UHF | | Cast : | Weird Al Yankovic | | Director : | Jay Levey | | Studio : | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | July 21, 1989 | | DVD Released Date : | June 04, 2002 | | Language : | Spanish (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 30, 2005 | | Summary | UHF Rules | Content
 | This is another Cult Classic - you will either love this movie or hate it. It is Wierd Al at his best. I have probably watched this movie around 100 times. At the right price this movie is definately worth your time and money. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 17, 2005 | | Summary | WILL YOU TAKE THE FISH, OR WHAT'S IN THE BOX?? | Content
| Hands down, UHF is one of the funniest movies I've seen in my life. It stands the test of time, ranking up there with comedies I've seen even this decade. And usually comedies in the 80s were only funny in that time period. Leave it up to "Weird Al" Yankovic to do something like that- something that'll be funny no matter what. For his first movie, he did an outstanding job. Especially given the rediculously small budget. UHF is full of things you'll quote on a weekly basis, things you'll always laugh at (Conan the Librarian and many other unique shows). And even better is this disc, with extras out the wazoo. Most older movies don't get a dvd treatment like this, and at this price, you could do a heck of a lot worse.
UHF is about George Newman. A guy who's in over his head. He constantly gets fired from his jobs, no matter how small they are, has no real career goal, and things with his girlfriend aren't going too well. He misses dates with her, even her birthday, and seems to make things better only make them worse. But there's a small ray of hope- his uncle wins a local small tv station during a game of cards, and gives it over to George just for the heck of it. Things are horrible at first. George plays a Pee Wee Herman-type character in his own funhouse show, but it fails with the kids, and his news people never get good stories since everyone looks down on them and move them aside. Luckily, a janitor from another station, Stanley, gets fired and George takes him in. Stanley is just what he needed, unknowingly. He gives him the kid's show, and it goes through the roof. Adults even tune in, and soon, they make more great shows. Conan the Librarian, Raul's Wild Kingdom, Strip Solitaire, and many more get the ratings up to the point where UHF is #1. But, the rival company where Stanley was fired from, sees this, and goes after them. They get George's uncle to sell them the station unless George and the others raise the money. Dispite being a tad predictable in the ending, all of the comic mayhem more than makes up for it. "Weird Al" does it again. Heck, you even get the video for Beverly Hillbillies in the actual movie itself. I'd say that more than warrants a purchase.
The picture quality looks better than it has the right to. Completely cleaned up, it looks more like it was shot in the mid-90s. Colors are bright as hell and impressive. Granted, there's some grain that can't be taken care of thanks to Orion being gone, but everything looks better than ever. As for the audio, it's perfect. It's loud when it needs to be (during the Rambo scene, the audio picks up right away, then quiets down when it's over), and I couldn't ask for more.
I absolutely love the commentary with Al and the director. In less than a minute, he makes fun of the MGM logo and how it wasn't there when the film was in theaters, and then how Orion's bankrupt. Al does most of the talking, and manages to be informative while being hilarious at the same time. I'm not even kidding, Al is one of the best commentators I've heard yet. `right up there with Oliver Stone and Robert Rodriguez. If only he did more movies...but Al remembers -everything- from the movie's production, points out errors in the movie, and tells us where some locations are: right down to the actual address. The director keeps asking how the heck Al remembers these things. Al even lists other movies some of the stars were in. Very impressive. Later on, Michael Richards and Emo Philips show up for a few minutes and talk about their roles. And Al later calls Victoria Jackson who talks on speaker phone about the movie and how they're doing the commentary track. Yes, this track is full of everything you could ask for, and it's almost funnier than the movie. There's also a short behind the scenes featurette running under 5 minutes that mostly focuses on getting Wheel of Fish set up and the extras used for it. Then they talk about if "Weird Al" is really weird. Al replies "I guess people are basically cruel. I don't know why they call me `Al'". When asked to tell about the movie, he tells us how movies show up because of light reflected on the film. Who knew a 4 minute featurette could be funny? There are also poster and production still galleries, trailers and the music video for the UHF theme played during the credits. On the other side of the disc are deleted scenes. While the picture quality is bad (you have to remember they were shot in the 80s and copied onto a vhs tape that Al had in his closet). They run as an entire feature, and Al takes you through them all and how they were deleted because they sucked but included on the disc because he knew we'd whine. I particularily liked the alternate takes where Emo cuts off his thumb.
If you're a fan of Al at all and haven't seen this, you've got some explaining to do. If anything, UHF will make you respect him more, and wish he had more movies or even a successful tv show. Remember his show in the late 90s? Yeah, that's what I thought. Who knew a parody comedian could act while maintaining his usual self? Al can do it all. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 14, 2005 | | Summary | Worth watching | Content
| I braced myself when I rented this because I thought it was not going to be very funny - and I was pleasantly surprised. Some parts of it were hilarious - Michael Richards (Kramer from Seinfeld) has a medium sized role and is as funny as ever. I was not dissapointed. It's not sophisticated humor, but well worth it for the laughs. Very enjoyable. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 13, 2005 | | Summary | An excellent experience! | Content
| The first time I watched this I thought it was going to be like a drama. But dramas aren't funny, aren't they? So I figured out this was an excellent comedy. It has a well written script, lots of funny moments, and good actors. The only problem is that it had a very common storyline. All of a sudden a rival makes a bunck of people get tons of money, and then they get it. Very common. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 20, 2005 | | Summary | We got it all on UHF! | Content
| Weird Al Yankovic describes and sings about so many wacky, bizarre scenarios in his songs and videos, that one might think, "what would he be like in a feature film?" UHF answers that question, and despite this being his only starring role, Yankovic acquits himself pretty well in this quirky cult film from the 80's.
"Nobody here appreciates someone with a good imagination," says Yankovic's character
George Newman, a Walter Mitty-type daydreamer who keeps failing at job after job, much to the frustration of his girlfriend Teri. So when his Uncle Harvey decides to give him a chance to be the new station manager of the UHF station, Channel 62, George jumps at the chance by putting more live shows. After all, with his pop culture daydreams, he'd be a shoo-in, right? As he tells his skeptical friend Bob, "It's just like working in a fish-market. Except you don't have to clean and gut fish all day." Joining him is Pamela Finklestein, a frustrated secretary aspiring to be a reporter. George, being the nice guy that he is, makes her one, but her first broadcast, an interview with the mayor, is rudely sabotaged. A remark "broads don't belong in broadcasting," typifies the 80's style sexism. Also, one has to compete with the national news station, Channel 8, run by the very loathsome R.J. Fletcher, who doesn't have a single nice line in the entire film.
Things start to turn around when he hires janitor Stanley Spadowski, the tall, simple-minded, but eager guy who turns out to be a smashing good entertainer as he is a janitor-his Mop speech is just great. Because of Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse, the ratings soar and before long Channel 62 is outdoing the national network affiliate Channel 8. Fletcher is far from pleased and sets out to sabotage Newman.
A lot of the film's funny moments hinges on ideas George has, such as trailers for Town Talk, his Geraldo Rivera type show where he gets whacked with a chair, commercials, or some of the programmes he comes up with-check out the programming schedule. Goony, Prince Valiant-haired comedian Emo Phillips has a memorable moment as a shop teacher who could be more careful with a buzzsaw. And how much one enjoys Raul's Wild Kingdom, hosted out of the apartment of a Mexican guy named Raul, depends on one's taste for small dogs. Oh, and Weird Al makes his notorious twinkie-wiener sandwich, oft-mentioned on Al-TV.
The high note is the opening Raiders of the Lost Ark parody, with an "idol statue" scene that's Al's closest to ever getting Best Actor. The "Beverly Hillbillies" video, a spinoff on Dire Straits' computer animated "Money For Nothing," is the other highlight, showing how George does indeed have a good imagination. And the late 70s/early 80s car commercials with a Cal Worthington type cowboy salesman is embodied in Crazy Ernie: "If nobody comes down here and buys a car in the next hour, I'm gonna club this baby seal. That's right. I'm gonna club this seal to make a better deal. You know I'll do it, to, cause I'm crazy." Hooboy!
A very young Fran Drescher is pretty hot as Pamela Finklestein, outshining Victoria Jackson (Teri), whose whiny voice is a debit in the film. Michael Richards steals the show hands down as Stanley. Kevin McCarthy does Fletcher as that villain one loves to hate, odious, overacting, and with a goofy laugh. Gedde Watanabe, who made his film debut as Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles, plays Kuni, who goes a bit OTT in the Wheel of Fish segment. "Stupid! You're so stupid!" he yells at a losing contestant. And veteran midget comedian Billy Barty is sadly underused in this movie, as he only has two scenes as cameraman Noodles MacIntosh. And catch Dr. Demento as the guy Stanley sprays whip cream on in an ad.
The video for the "UHF" song is included as a bonus, as is Al hosting a series of deleted outtakes, which definitely should've been left off the movie, as most were filler that did nothing to advance the movie.
Fans of Weird Al will definitely like this cult classic from the 1980's. Sight gags, and pain and destruction gags abound. Some of the material may not be so PC today. Yet for Children of the 80's such as myself, it may serve as a nostalgic pop cultural reference point.
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