Popstar
2.5 Waffles!

In this mockumentary, Andy Samberg stars as Conner4Real – a massive, Justin Bieber-like pop star followed by a film crew documenting the release of his 2nd album and the accompanying tour to promote it.

Along the way we get to see Conner’s rise to fame with his long time group The Style Boyz, how his solo success tore them apart and how it all went to his head, which contributes to this impending disaster.

Samberg and fellow writers/co-stars Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer provide one of the best parodies of the music business, stardom and more, when Popstar is focused.

Sadly, they kind of run out of jokes as the movie stumbles toward the end.

The earliest portions of Popstar benefit from some extremely creative writing delivering outrageous situations, hilarious dialogue and some of the funniest offensive songs you have ever heard. The trio does a great job finding humor in the dimwittedness of everyone, while also finding some moments to take a poke at entertainment news, what stars will do for attention and everything you can imagine about social media.

Also, Popstar benefits from a boatload of cameos from Usher to Ringo Starr to every funny Saturday Night Live star of the last 10-years (and Jimmy Fallon). Some of the fun is just seeing who will show up next.

However, the movie runs out of steam. Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer get away from the parody aspects to make Popstar more about personal redemption and the schmaltzy ending focusing on whether or not the long time members of The Style Boyz will find friendship again.

In this way, the crew shows they feel daring is more about using naughty language instead of taking us in an unanticipated direction.

Popstar is rated R for some graphic nudity, language throughout, sexual content and drug use.

86 Minutes