“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” chronicling the life of the comedic singer is a point of popular culture that we all knew we would eventually reach, but the new feature starring Harry Potter as Yankovic understands exactly what it is and insists on presenting itself that exact way. Just like Weird Al does.
We indeed get Daniel Radcliffe in the titular role and we get to climb the music ladder with him, as his parodies of popular songs get pitched, and ultimately catch fire in the unlikeliest of musical careers. It’s kind of a “biopic”. It’s kind of not. But it really doesn’t matter.
It is funny enough to make you crack a smile or two.
Director Eric Appel understood that we’re not going to have much patience for the material, and this leads to a quickly paced film. Whenever it’s not singing to us or trying to make us laugh, it’s moving the story along. It celebrates Yankovic but understands we don’t want a three hour movie. Radcliffe is actually good here. Evan Rachel Wood as an over the top Madonna is better. Its also good to see Rainn Wilson again as Dr. Demento and there are some pretty neat cameos.
This is a ridiculous movie though. Seriously. Its a joke of a movie that tries with every fiber in it’s movie making muscles to be silly. You’re going to know very early on in the film if it will entertain you or not. There is no evolution here. The last half hour dissolves completely into a mess of a parody.
And depending on how you feel about the humor being presented, it could work or it could not. For me it did… Kinda. Part of the time.
“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”
GRADE: C
Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes