Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Did Ya Ever See Weird: The Al Yankovic Story?  I have and it's my 5th Favourite movie of 2022.

Are present day comedies just not funny?  I think the last time I laughed throughout a movie was with the Jump Street movies.  Maybe I'm getting too old and too miserable to appreciate (or understand) modern day comedy.  Gone are the 90s when Adam Sandler would have home run funny movies. Or the early 2000s when Ben Stiller, Jack Black and that next wave of SNL actors would break into legit movies.  Let's not get started on the 80s with the OG SNL cast just crushing it with funnies.

Really think about it.  When was the last time you watched a movie where you laughed throughout it?

Well, we can reset the calendar.  Days without laughing at a new comedy. Zero.  Weird: The Al Yankovic Story broke the streak.

Honestly I laughed throughout the movie, each scene a great joke, ridiculous dialogue or crazy situation played straight.  That last point seems to be something lost in modern comedies.  There's always a joke about how bananas the scenario is just to make sure we, the audience, know that it is a ridiculous situation.  But this movie doesn't do that.  Some of the best examples are when the police bring Al back to his after he snuck out to a Polka party (which is treated like it's some drug riddled teenage debauchery) and his parents act like he is out joining a cult.

The ridiculousness keeps stacking.  The movie is littered with great cameos but they cast David Dastmalchain, famous for playing strange characters, often weird villains hence men or sidekicks, as John Deacon the bassist for Queen.  Last time I saw him he was the Harkonnen Mentat Piter De Vries in Denis Villeneuve's Dune, where he had no eyebrows and was dressed in a black leathery latex bin bag.  But now he is setting up the origin of  "Another One Rides the Bus".

I haven't even mentioned Daniel Radcliffe who plays the titular Weird Al.  I like that Radcliffe has chosen unusual roles since he was the boy wizard.  It somehow adds to the silliness. 

I mean the whole movie started out as a YouTube skit for Funny or Die.

Look I don't want to ruin the gags because it is such a bonkers idea for movie.  "Let's make a biopic of Al Yankovic but most of it is nonsense and we're going to play it off as if it really did happen".  "Let's have Madonna get kidnapped by Pablo Escobar."  It's a wild ride.

Honestly I ranked it as my 5th favourite move of 2022 because it is just a good time, fun, silly, ridiculous, excellent.