Step aside train wrecks, there is a new thing in town that I just cannot tear my eyes away from. I am talking of the most baffling cinematic experience known to modern man. I am talking of “Kung Fury.”
The premise of this short film is that a Miami cop in 1980 was both struck by a lightning bolt and bitten by a cobra while in pursuit of a suspect, which gave him Kung Fu superpowers.

 
Right from the beginning, this movie was a nonstop mix of awesome and confusing, seemingly drawing inspiration from every single 80s action movie, including “Over the Top,” which this movie seemed to take extremely literally.

 
This comedy exists only so that someone out there can test his or her sanity by watching it. At 30 minutes long, once could hardly say this qualifies as a movie, but if you really think about it, that is the perfect length. Any longer of a run time would make all of the puns, gimmicks and otherwise cheap humor tiring and annoying.

 
The movie was funded through Kickstarter, exceeding its original goal of $200,000, ending up receiving around $630,000. And while, in the movie business, that doesn’t appear to be a large sum of money, I would have to say that I watched the best movie possible for that amount of money.

 
Set primarily in Miami, Fla., in the 1980s, this English-language Swedish film is the brainchild of David Sandberg, who wrote, directed and acted in the film. In the film, Sandberg plays the titular character, who is the walking embodiment of every badass action movie hero from the 80s.

 
With his gravelly voice and Karate Kid outfit, it is hard to take the protagonist seriously. Most of his lines sound like he’s trying to rattle off cheap one-liners, but the expression on his face is deadly serious.

 
The plot is described on IMDb as, “In 1985, Kung Fury, the toughest martial artist cop in Miami, goes back in time to kill the worst criminal of all time — Kung Fuhrer Hitler.” But that leaves out the sheer ridiculousness involved with the plot and the cast.

 
Jorma Taccone, of comedy group “The Lonely Island” fame, plays Adolf Hitler to perfection. Taccone captures the intensity of the actual Hitler when he speaks, but spins it to sound utterly ridiculous.

 
Rounding out this bizarre cast is Triceracop, the giant god Thor, Hackerman, and two T-Rex riding Viking women, Barbarianna and Katana. If those names sound outlandish, it is because the characters are themselves equally confusing. When Kung Fury meets Thor, the giant interrupts the conversation to talk about his ginormous pecs, and then says, “Hammertime.”

 
The music at the beginning is described as “80s synthpop,” and boy do they deliver on that consistently throughout the movie. When, in one scene, the camera was panning over a lake near a mountain, the music got louder and I could have sworn that I was watching Highlander instead.

 
Fair warning: although there isn’t much gore in this film, there is still a fair amount. Most of it is actually decently animated. But luckily it does seem comically graphic, which kind of just adds to the hilarity.

 
It’s weird, but there must be some special effect on the movie that causes the screen to have that 80s camera feel to it. Slightly gritty looking, with weirdly oversaturated colors. The way it looks reminds me of a low-quality VHS tape that was made digital. But it surprisingly doesn’t detract from the watchability of the movie. Rather, it enhances the experience.

 
While there are a lot of visual references that people who grew up watching this type of action movie might appreciate more, the jokes and overall dialogue seems to be geared towards a younger audience.

 
I guess what it comes down to is that, while I won’t watch this movie often, I will watch it if I need some cheap laughs. Because where else could I get a dialogue between two Nazi officers denigrating each other’s Hitler mustache or an exchange like this?

 
“What year is it?”
“The Viking Age.”
“That explains the laser-raptor.”
Pure absurd comedy.