list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around UHF on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/UHF/36310/default.aspx Title: UHF
Year: 1989
Director: Jay Levey
Plot: UHF is the film debut of comedy-rock satirist Weird Al Yankovic, who also co-wrote the screenplay. George Newman (Yankovic) and his friend, Bob (David Bowe from The Cable Guy), are fired from their jobs at Burger World. So George decides to take over channel 62, a failing local TV station that his Uncle Harvey (Stanley Brock) won in a poker game. George turns it around into an overnight success after letting the janitor, Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards from Seinfeld), host a kid's show. George then fills the broadcast day with bizarre programming, bringing the ratings up and saving the station. Soon, rival station CEO R.J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy) of channel 8 threatens to sabotage the successful station and George must come up with a way to save it. Only loosely constructed around this story line, UHF is mostly a series of TV, movie, and music parodies strung together and played for cheap laughs. UHF also stars Victoria Jackson, Emo Philips, and Fran Drescher. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 31
Number of Lists: 12
Number of blog posts: 3
Number of discussion threads: 3
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:04:43 GMTUHF1989Jay LeveyUHF is the film debut of comedy-rock satirist <a href="/players/P____77896/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Weird Al Yankovic</a>, who also co-wrote the screenplay. George Newman (Yankovic) and his friend, Bob (David Bowe from <a href=/films/93464/default.aspx style='text-decoration:underline'>The Cable Guy</a>), are fired from their jobs at Burger World. So George decides to take over channel 62, a failing local TV station that his Uncle Harvey (<a href="/players/P_____8608/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Stanley Brock</a>) won in a poker game. George turns it around into an overnight success after letting the janitor, Stanley Spadowski (<a href="/players/P____60041/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Michael Richards</a> from <a href=/films/232358/default.aspx style='text-decoration:underline'>Seinfeld</a>), host a kid's show. George then fills the broadcast day with bizarre programming, bringing the ratings up and saving the station. Soon, rival station CEO R.J. Fletcher (<a href="/players/P___101959/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Kevin McCarthy</a>) of channel 8 threatens to sabotage the successful station and George must come up with a way to save it. Only loosely constructed around this story line, UHF is mostly a series of TV, movie, and music parodies strung together and played for cheap laughs. UHF also stars <a href="/players/P____34881/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Victoria Jackson</a>, Emo Philips, and <a href="/players/P____20118/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Fran Drescher</a>. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide31Tag Target (>10)12333http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t18051v4eq7.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/UHF/36310/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_July_20_Television/625/43200/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 7/20/2009 2:04:43 PM
Body: [quote user="leeroy711"]Quiz Show - I like to mention this film about as much as I can. I think it's Redford's most underrated film and it's my personal favorite. It's about a scandal involving a game show but it was all of the intellectual banter scenes between Ralph Fiennes and Rob Morrow made this film so memorable. Also, John Turturro's performance was brilliant.[/quote] [quote user="mciocco"]Network - At the time, Paddy Chayefsky tried to imagine the most ridiculous and absurd things that could happen on TV news... Frighteningly, it doesn't seem as ridiculous or absurd these days.[/quote] These are two I would defintely mention as favorites. Network however is probably the quintessential film about television and what it has become from my viewpoint though. The most hilarious movie about television though - "Weird Al" Yankovic's UHF. It even has a little spoof of Network. Although Death to Smoochy is a hilarious film about children's television which I think features Robin Williams' greatest performance of his carreer. [quote user="leeroy711"]Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - George Clooney directed Charlie Kaufman's adaptation of Chuck Barris' (ehem) autobiography.... How could you go wrong? I remember when the book came out. I read some excerpts from it and thought how crazy it could be if the right people got involved to make the film. [/quote] I also just realized that this is only one of two movies that George Clooney has directed about television. The other one being Good Night, and Good Luck.
]]>Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:04:43 GMTRisseladaWeekly Theme7/20/2009 2:04:43 PM[quote user="leeroy711"]Quiz Show - I like to mention this film about as much as I can. I think it's Redford's most underrated film and it's my personal favorite. It's about a scandal involving a game show but it was all of the intellectual banter scenes between Ralph Fiennes and Rob Morrow made this film so memorable. Also, John Turturro's performance was brilliant.[/quote] [quote user="mciocco"]Network - At the time, Paddy Chayefsky tried to imagine the most ridiculous and absurd things that could happen on TV news... Frighteningly, it doesn't seem as ridiculous or absurd these days.[/quote] These are two I would defintely mention as favorites. Network however is probably the quintessential film about television and what it has become from my viewpoint though. The most hilarious movie about television though - "Weird Al" Yankovic's UHF. It even has a little spoof of Network. Although Death to Smoochy is a hilarious film about children's television which I think features Robin Williams' greatest performance of his carreer. [quote user="leeroy711"]Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - George Clooney directed Charlie Kaufman's adaptation of Chuck Barris' (ehem) autobiography.... How could you go wrong? I remember when the book came out. I read some excerpts from it and thought how crazy it could be if the right people got involved to make the film. [/quote] I also just realized that this is only one of two movies that George Clooney has directed about television. The other one being Good Night, and Good Luck. http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_September_1_Work_Sucks/625/34702/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 9/3/2008 4:06:14 PM
Body: [quote user="SkyPilot"]Are there any movies (including government propaganda) that encourage and excite you guys about working?[/quote] There aren't too many movies that do that now that I think about it. However a lot of detective movies make that job seem pretty interesting. If there was one movie that would make me excited about working it would probably be UHF. I'd love to run my own UHF station and put on all kinds of outrageous shows.
]]>Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:06:14 GMTRisseladaWeekly Theme9/3/2008 4:06:14 PM[quote user="SkyPilot"]Are there any movies (including government propaganda) that encourage and excite you guys about working?[/quote] There aren't too many movies that do that now that I think about it. However a lot of detective movies make that job seem pretty interesting. If there was one movie that would make me excited about working it would probably be UHF. I'd love to run my own UHF station and put on all kinds of outrageous shows. http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/8/11/33867.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 8/11/2008 4:00:43 PM
Body: Lists of movies within movies are fairly common on the internet, enough that I now realize I need to finally see Bowfinger simply because I’ve counted about a million list makers in love with something titled “Chubby Rain.” And the lists are likely to keep on coming thanks to this week’s hot release, Tropic Thunder, which actually features two movies within (the Vietnam War film “Tropic Thunder” and the festival-winning making-of documentary “Rain of Madness”), as well as the upcoming How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which has spawned a popular fake movie trailer for an NC-17 film titled “Mother Theresa: The Making of a Saint” (previewed above). Yet until someone makes a Wikipedia page for “List of Fictional Films,” these blogged and forumed lists are necessary to keep us movie fans remembering those non-existent movies we wish existed. Narrowing down to ten seemed to be difficult — fictional films have been at least nominally been created for tons of films about filmmaking, otherwise reflexive films, sketch comedies, spoofs, etc. — until I realized that a lot of these films within films are appropriately nominal or trailer- or clip-sized gags and would in reality be terrible (imagine actually watching the entirety of “Asses of Fire” from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut). Even “Je Vous Présente Paméla” (”Meet Pamela”) from Day for Night and the sci-fi film being made in 8½ would probably be major disappointments in actuality if you expected from them the work of Truffaut and Fellini, respectively. So, I went mostly with fictional films that would probably be bad, but would at least be amusingly bad — though I purposefully avoided fictional porns, including those from Boogie Nights and The Big Lebowski, of which there are literally thousands: “Gandhi II” from UHF - There’s just something about watching good people gone bad. But while the idea of the Good Will Hunting sequel, subtitled “Hunting Season”, thought up for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is pretty ingenious, it just doesn’t have the same level of ludicrous exaggeration that a bloodletting follow-up to the Oscar-winning Gandhi has. Dude drives a Ferrari, can punch completely through a guy’s abdomen, and of course he knows how to party. He even eats meat, now. It’s not only funny because it’s the antithesis of what the Indian leader was all about, it’s also funny because it reminds me of all those straight-edge and vegetarian kids you knew in high school who now drink way too much (oh, yeah, I’m one of them). “Odyssey” from Contempt - When Fritz Lang showed up as himself in Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, he’d already given the world his final film as a director (The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse). If only he’d really given us this one additional adaptation of Homer’s epic poem. Either as an art film, as Lang originally intends, or as a more commercial picture, as desired by the American producer played by Jack Palance. “Ants in Your Pants 1938″ from Sullivan’s Travels - The other famously named film within this film, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” was, at least in title, already made by the Coen brothers (see the side-by-side comparison in the video above — interestingly enough, their O Brother, Where Art Thou? is also an adaptation of Homer’s “Odyssey”, uniting #2 and #3 of this list). But I always try to imagine what a film titled “Ants in Your Pants 1938″ would have looked like. I always picture a cross between the Marx Brothers and Busby Berkeley, yet it’s got to be more shallow than that, according to how it’s referenced in Preston Sturges’ movie. “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure - What fan of the real Big Adventure wouldn’t like to watch it all over again as an action picture starring James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild? Maybe it wouldn’t be as good, but it does have ninjas. Anyway, because I love to relate seemingly unrelated movies via lists, let it be known that an episode of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was titled “Ants in Your Pants”. And now that I think about it, that show was kinda like a cross between the Marx Brothers and Busby Berkeley. Kinda. “Habeas Corpus” from The Player - It’s a common staple for lists like this, and pretty much all Bruce Willis movies from the first half of the ’90s were awful (obviously Pulp Fiction is an exception), but I’d definitely watch the whole of this fake film, even though I’ve already seen how it ends. As with Fritz Lang’s “Odyssey”, I’d be curious to see both the originally planned version and the commercialized final version. “Crossed Sabres of Truth” from The Big Picture - Forget “Home for Purim”, that lame movie within a movie from Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration. This earlier satire of Hollywood from Guest had far greater fake films, most of them fake student films, such as this one, made by the full-of-himself character played by Dan Schneider. It may not have starred Elliott Gould (as does “The Trial of Janet Kingsley”), or been an overly avant-garde work titled “Afterbirth of a Notion” (which reminds me of the opening to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse), or the actual winner of the National Film Institute’s student film award (that would be Kevin Bacon’s character’s “First Date”), but it has the fat kid from Head of the Class and Better Off Dead riding a horse in a 19th century war movie. How could you not want to see more? “See You Next Wednesday” from The Kentucky Fried Movie - I’m probably a bigger fan of weird movie theater gimmicks than the average moviegoer, but that’s probably because I didn’t get a chance to live through things like Smell-O-Vision, which sound neat in theory but which were reportedly very obnoxious in reality (I recently wrote elsewhere about how the return of Smell-O-Vision in pre-show advertising sounds terrible). The joke about “See You Next Wednesday” (a fake movie title referenced in most of John Landis’ films) is that it’s in “feel-around”, a gimmick that’s clearly annoying to experience. I’d definitely be willing to try it out once, though. Especially if it’s the closest thing I could get to one of the Feelies (tactual motion pictures) from Huxley’s “Brave New World”. “MANT” from Matinee - Movie theater gimmicks also have me curious about experiencing the schlock horror film shown in Atomo-Vision and Rumble-Rama. This is one of those film within a films that you get to see more than enough footage of, but I want to actually suffer it as it’s intended to be seen. “Jews in Space” from History of the World, Part I - Mel Brooks eventually did make a Star Wars spoof, one that featured a lot of Jews in space (Spaceballs), but that doesn’t mean this earlier parody idea wouldn’t also be worth seeing. I’d even settle for seeing the apparently hilarious 2005 Argentine film Jews in Space Or Why Is This Night Different, which unfortunately doesn’t seem to actually take place in space nor, tragically, involve spaceships shaped like the Star of David. “Those Darn Amigos” from ¡Three Amigos! - Because the synopsis of Tropic Thunder reminds me of the plot to Three Amigos, I feel it appropriate to include one of the fake films from the underrated comedy. At the beginning of the movie, we see one of the silent movies starring the Three Amigos (see the clip above), but I’m more interested in the trio’s flop, which diverted from the usual premise to be about three wealthy Spanish landowners who take a little vacation in Manhattan. If it didn’t appeal to the masses, I’ll probably love it. I’d also settle for seeing one of the early shorts featuring Ned Nederlander (Martin Short) known as “Little Neddy’s Knickers.” Considering ¡Three Amigos! is set in 1916, and Short was in his mid-30s, I believe it impossible that Ned could have been a child star of any younger than 30, so I’m pretty curious. BONUS: “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” from Lost in La Mancha - It isn’t a fake film, but it is technically a film within a film. And it’s so far non-existent, really. Terry Gilliam’s attempted loose adaptation of Cervantes was actually being made, with Johnny Depp in the lead. However, due to multiple complications, the production was canceled after shooting had begun, and all that remained was Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s depressing documentary Lost in La Mancha. Because sometimes the gods are good to us Gilliam fans, though, it was recently announced that the film is on being attempted again, reportedly still with Depp and possibly also starring Michael Palin. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:00:43 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com8/11/2008 4:00:43 PM Lists of movies within movies are fairly common on the internet, enough that I now realize I need to finally see Bowfinger simply because I’ve counted about a million list makers in love with something titled “Chubby Rain.” And the lists are likely to keep on coming thanks to this week’s hot release, Tropic Thunder, which actually features two movies within (the Vietnam War film “Tropic Thunder” and the festival-winning making-of documentary “Rain of Madness”), as well as the upcoming How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which has spawned a popular fake movie trailer for an NC-17 film titled “Mother Theresa: The Making of a Saint” (previewed above). Yet until someone makes a Wikipedia page for “List of Fictional Films,” these blogged and forumed lists are necessary to keep us movie fans remembering those non-existent movies we wish existed. Narrowing down to ten seemed to be difficult — fictional films have been at least nominally been created for tons of films about filmmaking, otherwise reflexive films, sketch comedies, spoofs, etc. — until I realized that a lot of these films within films are appropriately nominal or trailer- or clip-sized gags and would in reality be terrible (imagine actually watching the entirety of “Asses of Fire” from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut). Even “Je Vous Présente Paméla” (”Meet Pamela”) from Day for Night and the sci-fi film being made in 8½ would probably be major disappointments in actuality if you expected from them the work of Truffaut and Fellini, respectively. So, I went mostly with fictional films that would probably be bad, but would at least be amusingly bad — though I purposefully avoided fictional porns, including those from Boogie Nights and The Big Lebowski, of which there are literally thousands: “Gandhi II” from UHF - There’s just something about watching good people gone bad. But while the idea of the Good Will Hunting sequel, subtitled “Hunting Season”, thought up for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is pretty ingenious, it just doesn’t have the same level of ludicrous exaggeration that a bloodletting follow-up to the Oscar-winning Gandhi has. Dude drives a Ferrari, can punch completely through a guy’s abdomen, and of course he knows how to party. He even eats meat, now. It’s not only funny because it’s the antithesis of what the Indian leader was all about, it’s also funny because it reminds me of all those straight-edge and vegetarian kids you knew in high school who now drink way too much (oh, yeah, I’m one of them). “Odyssey” from Contempt - When Fritz Lang showed up as himself in Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, he’d already given the world his final film as a director (The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse). If only he’d really given us this one additional adaptation of Homer’s epic poem. Either as an art film, as Lang originally intends, or as a more commercial picture, as desired by the American producer played by Jack Palance. “Ants in Your Pants 1938″ from Sullivan’s Travels - The other famously named film within this film, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” was, at least in title, already made by the Coen brothers (see the side-by-side comparison in the video above — interestingly enough, their O Brother, Where Art Thou? is also an adaptation of Homer’s “Odyssey”, uniting #2 and #3 of this list). But I always try to imagine what a film titled “Ants in Your Pants 1938″ would have looked like. I always picture a cross between the Marx Brothers and Busby Berkeley, yet it’s got to be more shallow than that, according to how it’s referenced in Preston Sturges’ movie. “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure - What fan of the real Big Adventure wouldn’t like to watch it all over again as an action picture starring James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild? Maybe it wouldn’t be as good, but it does have ninjas. Anyway, because I love to relate seemingly unrelated movies via lists, let it be known that an episode of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was titled “Ants in Your Pants”. And now that I think about it, that show was kinda like a cross between the Marx Brothers and Busby Berkeley. Kinda. “Habeas Corpus” from The Player - It’s a common staple for lists like this, and pretty much all Bruce Willis movies from the first half of the ’90s were awful (obviously Pulp Fiction is an exception), but I’d definitely watch the whole of this fake film, even though I’ve already seen how it ends. As with Fritz Lang’s “Odyssey”, I’d be curious to see both the originally planned version and the commercialized final version. “Crossed Sabres of Truth” from The Big Picture - Forget “Home for Purim”, that lame movie within a movie from Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration. This earlier satire of Hollywood from Guest had far greater fake films, most of them fake student films, such as this one, made by the full-of-himself character played by Dan Schneider. It may not have starred Elliott Gould (as does “The Trial of Janet Kingsley”), or been an overly avant-garde work titled “Afterbirth of a Notion” (which reminds me of the opening to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse), or the actual winner of the National Film Institute’s student film award (that would be Kevin Bacon’s character’s “First Date”), but it has the fat kid from Head of the Class and Better Off Dead riding a horse in a 19th century war movie. How could you not want to see more? “See You Next Wednesday” from The Kentucky Fried Movie - I’m probably a bigger fan of weird movie theater gimmicks than the average moviegoer, but that’s probably because I didn’t get a chance to live through things like Smell-O-Vision, which sound neat in theory but which were reportedly very obnoxious in reality (I recently wrote elsewhere about how the return of Smell-O-Vision in pre-show advertising sounds terrible). The joke about “See You Next Wednesday” (a fake movie title referenced in most of John Landis’ films) is that it’s in “feel-around”, a gimmick that’s clearly annoying to experience. I’d definitely be willing to try it out once, though. Especially if it’s the closest thing I could get to one of the Feelies (tactual motion pictures) from Huxley’s “Brave New World”. “MANT” from Matinee - Movie theater gimmicks also have me curious about experiencing the schlock horror film shown in Atomo-Vision and Rumble-Rama. This is one of those film within a films that you get to see more than enough footage of, but I want to actually suffer it as it’s intended to be seen. “Jews in Space” from History of the World, Part I - Mel Brooks eventually did make a Star Wars spoof, one that featured a lot of Jews in space (Spaceballs), but that doesn’t mean this earlier parody idea wouldn’t also be worth seeing. I’d even settle for seeing the apparently hilarious 2005 Argentine film Jews in Space Or Why Is This Night Different, which unfortunately doesn’t seem to actually take place in space nor, tragically, involve spaceships shaped like the Star of David. “Those Darn Amigos” from ¡Three Amigos! - Because the synopsis of Tropic Thunder reminds me of the plot to Three Amigos, I feel it appropriate to include one of the fake films from the underrated comedy. At the beginning of the movie, we see one of the silent movies starring the Three Amigos (see the clip above), but I’m more interested in the trio’s flop, which diverted from the usual premise to be about three wealthy Spanish landowners who take a little vacation in Manhattan. If it didn’t appeal to the masses, I’ll probably love it. I’d also settle for seeing one of the early shorts featuring Ned Nederlander (Martin Short) known as “Little Neddy’s Knickers.” Considering ¡Three Amigos! is set in 1916, and Short was in his mid-30s, I believe it impossible that Ned could have been a child star of any younger than 30, so I’m pretty curious. BONUS: “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” from Lost in La Mancha - It isn’t a fake film, but it is technically a film within a film. And it’s so far non-existent, really. Terry Gilliam’s attempted loose adaptation of Cervantes was actually being made, with Johnny Depp in the lead. However, due to multiple complications, the production was canceled after shooting had begun, and all that remained was Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s depressing documentary Lost in La Mancha. Because sometimes the gods are good to us Gilliam fans, though, it was recently announced that the film is on being attempted again, reportedly still with Depp and possibly also starring Michael Palin. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/cinemarian/archive/2008/7/13/32482.aspx Post By: CinemaRian
Post To: CinemaRian Blog
Post Date: 7/13/2008 1:13:18 AM
Body: UHF can be better refereed to be what everyone thinks of it as- the Weird Al Yankovic movie, just as Glitter is the Mariah Carey movie. From its concept the entire film would be built around the talents of Yankovic, but a funny thing happens- someone else becomes the real star of the film, outshining Yankovic, who in an even stranger bit of Hollywood humility seems to be okay with that. Yankovic has been a constant presence in music since the early 80's. He's the sort of artist you forget about until he comes back, but he always does. Yankovic's real talent is that he always seems to understand the state of popular culture at the moment and adapt himself to demonstrate its excess- whether it be the star pop of the 80's, the grunge of the early 90's, or now, gangsta rap. However, as UHF demonstrates, Yankovic is, unfortunately, a gifted comedian but not a very good actor or screenwriter. He's fine when he's by himself, but when he has to interact with other performers he comes off as amateurish and fake. His script, co-written with director Jay Levey, is essentially a series of gags strung together by a thin (and I mean really thin) plot line. Yankovic is always likeable- his persona is a geeky but nice guy and he's impossible not to like, but his character, George Newman, is so passive that's its hard to get caught up in his campaign to save his uncle's TV station, which is being threatened by the tycoon R. J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy). The real star of the film is a pre-Kramer Michael Richards as Stanley Spadowski, a mentally challenged janitor who becomes a surprise sensation as the host of kid's show on the network. Richard's is funny every time he appears on screen and the humor of his character is pretty subversive. He has no idea what he's doing and, in one of his many funny bits, agrees to host the show only if he can continue as the custodian of the station, because he really loves mopping. Richards overshadows Yankovic in almost every scene that they share, and oddly, the star is impressivley humble enough to give the spotlight to someone else. The second half of the movie is dominated by Richards that at the end its kind of surprising that George has a significant role to play in the climax. The movie has an endearing cheap look and lowbrow charm to it. There are long stretches where there are no laughs, which will suddenly be interrupted by truly hilarious scenes. UHF is a minor effort, but is amusing enough for a recommendation. UHF (1989)
]]>Sun, 13 Jul 2008 05:13:18 GMTCinemaRianCinemaRian Blog7/13/2008 1:13:18 AMUHF can be better refereed to be what everyone thinks of it as- the Weird Al Yankovic movie, just as Glitter is the Mariah Carey movie. From its concept the entire film would be built around the talents of Yankovic, but a funny thing happens- someone else becomes the real star of the film, outshining Yankovic, who in an even stranger bit of Hollywood humility seems to be okay with that. Yankovic has been a constant presence in music since the early 80's. He's the sort of artist you forget about until he comes back, but he always does. Yankovic's real talent is that he always seems to understand the state of popular culture at the moment and adapt himself to demonstrate its excess- whether it be the star pop of the 80's, the grunge of the early 90's, or now, gangsta rap. However, as UHF demonstrates, Yankovic is, unfortunately, a gifted comedian but not a very good actor or screenwriter. He's fine when he's by himself, but when he has to interact with other performers he comes off as amateurish and fake. His script, co-written with director Jay Levey, is essentially a series of gags strung together by a thin (and I mean really thin) plot line. Yankovic is always likeable- his persona is a geeky but nice guy and he's impossible not to like, but his character, George Newman, is so passive that's its hard to get caught up in his campaign to save his uncle's TV station, which is being threatened by the tycoon R. J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy). The real star of the film is a pre-Kramer Michael Richards as Stanley Spadowski, a mentally challenged janitor who becomes a surprise sensation as the host of kid's show on the network. Richard's is funny every time he appears on screen and the humor of his character is pretty subversive. He has no idea what he's doing and, in one of his many funny bits, agrees to host the show only if he can continue as the custodian of the station, because he really loves mopping. Richards overshadows Yankovic in almost every scene that they share, and oddly, the star is impressivley humble enough to give the spotlight to someone else. The second half of the movie is dominated by Richards that at the end its kind of surprising that George has a significant role to play in the climax. The movie has an endearing cheap look and lowbrow charm to it. There are long stretches where there are no laughs, which will suddenly be interrupted by truly hilarious scenes. UHF is a minor effort, but is amusing enough for a recommendation. UHF (1989) http://www.spout.com/blogs/ushimu/archive/2007/10/7/20464.aspx Post By: UshiMu
Post To: UshiMu Blog
Post Date: 10/7/2007 1:32:14 AM
Body: I'm not sure I cared for it.some parts were endearing, but mostly it was just too weird to handle.
]]>Sun, 07 Oct 2007 05:32:14 GMTUshiMuUshiMu Blog10/7/2007 1:32:14 AMI&#39;m not sure I cared for it.some parts were endearing, but mostly it was just too weird to handle. http://www.spout.com/groups/Best_movie_quotes/Re_Most_Quotes/17/10697/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Best movie quotes
Post Date: 6/10/2007 11:41:59 PM
Body: 1. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas2. Withnail & I3. The Big Lebowski4. The Kentucky Fried Movie5. UHFAnd here are my runner-ups: Airplane!, Dr. Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spaceballs Can we list TV shows, because those are almost bigger treasure troves of quotes than movies.1. The Young Ones2. The Kids in the Hall and the movie Brain Candy3. Space Ghost Coast to Coast
]]>Mon, 11 Jun 2007 03:41:59 GMTRisseladaBest movie quotes6/10/2007 11:41:59 PM1. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas2. Withnail &amp; I3. The Big Lebowski4. The Kentucky Fried Movie5. UHFAnd here are my runner-ups: Airplane!, Dr. Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spaceballs Can we list TV shows, because those are almost bigger treasure troves of quotes than movies.1. The Young Ones2. The Kids in the Hall and the movie Brain Candy3. Space Ghost Coast to Coast http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/80s/MemberTagFilms.aspx80s
Number of films tagged: 87

Number of people who tagged: 90

Number of times used: 162

]]>Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:50:41 GMT8790162Tag http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/of/MemberTagFilms.aspxof
Number of films tagged: 96

Number of people who tagged: 87

Number of times used: 105

]]>Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:13:39 GMT9687105Tag http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/Stupid/MemberTagFilms.aspxStupid
Number of films tagged: 83

Number of people who tagged: 70

Number of times used: 99

]]>Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:12:14 GMT837099Tag http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/kidnapping/MemberTagFilms.aspxkidnapping
Number of films tagged: 2851

Number of people who tagged: 49

Number of times used: 172

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