Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Hello.
Today’s review concerns the new Lonely Island-directed, Judd Apatow-produced comedy, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
The plot surrounds the titular pop star, Conner (played by Lonely Island’s Andy Samberg). Conner grew up with his best friends, Owen and Lawrence (played by the other members, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer respectively). The three guys formed a band called Style Boyz and they had a lot of influence on the pop industry. It was when Conner’s egotistical nature overtook him that he left his band, branded himself “Conner4Real”, and started his own solo career. His first album was huge, so, like any pompous pop star would do, he films a documentary about himself as he anticipates the release of his second album. Originally described as “the most anticipated album of the decade”, it receives scathing reviews that include a -4 out of 10 on one site. Conner ignores this up until he realizes the album sold 65,000 copies in its first week (for those not familiar with album sales, this is RIDICULOUSLY low) and none of his tour shows sell out. This is followed by an hour and a half of hilarity that includes stellar celebrity cameos, awkward catchphrases (#donkdedonk), and wolf attacks.
The jokes in this movie are over the top, but this is not surprising. Everybody knows that Judd Apatow (mastermind behind hysterical movies like The 40-Year Old Virgin, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Trainwreck, and the TV show Girls with Lena Dunham) is vulgar, crass, and knows his stuff when it comes to comedy. At one point, he said that he was going to put a penis in every one of his movies, which is a promise he kept for this one (awkward scene, so funny). The jokes definitely were crude, but enjoyable nonetheless.
The music was solid. There were scenes with Conner performing live that I appreciated. That said, the song about (and I’m going to make this kid friendly here, so bear with me) “messing up Bin Laden” was offensive to a fault. That was probably the only one I didn’t enjoy, probably because I thought it was stupid. However, having holograms of Adam Levine twerk on himself during the song “So Humble” was brilliant. Ten points to the house of whoever came up with that joke.
Plot was ever so slightly cliché, but takes an interesting spin on it. It is about how one man falls to his lowest and how he realizes he needs to fix himself to get back to the top. Done before? Most likely, but definitely not done with this sort of awesome humor. I think that the best part was the cameos. My personal favorite was Justin Timberlake as Conner’s personal chef who is actually a talented singer. At the end of the movie, they make him a dancing and singing fish. Yes.
I give this film 4 ½ stars out of 5. It is in my personal belief that this is the best film I have seen this year so far (mostly because Snowden doesn’t come out until next weekend). Popstar is available on DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download, and On Demand. If I urge nothing else, watch this movie.
Today’s review concerns the new Lonely Island-directed, Judd Apatow-produced comedy, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
The plot surrounds the titular pop star, Conner (played by Lonely Island’s Andy Samberg). Conner grew up with his best friends, Owen and Lawrence (played by the other members, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer respectively). The three guys formed a band called Style Boyz and they had a lot of influence on the pop industry. It was when Conner’s egotistical nature overtook him that he left his band, branded himself “Conner4Real”, and started his own solo career. His first album was huge, so, like any pompous pop star would do, he films a documentary about himself as he anticipates the release of his second album. Originally described as “the most anticipated album of the decade”, it receives scathing reviews that include a -4 out of 10 on one site. Conner ignores this up until he realizes the album sold 65,000 copies in its first week (for those not familiar with album sales, this is RIDICULOUSLY low) and none of his tour shows sell out. This is followed by an hour and a half of hilarity that includes stellar celebrity cameos, awkward catchphrases (#donkdedonk), and wolf attacks.
The jokes in this movie are over the top, but this is not surprising. Everybody knows that Judd Apatow (mastermind behind hysterical movies like The 40-Year Old Virgin, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Trainwreck, and the TV show Girls with Lena Dunham) is vulgar, crass, and knows his stuff when it comes to comedy. At one point, he said that he was going to put a penis in every one of his movies, which is a promise he kept for this one (awkward scene, so funny). The jokes definitely were crude, but enjoyable nonetheless.
The music was solid. There were scenes with Conner performing live that I appreciated. That said, the song about (and I’m going to make this kid friendly here, so bear with me) “messing up Bin Laden” was offensive to a fault. That was probably the only one I didn’t enjoy, probably because I thought it was stupid. However, having holograms of Adam Levine twerk on himself during the song “So Humble” was brilliant. Ten points to the house of whoever came up with that joke.
Plot was ever so slightly cliché, but takes an interesting spin on it. It is about how one man falls to his lowest and how he realizes he needs to fix himself to get back to the top. Done before? Most likely, but definitely not done with this sort of awesome humor. I think that the best part was the cameos. My personal favorite was Justin Timberlake as Conner’s personal chef who is actually a talented singer. At the end of the movie, they make him a dancing and singing fish. Yes.
I give this film 4 ½ stars out of 5. It is in my personal belief that this is the best film I have seen this year so far (mostly because Snowden doesn’t come out until next weekend). Popstar is available on DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download, and On Demand. If I urge nothing else, watch this movie.
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