Review of UHF (1989) by Kendall I — 29 May 2011

I think I have a bit of a weakness for this movie.

PLOT:George Newman ("Weird Al" Yankovic) and his best friend Bob (David Bowe) are complete failures in every job they get until George's uncle wins an old UHF station on the edge of collapsing in a poker game. He gives it to George and he runs it while juggling the ferocious R.J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy) of Channel 8's constant badgering, his girfriend's (Victoria Jackson) needs, and the constant fear of going bankrupt. It's an interesting subject done almost more goofily than Scary Movie. But of course, this WAS the 80s.

ACTING:For a spoof movie, it wasn't too bad. The weakest performance had to be Victoria Jackson, as she sounded like the typical whiny-bitchy girlfriend. Al played a pretty respectful perdormance as only he can: goofily. The rest of the actors were good as well. This movie als features the acting of Fran Drescher, Gedde Watanabe, Anthony Geary, and Michael Richards, who were great with their parts. There was even a cameo by Dr. Demento! See if you can spot him.

SCORE:The soundtrack is done by no ther than, yep you guessed it, Uncle Nutzy himself: "Weird Al" Yankovic. His parodies always seem to be funny even if his acting isn't to some. The gems from the soundtrack are "Money for Nothin/Beverly Hillbillies" (a parody of Dire Straits' song), "UHF" (the title song) and all the advertizements.

EFFECTS:What? Effects in a comedy spoof? Yes, but few. Actually only one that I have to mention, and that is the claymation of the "alien" at the end. Pure art.

OTHER CONTENT:Besides Jackson's acting and the goofed-up plot, this movie had some bad jokes mixed in with the good. Bad like stupid and tiring. I do appreciate how the dream sequences parody many Hollywood movies well. The "Rambo" sequence was the best of them. One joke in this movie that never grows old is the homeless man played by Vance Colvig Jr. helping the blind man solve the Rubix cube. That's a goofy side-splitter. One thing about this movie I appreciate is that it's unpredictable gag-wise because it's so random. The movie also isn't meant to be taken seriously, so it's only for fun.

OVERALL, an ok spoof with a goofed-up plot, great acting besides Victoria Jackson, classic Yankovic score, great claymation, and scattered gags that can end up going eityher way. But it is only for fun..