Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

In retrospect, I realize how foolish it was to expect an actual biopic of Weird Al's life. However, this was amusing as hell anyway.

I won't pretend this is any kind of cinematic masterpiece, but, mercifully, it wasn't another idiotic remake. Was it stupid? Without a doubt. Campy? Absolutely. Utterly asinine at times? You better believe it. But, it was ORIGINAL.

Daniel Radcliffe is delightfully cheesy, Evan Rachel Wood deserves an award for her portrayal of Madonna, and the understated cameos of comic legends make this one well worth watching. Weird Al is to be celebrated, and this does exactly that.

There is weird and then there is too weird, there is silly and there is dumb. This move had a bit too much dumb for me and went beyond dumb too many times. It's entertainment but I've just barely got past halfway and the feeling of turning it off started to creep in. I've gotten 3/4 the way through and can just shut if off and not finish it. The first 30 minutes or so were pretty good, I was having no problem watching it and it was enjoyable for the most part and soon after it rapidly began to degrade. It is Weird Al after all, so I shouldn't have expected it to be any less than what was delivered here, but it would have been fine as a more genuine story of his life than to make it so absurd, it went from a mildly believable telling of his story to just outrageous goofball nonsense. If the story was that A. L. F. Was Weird Al and Punky Brewster's love-child it wouldn't have been any less strange than the story that was told here and might have been just as entertaining. There were a few laughs here and there, but it went from hope to nope for me rather fast. I just don't know if I can bring myself to finish the last bit of it, I just don't really care how they decide to finish this story, it really doesn't matter, it's just so dumb and unbelievable they could have written anything and it doesn't matter to me.

For those expecting an honest biopic of 'Weird Al' Yankovic, get serious. This 2022 comedy was a pretty silly, sporadically hilarious reinvention of his life and career reimagined by the subject himself. He has a minor role as a record executive here (one of the Scotti brothers), while Daniel Radcliffe liberates himself credibly as 'Weird Al' after showing off surprising comic chops in "The Lost City" earlier this year. Along with moments of gratuitous, comic book violence, there's a staggering number of celebrity cameos stuffed into this free-wheeling parody of the master parodist, though Evan Rachel Wood has significant screen time playing a believably narcissistic Madonna. Funny stuff but for a selective audience.

Really? REALLY? I don't see how those two statements could possibly coexist. "I wanted Weird Al's real story." Okay, go look on Wikipedia I guess? Eh, just kidding. I can totally relate: I took my 4yr old to see Silence of the Lambs and that one didn't fit up to my totally bizarre expectations either, so I gave it a 1/10 review too (I kinda hope someone actually checks). I grew up in the 80's. I loved Weird Al. If this has been a serious movie now THAT would've been weird. I trip out we're all on the same planet with the same physics and everything sometimes. Crazy life all works out as well as it does all things considered. Enjoy.

I came into Weird: The Al Yankovic Story expecting an accurate biopic about the life of the parody king, but that's definitely not what I got. While tere are moments that loosely follow the real Al's career, the majority of the film takes liberties for comedic effect.

It's a parody of biopics, much like Al's songs parody pop music. However, I found the humor to be a bit forced. The movie has its moments, especially with Radcliffe's over-the-top performance, but much of it feels random. Some jokes land well, others fal flat, and the story veers too far into chaos for my taste. An okay watch, but not as funny as I hoped. It has a lot of Good actors tho.

"What in gods name are you doing? Those aren't the right words!

-i know, i made em better.

By changing the lyrics of a well-known song.

No, boy, what you are doing is confusing and Evil. Blasphemy."