UHF

This is further proof that my parents have had the biggest impact on my movie tastes. For those of you not aware, UHF is the movie starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, in which he plays the over-imaginative George Newman who gets a chance to manage a short-wave television station.

Not long into the movie, you understand Al's entire being. It opens up into a near shot-for-shot remake of the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. All you see is the hero's back walking through a jungle, and just when the traitorous jungle guide reaches for his sidearm, the hero turns his head slightly, reaches for his whip and cracks it loudly. Just like in Raiders. Except, in this recreation, Al takes off the guy's entire arm.

This short glimpse, not even three minutes into the flick, and you get it. Just as in Al's numerous pop song parodies, the framework and melody remains the same, but a few of the details in between are...just a little off.

Al continues with the Raiders riff and ventures into the cave, veering past obstacles, including about 20 road signs indicating falling rocks. And, in the famous scene with the hero contemplating switching out the prize for a bag of sand, Al hesitates, thinks, gets ready, and at the last second reconsiders and just takes the damn thing.

From this brief parody is a clear message: "Weird Al" loves what he does, and if he wasn't such a big fan of everything he pokes fun at, it wouldn't be funny at all.

At a certain point through the movie, it rolls off like a family-friendly "Mr. Show" episode, meandering from brief spots of the various television shows on the station to the commercial ads featured to pay revenue. One of the best commercials is one for Spatula City. For all your spatula needs.

Something else you may notice, especially if you've seen a lot of sight gag-heavy movies like Airplane!, Top Secret! or any of the Naked Gun movies, is a noticeable volume of fake-out sight gags. For example, R.J. Fletcher, the bad guy of the movie, and senior editor of the local network affiliate, is chewing out one of his office lackeys, a mustachioed man (I love that phrase) wearing a ridiculous-looking cowboy hat, complete with feathers, leather, and a raccoon tail. When R.J. is done chewing him out, he yells, "Now get out of here! And take that thing off, it looks ridiculous!" The man shrinks down a little, dejectedly, sighs, rips off his mustache, and walks away. You wouldn't believe how hard I laughed. Okay, you would believe it. You all know how much of a geek I am for that sort of joke.

One of the big things to point out is that this features a young, pre-Kramer Michael Richards as Stanley Spadowski, the janitor-turned star of the small station. He's wacky, energetic, and kind of a goofball. It's all incredibly endearing, especially his soliloquy using his mop as a metaphor for life during his debut as a kid's show host. Sometimes, you just gotta clean it out and start over.

It occurred to me late in the movie that the main flaw is its limited reliance on one of the most heavily used 80's movie cliches - the rag-tag, underdog crew who takes down the established, and therefore evil, suit.
However, it then occurred to me after that that is an even larger "Weird Al" parody - that of a hackneyed, over-used movie plot. After all, he did co-write the movie. This is what I choose to believe.

This movie is fun, charming at some points and hysterical at many many other points. If you like "Weird Al," any of the ZAZ flicks (Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, i.e., Airplane!), or other silly movies with well thought-out sight gags, you're going to like this movie.