Weird: The Al Yankovic Story review – Daniel Radcliffe stars in ‘self-penned comedy’ | Films | Entertainment
For those who don’t remember the novelty record era, Weird Al was a frizzy-haired American who made it on to the hit parade (that’s what we called the pop charts) by changing the lyrics to other acts’ songs.
His biggest UK hit was a mildly amusing 1984 food-based parody of Michael Jackson’s Beat It.
In this telling, his Eat It (“Open your mouth and feed it”) was an original song later plagiarised by the Prince of Pop. At the time of writing, the Jackson Estate hasn’t instigated legal proceedings.
Neither has Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood) who, in this account, cruelly seduced Yankovic in a bid to boost her own flagging fame.
As Al rises to global stardom, swipes are aimed at more po-faced rock biopics as he escapes his overbearing parents (Rocketman) and has a eureka moment while jamming with his friends (Bohemian Rhapsody).
The zany humour runs out of steam towards the end but, in its best moments, Weird has the zingers of a Naked Gun movie (Yankovic had cameos in three of them) and the offbeat humour of 80s’ TV series The Comic Strip Presents.
- Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Cert15, Streaming On Roku Now
