IMDb on the Scene - Interviews (TV Series) Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) User Reviews

Acting seemed a little forced at times

[eltonnoway · 6/10 · 10 March 2023]

I grew up with Al on the radio, heck I even had one of his albums at one time. I also listened to Dr. Demento on the radio so I guess I was expecting more of a autobiography and was pumped to see this movie. As strange as Al's story is in real life, the acting in this movie seemed forced with most of the actors "trying" to be funny and some of the poor comical deliveries made me cringe at times like a bad skit on SNL. For me the casting of Daniel Radcliffe as Al was not the right choice. Yes he's somewhat of a star by todays standards but that doesn't make him the best choice. Also having Rainn Wilson as Dr Demento... Nope! I kept seeing was Dwight from "The Office" wearing a beard just delivering his lines from the script with no real acting involved. In real life Al is an eccentric guy and he's always in character so to speak but I couldn't help but feel Al may have had too much involvement and/or influence in the directing of this project... in other words it seems he insisted "'Lets tell my life story but at the same time make the film totally stupid, comical and over the top weird at noy worry about critics saying its more of a "fake-biography". Yes, its the weird Al story... but none of the actors are natural comedians so the comedy scenes come off as forced instead of genuinely funny. The only thing missing from this "comedy ?" was a laugh track. If you are a fan of Weird Al and have some time to kill and aren't expecting any Oscar winning performances then give it a shot.