Just watch the trailer and you'll easily see if this movie is for you:
We laughed a lot. I especially liked the big scene early on that had a lot of celebrities — including Andy Warhol (played by Conan O'Brien) and Salvador Dalí. Rainn Wilson plays Dr. Demento, and Jack Black plays Wolfman Jack. Madonna is an important character — played by Evan Rachel Wood. Al is played by Daniel Radcliffe, and Weird Al himself plays a stern record executive.
We streamed it on the Roku Channel, and it was interrupted by commercials — as you might expect, a ton of political commercials. I don't know how I put up with it, because I normally watch zero commercials — other than in front of YouTube videos, like that embedded clip itself. I saw an absurd number of commercials related to Mandela Barnes... and don't remember a damned thing about them. Why would I vote based on commercials?
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39 comments:
I so look forward to the end of political commercials next Tuesday. I assume that the ad placements are due to some sort of commission system as a way for political consultants to put on fat for their long months of hibernation. They probably serve to depress turnout as well, since they are so aggressively depressing.
I watched the clip before reading the post and as I recognized Dr. Demento right from the get go, I'm probably among the target audience. Listened (and taped) the Dr. Demento show throughout the late 80s and 90s.
Though, I was under the assumption that UHF was the true Weird Al story?
Reminds me... I need to get some new spatulas.
We are inundated with political ads here in Tucson. Too late. I already voted and not by mail.
Did Conan pull off playing 5 inches shorter?
No No No NO! ... That looks like it ruins Weird Al.
Esp when the word "LITERALLY" was used.
"literally" - is like garner... garner on the nerves. Literally.
There's a really cool video of Al and Jay Leno driving around in a 64 Dodge station wagon. Interesting guy.
From Harry Potter to Weird Al Yankovic. Actually makes sense in a...weird kind of way.
Music and comedy genius. I’ll watch it again (with mute button in hand for commercials.)
Daniel Radcliff. Harry potter!
It looks formulaic. Really formulaic. Weird Al was never formulaic. Or maybe he was and I'm wrong here.
But if Meade and Ann like it - perhaps I'll give it a whirl some cold winter night.
Ann:
You’re not the target of ANY commercials.
My daughter was largely accepted into a university art program based on a charcoal portrait she did of Weird Al. The head of the department sent the portrait to Weird Al, and he returned it autographed and framed. He truly is a nice guy.
This movie was about one-quarter factual and three-quarters zany satire making fun of the whole concept of music biopics. I enjoyed the especially surreal parts, like that pool party featuring a wide range of pop-culture figures. On the down side, it was too long and there weren't enough laugh-out-loud moments. The jokes just expand on the decade-old internet short this movie is based on (which featured Aaron Paul as Al), without adding all that much.
My question is, why not do a real biography of Weird Al? He occupies a unique place in the music industry, and achieved long-term success with a combination of talent, vision, and the determination to keep doing the kind of humor he enjoys. (He's also a genuinely good musician.) How he got there would be an interesting story. The fact that he's not a typical rock-star type -- by all accounts he's a nice guy who's happily married and doesn't abuse substances -- would actually make it stand out from the dozens of movies about someone who becomes wildly successful, can't handle it, nearly ruins his life, and either finds redemption or dies. And it would even be funny, because Al is naturally funny, as are his songs. I can't imagine that will ever happen now, but it's a movie I'd like to see.
Political ads are to help sweep up the dummies who don't understand much or pay attention.
In CO - the political ads are filled with wholesale inaccuracies and out&out lies.
I love Weird Al, but I can't imagine watching this after seeing the trailer.
It looked like anything a Weird Al fan would write. The jokes are so obvious.
Thing people forget is that Weird Al is not weird. The culture he's parodying is.
The number of commercials you had is very different from my experience. I had maybe 2-3 "ad breaks" all for T-Mobile during the entire movie. I found it hilarious, but I've been a Weird Al fan for most of my life. His anger after Michael Jackson models "Beat It" on his already famous "Eat It" was great.
Just watched Weird too. Loved it.
Bill Peschel - thank you. That is what I thought. The trailer is so NOT Weird Al.
This movie IS for ME!!!!
i LOVE rocky road!!
Michael K said...
We are inundated with political ads here in Tucson.
word on the street, is that it was Already snowing up on Mt Lemon last week; so there's Hope for the World
I'm waiting for the Frankie Yankovic Story to make it to the screen, but I suppose this movie will do for the time being.
I just hope they don't make Al a CIA assassin like they did Chuck Barris.
"Did Conan pull off playing 5 inches shorter?"
I defer to Lazlo, but since Conan was a Barbarian, he may have.
I enjoyed the hell out of it. Radcliffe really goes for it in his performance. He's not hammy or cheesy, but takes it as seriously as he needs to. Wood as Madonna is excellent!
The trailer made me laugh and groan, so I may watch it sooner or later. Love me some Weird Al.
So, anybody seen the new All Quiet on the Western Front?
We have only some local and state races going on here, so we're not seeing all that many commercials. Then again, I don't watch all that much compared to the intended audiences, I think.
I saw the trailer several weeks ago, and it looked like the movie was going to be awesome. I will definitely have to make the time to watch it. Yankovic was on Sirius 80s channel yesterday afternoon playing a lot of the pop music from the 80s that he liked, and his choices were outstanding and ecletic, touching on a lot of songs that don't nearly the air play their quality deserved.
The trailer made me think of "This is Spinal Tap". I will be pleased if the movie is even 1/4 as funny.
Watched it last night in California. No political commercials. One of the benefits of living in a one-party state, I guess.
My wife and I really enjoyed it. We haven't seen anything like it.
I don't watch much TV beside TCM, so I haven't seen a lot of political ads. A few during Jeopardy when I was home in time to watch (I believe the extremely offputting Matt Amodeo is going to be on the Tournament of Champions this week, along with the also-off-putting but not quite so much what's "her" name; I would prefer that they go back to a five- or ten-day limit on winners). I listen to the radio driving up north and back, including the local station in North Conway on the northern stretch, but I didn't hear a lot of political commercials there, either (though there was one I heard a number of times that wouldn't make me vote for the guy, if I were eligible).
I've got Roku up north. I laughed a couple of times during the preview, so I'll give this one a shot next time I'm up there. Probably next weekend. This weekend and next, the local theater group is doing The Mousetrap, which I've never seen but would like to. Since the election will be done, presumably not the political ads, but maybe a bunch of others.
--gpm
ha ha ha
I love My Sharona.
I don't want to compare Weird Al to Barbra Streisand, but I can think of a couple of similarities.
I will try to avoid his movie but I can almost guarantee I will see it one day.
My question is, why not do a real biography of Weird Al?
Indeed. I've been a Weird Al fan since the beginning, as a teenager in the early 80s. I've done entire radio programs on him, own way too many of his records and memorabilia, and have seen him in concert more times than I care to remember. In short: big fan.
I liked the movie well enough, even those the whole "mockumentary" idea has been done before, such as in "Walk Hard" (in fact, Al's dad in the movie strongly resembles the one in "Walk Hard"!). Hell, Al himself has gone this route, in the mockumentary "The Compleat Al" in 1985. Radcliffe and all of the other celebrity walk-ons seem to having a great time...in fact, they were probably having a better time than I had watching it.
But to answer your original question: Yankovic wouldn't allow a "real" bio-pic. He's an intensely private person who rarely talks about his personal life. (The closest we'll ever get, I suppose, is the 'Behind the Music' he did a few years back.)
We're watching it now. Two commercial breaks so far, no political ads.
We're laughing really hard.
If you don't want to see YouTube ads use Adblock.
"Did Conan pull off playing 5 inches shorter?"
Speaking of height disparity, Weird Al is 6 feet tall and he's played by an actor who is 5'5". That's some strange casting.
The actress playing Madonna is 5'7" and towers over the actor playing Al.
In real life, Madonna is (maybe) 5'3", so real Al would be 9 inches taller than her.
The trailer made me feel like they followed too closely the Howard Stern “Private Parts” cinematic formula in presenting a self deprecating hagiography.
Seems Weird Al has the same appeal as Mad Magazine had in the Ancient Past. I remember getting a paper record in one issue. OMG I found it... from 1963!
https://www.youtube.com › watch?v=asaN8GWPsRA
What do they make in the factory? No one will tell you that!
We had Weird Al in the big theater for Haunt 1987, when Elvira was doing her movie.
It was a great show and Al was one of the nicest people in show business.
"You're all just a bunch of normals! I'm the weird one!"
I think that's going to be the DNC platform.
The problem is they think black people are weird.
And black people think they are normal.
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