UHF (1989)
TV the way it was meant to be seen. In a movie theater.
Coming hot off of slow-burn horror with people in the woods, I figured you all could use something more uplifting. As such, we brought out some good classy comedy featuring that zany musician a bunch of us all know and enjoy - Weird Al. Quirky and loony fun is sure to ensue, but will it draw some laughter from us to erase the witches of the past, or do we find ourselves cursed with a realization that maybe those old comedies aren't as funny as we thought they were?
A man and his friend are having a bad time when he gets the two of them fired. This depresses the man quite a bit, especially when he realizes hes late to his date, but nothing a sign of a mashed potato mountain can't give him hope to overcome. When at his uncle's party, his luck turns around while trying to get a dog to drink some punch after his uncle's wife pitches the idea of letting him run an old UHF television station the man just happens to own.
Adventures begin as his trek towards making the station great begins. Plenty of interesting characters, like a crazy scientist and riled-up attendant, are met as they figure out what to do. They realize a lot of their footage is all old, but a package being delivered prompts a break from figuring things out as the man decides to go and meet "the competition" - because how bad can he be? Well, considering he's the bad guy of the movie, he's pretty mean-spirited and otherwise an unlikable jerk.After getting run off from the building and recruiting a friendly janitor, our main character goes back to working. Ratings and the like aren't really the best, and they are seriously putting some thought into things - and then he realizes that he's incredibly late for dinner with his girlfriend.
This causes a break up, and the super bummed main goes to the bar and puts the janitor in charge of finishing the show airing at the time. While at the bar, quite an excited stir happens when the janitor comes back on, and it turns out they have a hit on their hands. With success brimming from their janitorial super-star, they start adding more and more quirky shows and watch the success grow. It grows so much, in fact, that the rival network starts to get worried and wants to do whatever it takes to shut them down - and when the Uncle's shady connections demands their payment soon, things start to look dangerous for the main and his ragtag assortment of friends and costars. Will they come up with a plan to save the station?
The little engine-crew that could.
The plot is there - it's nothing super crazy, but it's substantial enough to give the movie a purpose to be. It's a little difficult to argue over how feasible such a thing would be anyways with such zany and over-the-top things happening as they do in this. One really wouldn't be surprised if they found out that movies such as Anchorman had gotten their principal warring-stations concept from it. A lot also gets allowed into the movie through the day-dreams of the main character, which makes things a little easier to fit in there those little jabs at other movies.
Comedy is on point here, and for an older movie retains quite a few good laughs. Modern folks who tend to be overly-sensitive will probably have some issues with the humor - such things as ploys on stereotypical kung-fu Asian pronunciations might ignite the nerves, and some of the jokes can be a bit crude in content. Still, in my case I found myself laughing often without my skin being broke from the "bad insensitive movie," boogers or comments alike. A wide selection of actors you'll remember from other things as well - including Kramer.
Costumes are normal at times, over-the-top at others. Most of the eccentric costumes come from the day-dream segments, but colorful television shows help to add some more interesting than normal costumes as well. Effects are pulled of rather well, even down to the muscle suits looking mostly believable. The props can help the comedy at times as well - such as the "supply closet" landing a particularly fun pun-joke. Heck, there's even a (dated) computer graphics dream scene as well as some pretty fun explosion-fests at the end.
Dreams sequences can be fun and commentated at the same time.
While it might not blow everyone out of the water, it's certainly still an enjoyable movie with plenty of jokes that should land. I laughed a few times, and the music is fun - as one would expect from Weird Al. Not all the jokes will go over well with a modern audience, but that's the nature of humor in the first place. It's an enjoyable movie that doesn't force you to think hard, but still has some drama elements in there (such as the romance). Check it out, you'll probably have a blast.