "hacking time" sequence around 10:30 contains Java [1] which obviously came from the future. There are a few others, perhaps intentional. I won't spoil them here :) [1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/7478u4gkvnmjg6p/Screenshot%202015-05-29%2010.14.51.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/7478u4gkvnmjg6p/Screenshot%202015-...
- zxyzzxxx 11y agoThat is clearly C with macros.
- usingpond 11y agoAlso, when the dinosaur is fighting the Nazi robot, the Swastika flips sides. Boy, I sure hope somebody got fired for that blunder.
- andrey-p 11y agoI... thought you were joking before I watched the film.
- hyperbovine 11y agoAnachronisms are a no-op when the whole film is build around time travel.
- yellowapple 11y agoI'm pretty sure these things are easily valid in a universe where Vikings rode dinosaurs and wielded machine guns.
- talmand 11y agoDon't forget the laser raptors. The presence of laser raptors provides context for anything.
- mullen 11y ago
- SG- 11y agoWas instantly reminded of Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dofacvjRkc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dofacvjRkc
- ckeck 11y agoSurprised no one mentioned this already. I was a KS backer for Kung Fury and pretty sure that Blood Dragon gave them some "inspiration". Love them both!
- chipsy 11y agoNobody in the thread has yet called it what it is: retrowave. This was a musical genre first. It wholly appropriates the aesthetics of a subset of 80's media and condenses it into a "historical fantasy" world that is easier to digest than the authentic thing. You don't enjoy retrowave for its writing or storytelling, generally speaking. Treat Kung Fury like an extended music video and it makes way more sense.
- eco 11y agoI've never heard it called Retrowave before (thought that is a good name for it). I know it by the names Outrun or Synthwave. Carpenter Brut, Perturbator, M|O|O|N, Miami Nights 1984, Lazerhawk or basically anything from the Hotline Miami soundtracks are all good for anyone wanting more.
- smrtinsert 11y agoOr Jan Hammer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hammer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hammer) if you want to hear some of the real sound from the 80s. For those interested (and able to "stomach" the real thing) any track from his Miami Vice soundtracks are great - I think there's a selection of them on Escape from Television on Spotify.
- chipsy 11y agoMore "authentic 80's synth" soundtracks: Harold Faltermeyer, Vince Dicola, pre-BTTF Alan Silvestri, Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter.
- chrisdbaldwin 11y agoI particularly enjoy Mitch Murder; Interceptor is a fantastic Retrowave album with a hint of Chiptune.
- staffordrj 11y agoGuess what movie he just did the soundtrack for!
- jerf 11y agoSlowly but surely it is becoming possible to "consume" nothing but Internet for entertainment, even if you demand video. It's still got a ways to go. But Hollywood probably ought to be more scared than it is. (Hollywood qua Hollywood isn't necessarily going anywhere, "the best" are always going to congregate somewhere, but the "current regime" is probably going to very shaken up in the next few decades.)
- Ollinson 11y agoThese days I watch more hours of twitch.tv than I do films and TV shows combined.
- bane 11y agoYeah absolutely, I had some amazing highly personalized collections of youtube channels on different subjects that I could watch instead of TV pretty much 24 hours a day. Google killed off collections the other day because it makes the viewing experience "better" or some stupid garbage that nobody will ever be able to explain and will certainly be replaced by a worse answer at some point. But for a couple years I basically had a half-dozen highly-personalized tv stations I could watch.
- _random_ 11y agoIf something is nice Google either kills it or makes it not nice.
- vidarh 11y agoMy son used to watch lots of TV at 4, but by 5 he basically stopped in favour of Youtube - mostly things like gameplay videos (Minecraft...). Now he's 6 and I actually can't remember the last time he watched a TV channel..
- davidgerard 11y agoMy daughter has had her own computer since she was two, which is the joy of a techie household full of discards. She watched CBeebies streaming from the website, but has also shifted to Minecraft gameplay videos. (Which are, in all seriousness, what the kids of today have instead of Saturday morning cartoons.) I told her horror stories of how in my day, we had three channels and they only showed stuff when it was on and no other time and you couldn't just play it again. She laughed at our pain.
- Joeboy 11y agoCool array of '80s home computers at 10:20, including ZX Spectrum with cassette player and microdrive.
- shmerl 11y agoSee also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEkrWRHCDQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEkrWRHCDQU
- waynecochran 11y agoThat is so bogus ... Hacker man used pow(x,2)... why would he do that when he could have just done x*x? I mean, that's so freshman CS student...
- shmerl 11y agoHe also pressed Break and the voice said "Enter" ;)
- stefantalpalaru 11y agoHe always presses Break instead of Enter. That's some next level hacking right there.
- pkrumins 11y agoHe remapped break to enter.
- slg 11y agoWatching this last night made me feel old. I just don't get it. The ridiculousness and therefore the comedy seems to exist for the sake of being ridiculous. It isn't grounded in anything. That makes it lose it appeal very quickly for me. It reminds me of some of the old SNL movies. It takes a premise that was fun, funny, and interesting and stretches it into something that can't sustain itself. Different strokes I guess...
- nabla9 11y agoMaybe you are not old enough? This film is pure concentrated 80's cheekiness and really takes you back. If you were do destroy bad 80's popular culture and keep only 30 minutes of it for reference, this would be it. Of course it does not work alone for many, because everything in it is reference back to the 80's. It's very well done. I got 80's flashback from just those tracking errors in the beginning of the tape alone (funny how associative memory works). deeper analysis: https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/37mw8y/kung_fury_has_been_released_for_free_on_youtube/cro20li https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/37mw8y/kung_fury_ha...
- davidgerard 11y agoYou need to be older. I'm 48 and I thought it was hilarious because I could spot everything.
- relaytheurgency 11y agoSeems like it borrows a lot from Axe Cop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHGfSBr2FrY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHGfSBr2FrY
- irln 11y agoMy son and I thought the same thing. The fact that they were able to upgrade it to live action and still pull it off was an accomplishment.
- otikik 11y agoI started not liking Triceracops but at the end I was sold.
- bane 11y agoFor the people for who this went wooosh, can you chime in if you lived through this time period and remember the media or not? (full disclosure, I thought it hit the nostalgic feelings I have from that time almost perfectly)
- Torgo 11y agoI was a kid in the 80's and I thought the movie was pretty accurate.
- cmdrfred 11y agoI'm in Colorado today can't wait to get done work, head back to my hotel, and enjoy some of what this fine city has to offer while watching this.
- DonHopkins 11y agoDid anyone else notice that Hackerman looks like the 1980's edition of Bill Joy? HACKERMAN'S HACKING TUTORIALS - How To Hack Time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEkrWRHCDQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEkrWRHCDQU