Review of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) by Elan K — 09 Oct 2016

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is written, directed and starring "The Lonely Island" trio, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer. "Popstar" centres around a former boy band member and his struggles after the commercial failure of a record.

So just by the way I described that, you're probably thinking, "Huh... Sounds like a melodramatic film about an egotistical celebrity figuring out hid place in the world" and well guys I have to tell you, "Popstar" is one of the funniest satirical films I've seen in year.

Initially I was hesitate about this film but also had high hopes due to this being a "Lonely Island" film and I've loved their material in the past from SNL, to their music and films, such as "Hot Rod".

My hesitation stemmed from the lack of jokes hitting in the trailer so it had me pretty nervous but I tried to relax as I realized I am in the hands of 3 gentlemen who can really nail comedy and boy they did in this film.

I'll try to describe this film as much as possible without spoiling anything as everything you see in the trailer is practically in the first 20 minutes of the movie. Now what made this film so great was like I said, the satirical play they did on a celebrity's life, it took situations and scandals thats happened to some famous actors, musicians, etc and runs with them trying to make it as wild as possible.

One thing that really elevated this movie and I loved, was how authentic this film felt, it practically rips the Justin Bieber documentaries apart, all while including many celebrities talking about Conner4real and how he changed the face of music.

You really buy into this film due to that part and how serious each celebrity cameo plays it part, that it makes you feel like you're actually watching a real life documentary on a living and breathing artist.

Like I said this film contains many celebrity cameos, so many that I won't even name because I feel like I would be ruining it. Now this movie isn't all good, as with most comedy, some jokes didn't land but luckily when a joke fell flat they didn't stick around too long as this is a very fast paced film clocking in at an 87 minute long run time, also when the jokes hit they sure do hit with side splitting laughter.

Another problem is its story, when you get past the cleverness of the joke writing, the core of this story is very cookie cutter and a little too basic, but then again this is a comedy and I'm expecting anything revolutionary from its story, all I care about if it can make me laugh.

This is definitely a social commentary on the way we view and treat celebrates today, heck this universe even has its own version of "TMZ" which is hysterical. There is so much social commentary that by the end, you kind of sit back and reflect, so I really have to commend this film for being deeper than it needed to be.

At the end of the day this really was just another goofy comedy but what it did with its creative writing and satire, it made it better than it ever needed to be and for that reason, "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" gets an 8.

5/10. Honestly you guys this is one of the funniest parody movies I've seen in a long time and it didn't do nearly as well as it should have, so if you've enjoyed things "The Lonely Island" has done or are a fan of dumb comedy, I implore you to pay to see this movie to insure we continue to get good, well written, comedies like this more.