Weird: The Al Yankovic Story - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
I swear that Daniel Radcliffe is one of the most interesting actors alive at this point, and it’s mostly because he made so much money as a child during his Harry Potter days that he can quite literally just choose whatever weird or eccentric role that tickles his creative pickle without having to make blockbuster style cash. The results are usually astonishing, with the actor going up and down the genre scale like a professional pianist, ranging from series dramatic roles like Imperium or Jungle, all the way up to the truly bizarre like Guns Akimbo or Swiss Army Man where he plays a literal farting corpse. Or starring in a nutsoid post apocalyptic TV show where he sings “She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes” in drag. So needless to say that I don’t find it even remotely controversial that the 5 foot 5 inch actor was going to be playing the part of 6 foot tall and gangly parody musician Weird Al Yanokovic in his very own biopic.

Being that this is Weird Al himslf here Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is not your normal biopic, but rather a parody biopic about the legendary singer (seriously, nothing is more fitting than having the most well known parody song writer have his own biopic become a parody). So, yeah, there’s literally nothing in this film that is remotely close to the truth outside of the fact that it is supposedly about Weird Al Yankovic and Dr. Demento got him his start.

The story starts out with a young Al Yankovic growing up in an overly strict family attempting to gain his voice in music. Naturally his father Nick (Toby Huss) tries to beat some sense into his boy, but “Alfie” is reaching for the stars and hopes to one day become a big polka star. Only thing is, nobody wants to hear someone with an accordion belting out punk and rock songs, so he’s forced to come up with parody songs imitating other artists. Unfortunately even that doesn’t work out that well for him as the music studios want nothing to do with parodies. Finally Al branches out on his out and comes up with some original songs and has a smash hit with “Eat It” (in this narrative he came up with the song before Michael Jackson made a parody of “Eat it” with “Beat It”). Now he’s on top of the world, dating Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood), becomes part of the Illuminati, kills Pablo Escobar, and basically becomes the most famous pop musician to have ever lived.

Ummm, yeah, I told you this was a parody. Even though Weird isn’t a real biopic it’s a load of fun and fits in well with the Weird Al motif of just having fun and being silly. Daniel Radcliffe is absolutely gold here, throwing himself into the role of a coked out rock star with all the gusto that he can imagine, and I was literally floored by how unrecognizable Evan Rachel Wood was as Madonna. The film is also a host to a million cameos and comedic drop ins of famous actors and comedians. Rainn Wilson hams it up as Dr. Demento, Jack Black stops in for a showing, along with a dozen more parodying other famous comedians and singers (my favorite being Conan O’Brien playing Andy Warhol).

The film never takes itself too seriously and just leans fully into the idea that this film is about as much parody as Al’s own real life songs. Al himself actually sings all of the songs in the film instead of Daniel (according to what I could dig up Daniel himself stated that they did this because he couldn’t sing in the same register that Weird Al is famous for), and it’s just pure Weird Al fun.




Rating:

Not Rated By the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

Originally released and produced for the Roku channel, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was shot using Sony CineAlta Venice cameras and captured at 6K resulting in a native down rezzed 4K master for the home video and streaming discs. Comparing the stream directly to the 4K disc (and the Blu-ray) it’s obvious that the physical disc definitely has the upper hand in terms of clarity and sharpness. The image is crisper, cleaner, and the despite the heavy period piece grading it looks fantastic. There were some intentionally soft shots here and there (think the underground lair of Pablo Escobar) and lots of fake grain, but overall it looks fantastic. The Dolby Vision adds a more nuanced appearance for the film, adding in deeper black levels and deepening that color saturation a bit as well. Overall this is a fantastic looking 4K disc and easily the best way to watch the movie in terms of visual prowess.








Audio:

Strangely, Shout Studios has given the film a full blown Atmos track as well as a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track as well. While the Atmos mix isn’t going to strain the capabilities of the object oriented format, it DOES show some fine tuning to the 5.1 mix. Dialog exchanges are crisp and sharply done, with no signs of imbalance with the music, and the surrounds are alive with the roar of a crowd or the melody of one of his many parodies flooding the sound stage. Bass is punchy and tight, adding weight to the action scenes (yes, there are action scenes in this film) as well as making a REALLY nice low end to the music. Overheads aren’t wildly active, but they do transport in quite a few ambient sounds and a few discrete pops during the Pablo scene. All in all, an excellent mix.













Extras:

• NEW Audio Commentary with Al Yankovic and Director Eric Appel
• NEW Deleted/Extended/Alternate Scenes Hosted by Al Yankovic and Eric Appel
• Movie Promos
• Featurette on the Making of Weird
• Late Night with Seth Meyers Interview with "Weird Al" Yankovic and Daniel Radcliffe
• IMDb.com "A Plethora of Cameos"
• Variety.com Interview with Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, and Eric Appel at the Toronto International Film Festival
• The Wrap.com Interview with "Weird Al" Yankovic and Eric Appel
• Lyric Video - "Now You Know"
• Trailer

Final Score: ​

Weird is going to be for the fans of Weird Al Yankovic and the film aims directly at those fans. If you’re not a fan of his humor then you might find the film a bit “too” odd, but those of us who grew up with Dr. Demento and Weird Al, this is pure comedy gold. I had a blast with the movie and ended up watching it by myself and then with my wife the next day because I had to share the good times. The 4K UHD disc is quite nice as well, with solid extras, making this is a very solid buy for the fans.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson
Directed by: Eric Appel
Written by: Eric Appel, Weird Al Yankovich
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Sugtitles: English SDH
Studio: Shout Studios
Rated: NR
Runtime: 107 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: December 12th, 2023

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will check this out when it is on the various streaming channels. He is a unique artist for sure!