UHF
A film review by Chris Casino
***1/2 out of **** (Good effort)
Directed by Jay Levey, Written by Al Yankovic & Jay Levey, Produced by John Hyde & Gene Kirkwood.
Cast: "Weird Al" Yankovic (George Newman), Victoria Jackson (Teri), Michael Richards (Stanley Spadowski), Kevin McCarthy (R.J. Fletcher), David Bowe (Bob), Fran Drescher (Pamela Finklestein), Stanley Brock (Uncle Harvey), Sue Ann Langdon (Aunt Esther), Billy Barty (Noodles), Gedde Wantanabe (Kuni).
I'm a huge "Weird Al" Yankovic fan. I love all his song parodies, and I have since I was twelve. I have all his albums, and I even had the priviledge of meeting him three years ago. Does this have any influence over my review?
A little. But if there is a lousy song on one of his albums, I always admit it. But this is a geniunely funny movie. Some of the critics who complained about it said that there was no plot or point to it. Guys, it was a parody from "Weird Al", what do you expect, Shakespeare?
George Newman (nicely played by Yankovic) and his buddy Bob are constantly fired from jobs because of George's overactive imagination (which makes for some nice parodies). He suddenly becomes the manager of a small UHF station which he uses to create shows from his bizzare imagination. The baddie of the film is R.J. Fletcher (McCarthy, well cast), the owner of the rival station who kidnaps U62's franchise player/janitor Stanley Spadowski (Richards, the movie's real hero) so he can attempt to buy the station and tear it down.
While the story does suck, the majority of the parodies couldn't be funnier and the fine cast tries their best.
Viewed today as a cult classic, when first released it barely made any movie because it was released beside a dozen summer blockbusters. Although Al was happy with it (after all, it got some of the best test scores since the original RoboCop), this fact was a contributing factor to his not making any more movies. It really is a shame, as I (and every other fan he has) would really love to see him do more in the movie industry.
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