Buyers should know that in this MAD Magazine-level mock-rock-biography, made in collaboration with the Funny Or Die comedy production team, accordion virtuoso/music humorist/scriptwriter 'Weird Al' Yankovic and director Eric Appel (despite Funny Or Die's raunchy HBO series) stay loyal to the adolescent demographic to whom Yankovic appeals. Even swearing, sex, and addiction gags keep PG-13 chords, and violence is just for laffs.
Young Al Yankovic (Daniel Radcliffe, most of the time) grows up the son of a blue-collar, rage-filled father (Toby Huss) who hates accordions especially, and wants Al to work in a nightmarish local "factory" that only seems to produce on-the-job wounds and casualties. But, after secretly patronizing forbidden teen polka parties, Al grows to love the accordion.
College student Al discovers his gift for song parodies, beginning my "My Bologna," a takeoff on the hit "My Sharona." With university roommates as his ersatz backup band, and with novelty-music DJ Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson) as his sort-of-Col.-Tom-Parker mentor, Al becomes one of the greatest recording stars of the 1980s, doing "Another One Rides the Bus" and "Eat It." He goes multi-platinum, plays sold-out stadiums, is seduced by the ambitious, predatory Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood), and attracts a dangerous fan: drug lord Pablo Escobar (Arturo Castro). But will Al ever reconcile with dad?
Viewers might note a resemblance to Judd Apatow's verrry R-rated satire of an archetypal music icon, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, right down to a parody-within-a-parody re-imagining the hero as Jim Morrison of the Doors. The real Yankovic has an amusing supporting role, as a starchy music executive who dislikes the faux Yankovic's tunes, and several comedy greats go past in small roles (Conan O'Brien, Emo Phillips, Michael McKean, Patton Oswalt, Thomas Lennon, etc.).
Arriving concurrent with big-budget, Oscar-begging, name-dropping rock biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocket Man, and Elvis, the movie's burlesque of all the showbiz cliches is timely. But, admittedly, Weird makes the same mistake as those others—of being perhaps as much as 20 minutes too long. That's a comedy killer, but sufficient hilarity remains to more than compensate for draggy parts.
Mainstream collections should Dare to Be Stupid (that was one `Weird Al' original that does not appear on the soundtrack) and carry this high-profile comedy that honors the Yankovic canon.