UHF

UHF is a 1989 comedy starring and written by Weird Al Yankovic and his manager at the time, Jay Levy. Seeing as it involves Weird Al, it’s no surprise the kind of movie that UHF is. It’s silly, the plot is skewed, it’s overly exaggerated, the acting is pretty bad, and the script isn’t terrible, but it’s sub-par, even for the 80’s. The thing about UHF is though, you know what you’re getting. You know that because it’s Weird Al, you’re getting a stupid sort of movie. This is the guy who brought you “Fat”. You know you’re getting bad acting. It’s not going to be some sort of dramatic thriller. His Beverly Hillbillies parody music video of the Dire Straits “Money for Nothing” is literally IN the movie.  

The movie became a cult classic. But more because it’s Weird Al, not really because it’s a good movie. When it came out, it got very poor reviews. As it probably should. I mean, it’s not a good movie. Plus, it also came out at the same time as Batman, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Ghostbusters, When Harry Met Sally, and Weekend at Bernie’s. Those were literally some of the biggest movies of the 80’s. That’s just unfortunate timing.  

And when a movie like UHF comes out, and it does poorly, which it will, it will get pulled from a bunch of the theaters that it started in. But some of those theaters will keep it. In the hopes that some people will still go to see it. But when you have to go up against movies that are likely playing on three of the screens in the theater, they’re just not going to keep your movie. 

And that’s exactly what happened. Not only did theaters stop playing the movie, but companies stopped  printing the movie, and it actually just kind of disappeared for a while. To the point where it became sort of a collecter’s item. It sold at a very high price if you had one of the originals from back in the day. Then, in the mid-teens, they re-released it, and it wasn’t a collectible anymore. It probably still is, if you have one of the original VHS tapes. Take a picture and put that baby online… 

But, collecter’s motives aside, it is a bad movie. And I usually say you should watch movies, even if they’re bad, just to see them. This is one of the bad ones that’s not so bad that you shouldn’t watch it. I mean, it is Weird Al. So, maybe just watch it out of respect for the greatest parody singer to ever live. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…