UHF Movie Review

Several decades ago, MTV actually played music videos instead of asinine “reality” shows. This was great because it kept musicians too busy to make terrible movies. Had MTV come along sooner, we’d have fewer awful Elvis Presley films. There are still some “music video” movies made to glorify allegedly talented musicians, such as Spice World (1997) featuring The Spice Girls. "Weird Al" Yankovic, known for his humorous song parodies that make light of popular culture, starred in a movie called UHF (1989). Unlike Spice World or Presley’s G.I. Blues (1960), UHF wasn’t simply publicity for Weird Al, and was actually pretty funny.

Imaginative George Newman ("Weird Al" Yankovic) and his friend Bob (David Bowe) have just been fired from their jobs at Burger World. George’s Uncle Harvey (Stanley Brock) recently won a nearly bankrupt UHF television station in a poker game and consents to let George and Bob manage it. George turns the station into a success by letting the janitor, Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards), host a kid’s show. George fills the broadcast day with wacky programs which bring the ratings up, saving the station. This threatens R.J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy), CEO of rival station Channel 8. Fletcher tries to buy the station off of Uncle Harvey who is in thousands of dollars in debt from gambling losses. George must come up with a way to save the TV station.

UHF didn’t receive much critical acclaim, but it has become a cult classic. It’s full of slapstick physical comedy that would fit well into a Saturday morning cartoon. It starts off with an Indiana Jones parody where George (dressed as Indy) is trying to retrieve an Oscar Award from some Aztec ruins. He is chased by a giant boulder out of the ruins, through various non-sequitur scenic backgrounds, and all the way to New York City where he is flattened like a pancake. The comedy is often surreal and weird; you’ll probably need to have a weird sense of humor to really enjoy the film, or maybe have just enjoyed Bugs Bunny cartoons as a kid.

The story is fairly weak, and really only serves to string together the wacky physical gags and jokes. There is a lot of satire in UHF, poking fun mostly at TV and movies. When a host for an animal show receives a delivery he says, “Badgers? We don't need no stinking badgers!” a reference to Blazing Saddles (1974). There is a scene where George imagines a rescue attempt being something like a Rambo movie; a gunshot kills more enemies than is physically possible and he catches bullets fired at him with his teeth. There are commercials for other wacky shows like “Conan the Librarian” and businesses like “Spatula City.” The references are a bit dated, but are still relatable to contemporary television. There is a talk show scene which parodies Geraldo (which itself was a precursor to Jerry Springer). Television hasn’t changed all that much since the 80’s, it seems.

Most movies that feature “music artists” take every chance it can to cram their latest hit down your throat. While Weird Al dose some songs in UHF, they are primarily in the background. George has a dream sequence which is essentially a music video of Weird Al’s Beverly Hillbillies song. This isn’t a shameless self promotion on Weird Al’s part; it really is an actual movie. It’s not a great movie, but we can’t expect something deep or profound from a movie that features a game show called “Wheel of Fish.”

UHF is a completely silly movie that has a lot of similar qualities to a Saturday morning cartoon show. You really have to have a weird sense of humor and appreciate slapstick to enjoy this movie. It’s really stupid, but lots of fun. It’s on par with movies such as Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), The Naked Gun (1988), Hot Shots! (1991), and Blazing Saddles. It’s a pretty clean movie, too. It’s probably suitable for ages eight and up; kids would probably enjoy this movie a lot. UHF is a good time and worth some laughs. This cult classic is worth owning if you are into this kind of humor.

Here is a clip of the Rambo scene to help illustrate how ridiculous and hilarious UHF is:

Can you think of some good “music video” movies? Not musicals, but movies made to showcase a popular musician or a music group? Were there any good ones? Comment below and tell about them!

Movie Review: Rango

Nickelodeon Studios primarily makes television shows targeted towards kids. These include Rugrats, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly Odd Parents, and Avatar: the Last Airbender. Later they started producing movies that were based off of their best selling television programming. This is how we got Good Burger (1997) and The Rugrats Movie (1998) among others. They did a few films that were not blatant advertisements for their television show such as Harriet the Spy (1996), Snow Day (2000), and Charlotte's Web (2008). Most of their movies have been less than stellar. Then along came Rango (2011), directed by Gore Verbinski. Given Nickelodeon Movies’ running streak of mediocrity, Rango didn’t even make it on my list of movies to see. Fortunately, I ended up seeing the movie anyway.

Rango (Johnny Depp) is a sheltered chameleon living as an ordinary family pet. He keeps himself entertained by being a method actor, acting out his own plays with inanimate objects as other characters. While traveling, the family car hits a bump sending, Rango and his cage flying off the vehicle and out into the desert. After wandering in the desert for some time, he comes across the gritty, gun-slinging town called Dirt. Dirt is populated by a host of wacky, lawless desert creatures, which makes the timid Rango stick out like a sore thumb. Rango uses his acting skills and conjures up an old west style character to help him try to blend in; this is where he comes up with the name “Rango.” This new persona is welcomed as a last hope for Dirt, which is slowly dying of thirst. Rango is made Sheriff to help figure out why the water is gone. Sheriff Rango’s efforts stir up some nasty villains and political intrigue.

I think the most blaringly obvious positive quality of this movie is the animation. This is some of the best CGI I’ve seen, comparable to the quality of animation that has made Pixar so successful. There’s so much detail in the characters: you can see the scales on the lizards, distinguish the feathers on the birds, and most impressive is the animation for the water. Water played a significant driving force in this story so it needed to look good. Water is very difficult to animate well; it needs really detailed control over the particle effects and lighting. Rango pulled this visual effect off brilliantly. The characters are designed to be zany and exaggerated, but still have lots of detail and care behind them. They just bring to mind some of the hand drawn characters from classic animated features. Another great thing about the animation is the color. Rango used such vibrant colors that it was almost difficult to take your eyes from the screen at any point. It is obvious that Rango was created with loving attention and detail by the artists involved in its production. Computer generated imagery can be a quick shortcut in animation, but shouldn’t be an excuse for creating low quality animated films.

The character Rango, himself, is quite interesting. He’s good natured, and hilariously naïve, but makes his way through his problems apparently by drawing inspiration from western movies he must have seen. He lacks confidence, but does his best not to let the townsfolk of Dirt see it. As a chameleon, Rango is meant to blend in, which he tries to do. But great responsibility is placed on Rango; how do you aim high when your purpose in life is to blend in? Rango (not Johnny Depp) really does improvise as he makes his way through the story, sort of inventing his character as he goes. I don’t particularly believe that the “fake it ‘till you make it” philosophy is a very good one to approach a problem, but Rango does just that, and he does make it; ultimately becoming the character he made up for himself at the beginning.

The story in Rango is absurdly creative! It kind of pays homage to a lot of old western movies, but includes a lot of comedy. The more westerns you’ve seen the funnier this movie will be. If Blazing Saddles (1974) was CGI animated with silly desert animals as the characters, you’d basically have Rango. It is delightfully non-formulaic. I kept thinking to myself, “yeah, here’s the part where they realize he’s not the gun-slinger he says he is.” But the movie didn’t do it. I kept expecting cliché story elements to pop up, but most of them didn’t; and the ones that did were done in a creative, unpredictable way. This gave the movie an invigorating, fresh quality to it.

I’m glad I ended up seeing Rango. It was fun, creative, humorous, and well designed and executed. It's a satire of a lot of old westerns. I'm sure if you're a fan of westerns you'll get a big kick out of it. And if you're a fan of silly comical animated movies, you'll also get a big kick out of it. It’s a good, clean family film that is intelligently written to keep viewers of all ages entertained. I am not the center of the target audience for Rango, but for those who are in the target audience, I recommend adding this movie to your DVD/Blu-Ray collection.

What movie have you seen in the last year that significantly exceeded your expectations? Why did it surprise you so much?