Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Weird is an unapologetically ridiculous and over-the-top romp that’s sold by people who are completely, sincerely, and unfailingly committed to the bit on every level. It’s not particularly groundbreaking or subversive, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s smart (or so silly it’s smart), expertly executed, and genuinely funny.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a platform for comedy as a burlesque of drama, with enough winks, pop references and silliness to keep the premise going. Funny stuff.

Eric Appel’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is relentlessly silly, wholesome at heart and so stuffed with cameos it might give you the idea that a couple of generations of cool people love this guy.

Does it have moments of hilarity? Sure does. Does it run out of steam at times? Hell, yes. Is Appel a workmanlike director who mostly stays out of the way and lets his cast deliver the laughs? Yep, though he does try to get fancy a few times, with mixed results.

All of this unfolds at a rather brisk pace, but sooner or later, "Weird" starts to run dry. While the film is consistently funny — I laughed out loud, and I mean really loud, on more than one occasion — the narrative begins to drag, giving one the sense that Appel was right to make this a short film first, and that maybe, just maybe, it should've stayed that way.

Yankovic diehards will likely enjoy this movie since — like his parody songs — it takes self-serious pieces of pop culture and changes the words to something silly. Those songs though are usually under four minutes. This picture runs 108.

As for Radcliffe, he doesn’t seem to have a funny bone in his body, but then it’s difficult to tell considering the preponderance of unfunniness in this script.

This movie is real gold. Such a perfect parody of biopics could only have been born in Weird Al's mind.

Weird Al brings us a suitably wacky satire of the sleazy tell-all rock’n’roll biopic, while also having some fun with his own squeaky-clean public image. In Weird, we learn all about his abusive childhood, his secret obsession with polka parties and Hawaiian shirts, his fiery encounter with Pablo Escobar and his many wild, drunken orgies with “Like a Virgin” era Madonna. It’s an absurd fiction, of course, no truer than his resemblance to a frequently bare-chested Daniel Radcliffe, but half the fun lies in those wild, increasingly drastic departures from reality. I had a vague memory of this idea in its formative phase, way back in the bygone year of 2010 (ancient history where internet memes are concerned), when a joke teaser of the same name was first posted to the Funny or Die website. Revisiting it now, I’m not sure the full-length treatment was necessary. That trailer hits all the essential bits in a mere three minutes, even a winking cameo from the real Weird Al as a snide record executive, and gets out before the joke can wear thin. That’s where I think Yankovic’s brand of humor works best - bite-sized - and why his songs (not to mention his first starring role, the manic UHF) have weathered the test of time. We barely get a chance to breathe before the scene shifts and we’re on to the next topic. Not the case with Weird, which leans hard into the trappings of the genre it parodies and leaves slack between the bigger laughs. It starts strong and finishes with a bang, sprinkling a wealth of surprise cameo appearances throughout, but I was left wishing for more consistency.

Pretty silly. I like that it was self aware but the whole thing for the malt part is half truths or didn’t even happen. It can be funny at some times and Daniel does a good job at selling the movie. I liked all the cameos as well. But overall it was a little boring.

A parody of a biopic? Eh, it was funny for about five minutes, and then it just became another movie focusing on 80s nostalgia, of which the film and TV industry has had enough! At least we got to see some Colombians die!

Unfortunately, the film is nowhere near as clever, funny, or interesting as it should've been.