Turns out it’s Rainn Wilson, aka Dwight Schrute. And he did a fine job. Payton Oswalt had a cameo as a concert-going heckler.
I really enjoyed it. Evan Rachel Wood was an inspired choice for Madonna.
And, hey…if you can’t trust a guy with a “Weird Al” avatar, who can you trust?
The movie was a mess though. Strong start, very weak middle and a not very strong ending. Acting was generally solid throughout.
Ironically Patton Oswalt had a cameo in the movie, but Rainn Wilson actually looked like Dr. Demento, so great casting.
So many cameos. That was fun at first. Especially at the party.
I disagree. It started off weird and got weirder as it went and I really liked the ending.
It was funny, not great.
The sequence with Pablo Escobar was very ill-advised. It had its moments but derailed the primary storyline and resulted in Madonna suddenly being gone for most of the rest of the picture in a disconnected manner, which was jarringly pointless and took away one of the funniest things in the movie.
The joke about “Eat It” just killed me.
No more parodies! Just original songs!
Just finished watching it. Given comments here and elsewhere I was expecting a laugh riot. I did get a few belly laughs, mostly at the “cameos” by various “stars”. Overall, I thought it was mildly amusing at best. It was too absurd and too hard to suspend disbelief to be hilariously funny. Wife thought so too, she left the room to read rather than finish the movie with me.
I’m not at all familiar with Weird Al’s real life story. It’s very obvious that much of the movie is fiction sprinkled with a few bits of reality. I just have to wonder how much was real.
Uh, about 1 percent. It’s a parody of biopics.
It was about on a level with three or four SNL sketches stuck together except for two things.
Daniel Radcliffe was good
Evan Rachael Wood was brilliant
That’s why I was disappointed Wood vanished for a long time. She was hysterical, and her and Radcliffe played off each other incredibly well.
Essentially none.
In truth, his life story would make a terrible movie. He’s had no controversies, no drug addictions, no arrests, no major life struggles of any sort. He has been married to the same woman for twenty years. He became extremely successful very early in life - he was extremely famous and a millionaire well before he turned 30 - so he never had a long, difficult road to fame, and has remained successful ever since. He’s beloved by everyone. The movie was in a way also a gag about that.
I remember his behind-the-music special the tags for it were him saying "well they’re doing one on me … its jumped the shark " and welcome to the most boring expose you’ll ever see in the opening
The closest thing he’s had to any controversy wasn’t even his fault and that was the coolio gangsters’ paradise incident where coolio said no so al told the record company to can it and they released it anyways and coolio got pissed and said a bunch of crap for which he apologized for being a dick years later …
Given Al’s broad, parodic style of comedy, I wouldn’t go into it expecting to suspend disbelief.
I recall when the show was going to commercial, they showed a clip of Al bawling into his hands, saying “and then, my fifth album… only went gold… instead of platinum! I had to settle for the medium-sized Jacuzzi! Ahhhh!!!”
Then he stopped and looked at the camera and said “Is that the kind of thing you’re looking for?”
He’s a national treasure.
I agree with all of this. I think that the only major drama (not controversy) from his adult life was the sudden deaths of both of his parents in 2004, due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
I met Al in Vegas, at the After-party for the Porno Awards. That was surreal.
his the biggest controversy? his record companies didn’t get or care for his sense of humor …they were bugging him for months for a holiday song and while irritated he gave them one but apparently Xmas at ground zero wasn’t the Christmas song they were looking for …and let him know about it But they still released it tho
I read somewhere that Oswalt was supposed to be Dr. Demento but he broke his leg right before filming. The filming only lasted like a month and their budget was tiny.
I guess that’s why the put Oswalt in anyway in a stationary role.
This is briefly referenced in the movie when Al wins an award.
My favorite cameo was Emo Philips as Dali.
Does anyone know if Weird Al has had basically the same band all along?
Largely, yes. Jim West (guitar), Steve Jay (bass), and Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz (drums) have been with him since the '80s.
[Paraphrased]
Al: Why didn’t you tell me you could play?
Guitarist: It didn’t seem relevant up to this point.
I loved the movie.
Is Daniel Radcliffe really that buff or was it a costume/CGI/makeup etc?