Hell Freezes Over

When it comes to movies of the comedy genre I tend to live my life by the credo that most if not all modern comedy sucks. Maybe it's my age or my general cantankerous disposition but I am very much in the old school camp when it comes to those films that tickle the funny bone. Among my favourite films of this type are Animal House and The Blues Brothers (must be something to do with John Belushi) but that isn't to say that more modern comedies cannot sneak into those that I would consider entertaining. Movies such as Tropic Thunder, Napoleon Dynamite and Team America all fall into that category but even then the most recent of those is 8 years old.

As far as the most recent releases in the world of comedy pretty much all films fall into one of two groups, a) not very funny movies featuring not very funny 'stars' , I really don't 'get' the likes of Amy Schumer, Melissa McCarthy, Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart and the rest and can honestly say that I have yet to raise a laugh when watching any movies featuring these and other big names in today's comedy landscape, and b) really not funny remakes of classic comedies such as Vacation (not a remake technically but really not funny in any way shape or form) and of course Ghostbusters which I have gone on the record about on several occasions.

I realise that all of this makes me sound older than the 40 years I actually am and it surely paints me as a miserable old sod (which for the record to a certain extent I am) but give me a classic Steve Martin performance over Adam Sandler acting like a tit any day.

So what is the point of this post I hear you ask? Well yesterday I sat down and watched a modern comedy that based on everything I have written here I should have loathed and detested but in a shock to both myself and my wife I actually came away from it with the opinion that it really was not too bad, hell in places I actually laughed. What is this film that has broken my streak of negativity? None other than Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, a film that on paper ticked every box on my 'I'm going to hate this' list but gave me a most pleasant surprise.

Popstar is written by Andy Samberg (star of Brooklyn Nine Nine) and Akiva Schaffer who also directs and has previously helmed a ton of Saturday Night LIve material as well as the film The Watch. Confession time now as I have to admit that I've never watched Brooklyn Nine Nine and a quick look at Sambergs filmography shows me that I have actually never watched anything that has had him in it. Now I know many of you will be condemning me for this but you know what they say about opinions and besides I'm too set in my ways to change now.

So to the plot of the movie. We begin with a look at the boyband The Style Boyz and we get a VH1esque retrospective of their career as one member of the trio named Conner becomes a the big star of the group and eventually breaks off from the others to launch a solo career. Here we also get many talking heads from actually musicians which is a theme that runs throughout the film as we see the likes of Mariah Carey, Usher and Nas all bigging up the fictional group for the influence they had on their own careers.

So Conner now goes by the name Conner4real and he has brought former bandmate Owen along for the ride as his DJ although we discover that Owen only has to push play on an Ipod and doesn't actually do any DJing despite being the talented musician of the Style Boyz. As for the third and final member of the group Lawrence, he has retired from the music biz and runs a delapidated farm which we later find out is actually a huge marijuana plantation.

The basic story of the film shows Conners fall from grace as he writes one dumbfoundingly stupid song after another and his album completely tanks which eventually sees him dropped by the company who have been sponsoring him. He also has several breakdowns on stage and is usurped by a younger more edgy musician in the form of rapper Hunter the Hungry.

The crux of the movie is of course the relationship between the original members of the Style Boyz with Conner realising that the group is bigger than his individual success which of course leads to the eventual triumphant reformation of the group.

If you asked me to put my finger on what it was I enjoyed about this film I'm not sure I could actually give you an answer but as both a parody of the likes of Justin Bieber and an out and out comedy movie it just works. Samberg is great in the role of Conner and having watched him here I have been inspired to check out Brooklyn Nine Nine which I am hoping will give me a nice surprise too. As for the rest of the cast I will admit that I have little idea as to whom most of them are but they all turn in very good performances here with Chris Redd in particular being the standout as Hunter the Hungry.

The comedy here doesn't always hit the notes that it is aiming for but the misses are not glaring and do not detract from the overall vibe of the film and as I have already stated there were moments in this film that I genuinely was entertained by and I actually laughed out loud.

So will this film convince me to lower my defences and give other modern comedy films a try? Probably not as I just find the likes of Schumer and McCarthy just too obnoxious to be in any way entertaining and as for Adam Sandler well the least said about him the better as since Happy Gilmore he has basically played the same role over and over again.

All of that aside however I would recommend Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping to anyone and in scoring it I have to go strong and give it a much deserved 8 out of 10.

I'm now going out to see of I can find any flying pigs.