My grand-mammy used to always say “Opinions are like assholes; everyone else’s stinks but mine”.
She was a mean lady.
Yet those words ring in my head frequently as I write these reviews and that is true even more so when I try to communicate thoughts on comedy.
Comedy is probably the most subjective of genres. What makes you guffaw may not pull a giggle from me. I like Will Ferrell, you wish him harm. I believe that Kevin James is a formless waste of carbon construct and you have the Paul Blart 2 poster art tattooed on the small of your back. Who knows?
That said; let me talk about my asshole in regards to the new comedy Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. It isn’t very funny. While the movie has a whole heap of ideas, many fall flat, proving that a Lonely Island flick is best kept as an SNL digital short.
And now; the details.
I assume you know of Lonely Island if you are taking any time to read this. A comedy music group featuring Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, they’ve had a few visible hits while their biggest claim to fame remains “Dick in a Box”. Popstar marks their first film with Samberg starring as Taccone and Schaffer direct.
They are funny guys and the list of cameos that they wrangled for their movie shows that they have some clout. They also had comedy producer demi-god Judd Apatow along to help. He should have provided a little more guidance. The film is a string of bits packaged in a fake documentary template. Some of the bits work well [the Daft Punk style helmet for the DJ cracked me up} while many fall flat. The pace is too quick for many of the bits to develop, sending in comedians for cameos with one-note ideas that may produce a chuckle at best. Bill Hader as a roadie who is into “flat lining “ is a funny idea but only produces a chuckle because it comes at you too randomly.
Funny thing: The musicians that pop up throughout were actually more entertaining than the “funny people”. Usher, 50 Cent and the RZA- among many others that I am far too out of it to recognize- provide the most genuine and funny moments in the movie.
Negative aside I really did appreciate much of what Lonely Island was satirizing in Popstar. The music industry is ripe with lunacy and Samberg and Co. hold up a well-polished mirror to many of the proper places. They are talented guys and much of these ideas would look great on paper. Unfortunately much of the funny got lost in translation.
