The Compleat Al (1985) (DVD Review)
Directed By: Jay Levey
Starring: Weird Al Yankovic
Rated: UR/Region: 1/1:33/Number of disc: 1
Available from Shout! Factory
The Compleat Al is the amazing, hilarious, and not-entirely-true story of Weird Al Yankovic, the Grammy award-winning master of musical parody and rock and roll comedy. The mockumentary takes you behind the scenes, beginning with his childhood years, his high school and college days, up through his early-career rise to stardom. This concocted chronicle also contains moments from AL-TV and footage from his trip to Japan, and a somewhat embellished version of how he received permission from Michael Jackson for “Eat It. “. And to top it off, The Compleat Al contains eight “Weird Al”,video classics: “Ricky, “, “I Love Rocky Road, “, the award-winning “Eat It, “, “I Lost on Jeopardy, “, “This Is the Life, “, “Like a Surgeon, “, “One More Minute”, and “Dare to Be Stupid. ”
Making for a great companion release with Shout Factory’s UHF Blu-ray comes a DVD for the fake documentary, The Complete Al! Here we take a funny and totally fake look at the history of Weird Al Yankovic. From how he was raises to him seeking out permission for parodies, the movie is a fun experience, just not half as well crafted or entertaining overall as UHF. One of the bad reviews for UHF said that Al’s work was better fit for videos than a full on movie. I think UHF is great, but I could see that being applied for this movie, as much doesn’t work as well in the long run as it would have for the short. It isn’t by any means a stinker, but it gets spotty here and there. That being said, there is still way more good than bad with this film.
I think one of the best things about this is the music videos tossed in. If you loved Al’s videos from the 1980s, you get the best stuff here and they are really the highlight of the movie. I almost wish we had more videos. What we get are great, however, and I really do appreciate the sense of humor Weird Al Yankovic has. Look through the fake yet funny stuff, the movie does still sort of bring us a history of Al’s videos if nothing else. I think any fan of Weird Al Yankovic at the end of the day will be pleased with what they get. It isn’t UHF, but then again not much in the way of wacky comedy films is.
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