Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

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.

An absolute riot of hilarious spoof & parody comedy about "Weird" Al Yankovic's 100% true exciting and wildly outrageous life story. Daniel Radcliffe transcends into Al and guides us through this heart wrenching insane, delightful story. This film is full of amazing performances from all cast and is packed with fun, surprising cameos. It's been a while since a parody spoof comedy that was this well crafted, and this one delivers. Eric Appel & Al Yankovic wrote one heck of a script that does not miss a beat, each scene carrying into the next and surprising the audience each step of the way. This film, in my opinion, deserves some kind of a theatrical run. It's way too much fun with a crowd.

No two movies have surprised me more this year than "Everything Everywhere" and now: "Weird"! It's absolutely bonkers, a movie that only Weird Al could have made. This is the parody to end all parodies; it spoofs biopics/music industry and incredibly turns everything upside down by the end, operating by its own rules. It's insanely funny and one of the biggest comedy surprises of the year, and has fantastic use of setups and payoffs with its jokes! My only problem is in the 2nd half it really starts to feel like a sequence of funny or die sketches rather than a movie. But that's okay... it's supposed to be absolutely nuts! Daniel Radcliffe is awesome in role, and I loved all the cameos hidden throughout! Highly recommend checking this out if you can... it's impossible to find though unless you have a Roku... or as Weird Al himself suggested.. pirate it. So good luck trying to watch it, but if you do, you're in for a treat!

The casting choices in this movie may put off some viewers but is excellent nonetheless. Daniel Radcliffe nailed his role and definitely did the strangeness of the real Al justice. The dry, satire humor was sometimes played for cheap laughs and the chemistry between the characters wavered at some parts, but not nearly enough to be bad or noticable to many. The pacing was crazy and at some parts, it felt like I was watching a whole new movie. Regardless, I still very much enjoyed this movie and it was worth the wait. Celebrities such as Lin Manuel Miranda, Patton Oswalt, Al Yankovic himself, and even David Dastmalchian snuck their ways into this movie and really added to the fun, light hearted tone of the movie.

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.