Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping never looked all that appealing to me, but I must say it was surprisingly better than I expected. Seeing the trailers I thought the film was another in a wave of ultra dumb comedies, but up front, it's really not. Popstar is a little formulaic, but is admittedly funny, and finds a way to even be witty. Even more impressive, although not all that surprising is that some of the songs in this movie are actually pretty catchy, albeit mock-ups.

For those who love This is Spinal Tap and other films of that nature, this film is a little derivative. That being said, it's not as if this is just a rehash of other better films, that entire genre does require modernizations every few years. Because this film is spoofing not only the musicians of today, but everybody in the entertainment world. That being said this film does list as another Judd Apatow film and does have some formulaic moments that appear in all of his films.

The most notable "Appatowism" in this film is the overdone comedy trope of today, where the film lingers on jokes far longer than they should, under the illusion that lingering over a joke makes it funnier. It's kinda like when a goofy kid makes a great joke everybody laughs, and then the kid gets confident and keeps pushing the joke until everybody around is just wishing he'd shut up and go away. That being said, the film doesn't live off the annoying lingering joke, and succeeds at being genuinely funny, all the time. It's not the funniest movie this year, and it may not even be hilarious, but the film is consistently littered with raunchy funny jokes, that often deliver.

The film was marketed poorly, in my opinion, because it came across as an ultra dumb comedy, and in reality isn't half as dumb as it comes across as. The film occasionally wanders into the dumb comedy area, but often finds it's way back into the land of witty comedies, making it somewhat of a mixed bag. For instance, the songs are catchy, they are witty reflections of our pop stars, but they are also a little too on the nose, making them come across as a little dumb. That being said, underneath the thin exterior of a dumb comedy is a really witty reflection of our current music industry, and the pressures, idiocracy, immaturity, selfishness, and chaos commonly associated with it.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is filled with cameos from famous musicians and comedy actors, some of which even lend their singing talents to the musical pieces. At times it feels like the entire music industry is in this film, as they play along on a mockumentary making fun of them. However, the film is never really mean spirited, or all that damning it just grooves along, spoofing everybody from the musicians to the fans. For those who like the lonely island, you'll love this movie, and for those who are seeking a funny comedy, regardless of rating this is also a movie you'll love, but there should be a note, this movie really isn't for kids or the weak spined.

Look, I love Andy Samberg. But, his comedy just didn't carry the movie far enough for it to be good. But, I will say this movie is good to just watch with friends and not pay much attention to. But sitting down to watch it is just eh.

The big question heading into "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" was whether The Lonely Island trio of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer could make their brand of pop music humor work in a format that lasts longer than three minutes. Not surprisingly, it's in different three-minute clips that "Popstar" works best.

"Popstar" is a music mockumentary following a pretty standard faux biography structure: Conner4Real (Samberg) is a huge star who made it on his own after many of years of success as a member of the Nasty Boyz, a trio with his childhood best friends, Owen (Taccone) and Lawrence (Schaffer). The story predictably follows his rise and fall, narrating it with a host of cameos from actual music celebrities playing themselves as well as supporting characters.

Conner is an over-the-top caricature of the dumbest celebrity you can imagine, and Lonely Island makes sure that there's no element of his music or rise to fame that you take seriously. Ripping into pop music culture, however, isn't the movie's focus. It's a film about a music group because its creators' gimmick is musical comedy. The goal, presumably, was to create outrageous characters and scenarios, not create stinging satire.

"Popstar" opts for the machine gun style of comedy, unloading jokes in rapid succession knowing that if at least a majority of them stick, they've done their job. Ostensibly, that strategy works. A number of gags land and feel like rather original jokes, too. From a wolf attack to a wardrobe malfunction to an argument in a limo that's besieged by naked body parts, the sequences constructed with the intention of being funny often are, it's the wedged-in jokes that aren't centerpieces that fall flat.

Surprisingly, the comedy songs used in this movie aren't the highlights. Conner's single about equality in which the lyrics are all about how he's not gay even though he's singing about LGBTQ rights is pretty standard for Lonely Island. Fans of their music will be pleased, but the comedy really comes from the joke-writing and the occasional quick-witted dialogue exchanges.

Nothing about the plot is surprising or particularly clever, however, and knowing exactly what direction they're going to take the story within the first 10 minutes weighs down the ceiling for what "Popstar" could be. If more jokes missed than hit, this flaw would be abundantly apparent and have caused the whole movie to collapse.

The Lonely Island brand of cleverly packaged immature humor won't be a hit with everyone, but it definitely salvages "Popstar," at least enough that I can highly recommend the clips.

~Steven C

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For a satire like this to work, it needs to have its heart in the right place. I was hesitant when watching the trailers, but fortunately the film doesn't lose track of the bigger humanization with these characters and it wears its heart on its sleeve. But perhaps that's also why it didn't go as far as it could have gone, and when all is said and done, perhaps plays things a little too safely. Still, it's vastly entertaining and the performances are aces. Andy Samberg excels at the comedy but also on making the lead a very likable protagonist, no mater his flaws. It's very easy to root for him. As a whole, definitely go seek this out and recommend it to your friends. Very underrated film that deserved to be bigger.

Ridiculously underrated. Despite not doing good box office numbers, it remains a hilarious movie