King Kung Fu

• USA • 1976 • 95m •

• Directed by: Lance D. Hayes. • Starring: John Ballee, Billy Schwartz, Lois Ayres, Allan Baker, Fred Burton, Dan Campbell, Robert Carroll, Lee Elliot, Jim Erickson, Maxine Gray, Pat Hayes, Lillian Kelley, Jack Lee. • Music by: Alan Oldfield.

A remote monastery in China has trained a talking gorilla, King Kung Fu, in the ancient art of kung fu. Having mastered his fighting skills, King Kung Fu is sent to America to demonstrate the power of Chinese martial arts to the West. As he is travelling through Kansas, a pair of bumbling reports see KKF and decide he can be their ticket to fame and wealth. Of course, the gorilla gets away from them, and soon everyone is chasing the Shaolin simian.

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2:03

Review:

First of all, let me be completely transparent and admit that I used to watch the actor who played the John Wayne "inspired" character, Tom Leahy, when I was a kid in the '70s on the local TV station where he played "Major Astro"....one of those afternoon shows where the host plays cartoons for the kids after school. That is how I ran across this movie, looking up stuff on "Major Astro", so I may be a bit bias.

This is a campy spoof of kung-fu movies and King Kong movies. I almost imagine the idea was born in a small bar in Wichita over a few too-many rounds of Coors. The combination of the titles of "King Kong" and "Kung Fu" into "King Kung Fu" was probably first and the rest was spawned by that.

I enjoyed this flick, from the opening scenes where the gorilla snatches the banana from his sensi's hand (obviously inspired by the opening credits to the TV show "Kung Fu"...you know...."snatch the pebble from my hand, Grasshopper", only the gorilla's name is "Jungle Jumper") all the way to the end. It is low-budget and doesn't take itself too seriously (or seriously at all). When I recommend this movie to others, I tell them it's somewhat on the same seriousness as "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". If you like that one, you'll probably enjoy this one.

Review by dar-07490 from the Internet Movie Database.

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