Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Review

 

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a biographical parody film, which is not only a satire of biopics, but is also loosely based on Yankovic's life and career. The film is produced by Funny or Die and Tango and distributed by The Roku Channel. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is written by Eric Appel and Weird Al Yankovic and directed by Eric Appel.

The story is Al has your typical upbringing, expect while he wants to play the accordion, he was raised to believe playing such an instrument was a sin. Soon he rebels against such a claim which then sends him to musical stardom. He soon becomes an instant classic and a sex symbol as well. However, Al will soon learn that if he doesn't shape up soon, this new lifestyle may destroy him.

Initial Reaction

The reason for wanting to see it was simple. I like Weird Al. I may not be the biggest fan around, but have heard quite a bit of his music, and had a good laugh every time. So when I heard there was a movie about him coming out, I just had to give it a look.

Cons

I've got nothing, just move on.

Middle Ground

Now for a majority of the movie the pacing is almost perfect. I say almost cause I did feel as though there were a couple of moments that did feel slow. But no too much to the point where I really dragged down the film for me.

Pros

Now since this movie is a parody of biopics, more specifically ones about musicians, does it do a good job at being a parody of that genre, and yes, it does. It does a fantastic job at parodying those biopics. You got the checkered past, the big argument with the parent (or parents) who just doesn't understand, the one song plays and what feels like only a day the musician is a huge hit, and so and so forth. All of that stuff is parodied perfectly. Now speaking of the humor as far as jokes go for a parody film, this film gave us spectacular jokes. I was laughing throughout this whole thing. I mean it, for what feels like an eternity, we just haven't gotten any good spoof films as of late. So watching this was a breath of fresh air. I can only imagine how much fun Weird Al and Eric Appel were having when they were writing this. As I'm writing this, I actually have this feeling of rewatching it all over again. Which is another welcomed surprise. Sure, there have been a lot of films that came out and I feel like watching those, but this one, I wanna rewatch it right now. I wasn't expecting a movie like this to have any rewatchability, but it truly does. The last thing I'll praise is Daniel Radcliffe's performance. Now I knew he had range, I have watched something with him that didn't have anything related to Harry Potter. But I do admit I didn't really have faith with him playing Weird Al. So I was happy to know I was proving wrong. Not only did he give a great performance, but a hilarious one. Way to go Daniel. You were awesome.

Weird: The Al Yanokvic Story is something I recommend you should check out. It's a perfect parody of musician biopics, it's got a great sense of humor, it's very much rewatchable, and Radcliffe gave a very funny performance. Was slow in some bits, but that can be forgiven.

My final rating is Great.

So that's going to do it for me. Come back on Monday, Nov 7th, my A Look Back at review of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day, and do watch Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.