LogFAQs > #972179028

17. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
Directed by Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone
Score: 164 (Tie)

Tangy: 3
John: 4
Karo: 8
Plasma: 11
Forty: 15
Vis: 16
Poke: 23
Mythiot: 25
GavsEvans: 29
Suprak: 30

3. Tangy
I absolutely adore this movie. Not only does it serve as a perfect satire of the entertainment industry, but its also a parody of Lonely Island, while still being a beautiful tribute.

In my write up for Spinal Tap, I mentioned how much I appreciated the attention to detail. Popstar does this as well, but its done to a much higher degree. Every character has an absurd backstory and every single one contributes to this wacky mirror of our reality. While side characters like Harry, the Tony! Toni Tone! Reject and Chris Redd as the maniacal Hunter the Hungry are the obvious standouts, I really love the bit parts too. Tilly, Deborah and Tyrus come to mind immediately, but I think my favorite has to be Zippy the flatlining Guitar Tech.

Oh yeah and then theres the celebrity cameos. Normally they dont do much for me, but here they absolutely work in the films favor. I think its because they actually use them to add even more variety to the comedy. One second youve got Adam Levines hologram grinding on himself and the next youve got Obama calling Conner a real dumb fuck. Hell some of them are actually involved in the plot and songs too. Usher literally has his own character arc about dancing with the Style Boyz. What's not to love?

I could honestly write an essay about how much I love this movie, but Im super behind on these write ups so, Ill just have to leave it at that.

Biggest Laugh: I cant think of just one, so heres my own Catchphrase Verse

He wasnt smoking a blunt, he was just eating it.

Conner! Did you just take a shit in the Anne Frank house!?

We'd like to get to the point where Connor is everywhere, like oxygen or gravity or clinical depression.

Conner4Real fighting with Martin Sheen, gets knocked the F out!

4. John
Legitimately Popstar might have the best soundtrack of any musical comedy movie that exists. This movie in many ways feels like the culmination of Andy Samberg's career up to that point. It's the best of the Lonely Island and the best of what he contributed to SNL. Chris Redd is a great comedic rapper in his own right, and after his Tyler the Creator-esque performance here I was so hyped to see him appear as an SNL cast member years later.

8. Karo
This hilarious satire of the stupidity of the music industry follows the life of a conceited music star as he attempts to strike out alone as a solo artist.
Conner is just a completely narcissistic little shit throughout, much like real life music stars, and therein lies the humor.
Where Spinal Tap falls apart this movie hits all it marks. The ridiculous songs are great and everything just has a wonderful craziness that works very well (the whole appliance bit was especially inspired).

11. Plasma
Better than Spinal Tap in every way. The characters are over-the-top, the songs are hilarious, and the pacing is smooth. Sadly, though, Popstar falls apart toward the end when it delivers a hackneyed moral about forgiveness, selflessness, and all that other happy crap. Wouldve preferred to see this one end tragically. C+

15. Forty
#doinkdedoink Usually like one catchphrase in a hit. He dropped like 30 on us in one night. Shit was crazy! The pop music world is ripe for satire, with the lyrical content, over the top excesses, and relentless self-promotion. Who better to pull it off than Andy Samberg and the Lonely Island boyz who have made a career out of creating hilarious yet genuinely quality music. I love everything about Lonely Island so theres nothing better for me than a whole movie showcasing their songs and videos. I also love a movie with a lot of cameos and this one has a ton of good ones. I dont know that it does enough to create a lasting impression and find its place among all-time great comedies, though. I didnt really find any flaws with it, but I feel like it wont be overly memorable in the long run.

16. Vis
There are two movies on this list that I feel weird ranking this one above (one because this feels far more lowbrow, and the other because it also has a questionable tone and sense of humor), but I just found myself laughing a lot at this movie. I love Andy Samburgs Lonely Island stuff from back in the day on SNL, and taking a bunch of digital short music videos and compiling them into a single character as he tries to show how awesome of a popstar he isit was funny. The actual musical element of this movie nails the comedy. Plus, it nails a lot of the pop music experience, complete with dead-on parodies of TMZ, a ton of celebrity cameos saying some outrageous shit, and that final joke of three different people getting confused by their cameramen, because there are multiple people trying to shoot a documentary at the same timespectacular. It still had some juvenile humor that didnt quite land for me (I didnt need to see a turtle vomiting, for example), but I think it told its story well, and it was fun for the most part.

25. Mythiot
This one really suffered from being watched too close to This Is Spinal Tap, because it really felt like a less funny Spinal Tap. Less memorable characters, very similar plot, and the songs not juggling being both ridiculous and plausible the way Spinal Tap did. That said, there were a lot of good laughs to be had. The songs are quite fun (Dinky Nuts!), the Party Wolves segment was a standout, and by the end I was just as happy at the Style Boyz as all the musicians were in-universe. As a side note, I do appreciate the satisfying mockery of the old put dog shit in baked goods to make a point story you might have heard if you grew up in a conservative household.

29. GavsEvans
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping charts the rise, fall and rebirth of fictitious popstar Conner 4 Real, from his start as a member of the Style Boys to his solo career wait a minute, this sounds a lot like This is Spinal Tap, doesnt it? Popstar is essentially a contemporary spiritual successor to that film, albeit one on a sugar rush.

Popstar is a movie from comedy band The Lonely Island, and their highly successful song parodies are proof that they can be funny, but unfortunately, I didnt enjoy this movie very much. The reason behind that is, for me, The Lonely Island are funny in small doses. A three-minute song is just the right length for me to enjoy it and find it funny, but a 90-minute film full of their style of humour absurdity, profanity, sex jokes and celebrity cameos mean this one long overstays its welcome. The celebrity cameos in particular prevent this film from having the same immersion that This is Spinal Tap did. As a consequence of this youre not going to mistake Conner 4 Real for a real popstar, for real.

I found this to be inferior to This is Spinal Tap, and I didnt rate that too highly on this list either, so Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping goes down as one of the big disappointments of this list for me. Mockumentaries about fictional musicians really mustnt be my thing, huh? This is getting to be a trend.