Extras: Audio commentary by Al Yankovic, director Jay
Levey, Emo Phillips, Michael Richards, Victoria
Jackson. Making-of featurette, deleted scenes,
production materials, theatrical trailer, production
stills, easter eggs, interactive menus, and scene
selection.
Director:
Jay Levey
Screenplay:
"Weird Al" Yankovic and Jay Levey
Cast:
George Newman: "Weird Al" Yankovic
Teri: Victoria Jackson
R.J. Fletcher: Kevin McCarthy
Stanley Spadowski: Michael Richards
Bob: David Bowe
Uncle Harvey: Stanley Brock
Philo: Anthony Geary
Noodles Macintosh: Billy Barty
Richard Fletcher: John Paragon
Pamela Finklestein: Fran Drescher
Aunt Esther: Sue Ane Langdon
Raul Hernandez: Trinidad Silva
Kuni: Gedde Watanabe
UHF
is one of those 80s movies that has garnered a
cult status over the years. Other 80s films like this
are: Howard the Duck, Big Trouble in Little China and
John Carpenter's The Thing just to name a few. Being a
pilot for Weird Al Yankovic I'm not suprised it didn't
exactly ignite the box office, being released in 1989
amidst the biggest summer season of all time. Films
like Indiana Jones and Batman were debuting and it's
not suprising why a little film like UHF was shoved
away. It soon found it's audience when it was released
on VHS, Beta and Laserdisc in January 1990. Since
then the film has been a fan-favorite. When MGM picked
up Orion's hefty film vault which included films like:
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
and
Robocop,
I think they definitely knew UHF would sell.
Written by Yankovic along with agent Levey, UHF tells
the story of George Newman (Yankovic) who inherits a TV
studio from his Uncle Harvey who won the deed in a
poker match. Newman's imagination cannot save the
studio and it begins to flounder even more than it
ever did. That is until he discovers Stanley
Spadowski (Michael Richards) and his knack for being
the perfect child show host. The station becomes a
success and starts airing shows like Raul Hernandez's
Wild Animals which features a hilarious scene when
Raul shakes up an ant farm. Other shows include a
Jerry Spinger-like show (wonder if Springer was around
in '89) and Wheel of Fish. The plot is pretty much cut-and-paste
but still gives a very good time.
Into the disc. The video on this MGM disc is pretty
standard for them. Most of their old titles aren't
very good in the picture department but this isn't
that bad. Minor grain here and there and occasional
softness pop up at times. But overall not that
distracting or anything. At least you can tell MGM
takes a little time in cleaning up the print for
transfer time.
The sound, on the other hand, is great. Again you
don't need much on a comedy but everything is audible
and loud when it should be. Explosions in the Rambo
fantasy are thundering and dialouge is audible.
The extras are really great. I wish MGM had put this
much care into the extras of such discs like both Bill
and Ted movies or
Escape From New York.
Very plentiful extras like deleted scenes (hosted by Yankovic and are
really funny), production materials which show the
posters, plus theatrical trailers. MGM clearly
recognized that this is a cult favorite and that many
people would be interested. I have two complaints
about the extras though. First, the behind-the scene
featurette is worthless, running at a mere 3 minutes.
Second, you have to flip the disc over for the deleted
scenes. But these gripes are very minor.
Overall, this film is very funny. A great film that
will definitely be appreciated now. I wish that Weird
Al could have made more movies because he does have a
very good sense of humor (watch his music videos like
Amish Paradise and Fat). I miss these type of movies that
have been replaced by the worthless teen movie
garbage (all Freddie Prinze Jr. movies,
American Pie).
You went to see these movies to just laugh at it's
cleaverness and not it's gross-out factor. Definitely
check this out since it is only $14.95 but I got mine
at Best Buy for only $9.99. You won't be dissapointed.
Oh yeah and here's a link to all the easter eggs you
can find:
http://www.dvdeastereggs.com/showEgg.php?eggid=721&grabEggs=u
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
