Conner4real (Samberg) is one of the hottest popstars around. A former boyband member, Conner's first solo album made him into a huge success and a complete jerk. He abandoned one of his childhood best friends, Lawrence (Akiva Schaffer; Saturday Night Live) and treated the other, Owen (Jorma Taccone; Saturday Night Live), like an employee. When his second album tanked and his tour wasn't selling out, Conner pulled every stunt he could to make his image look better.
Unfortunately, all of his attempts seemed to backfire and created more bad publicity. His concert publicity stunt ended with him naked on stage and his private parts tucked between his legs and his marriage proposal attempt ended with performer Seal getting mauled by wolves. Conner eventually hit rock bottom and had to reunite with his former best friends and make amends in order to turn his life around.
If you happen to like slapstick humor, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is right up your ally. The scene with Seal getting chased by wolves is hilarious and the original songs are so crude they are reminiscent of Sandberg's SNL skit D*ck in a box. The humor is fairly sophomoric, but for its target audience, it gets the laughs just right.
Sandberg is perfect as Conner, the spoiled man-child who is too big for his britches and needs to be taken down a notch. Schaffer is great as Conner's best friend who gets stabbed in the back and then quits the music world to become a farmer. Taccone rounds out the threesome nicely as the quiet introverted one who tries to stick with Conner but increasingly becomes frustrated. Honorable mentions go to Sarah Silverman (Wreck It Ralph) as Paula, Conner's "Handler", Maya Rudolph (Bridesmaids) as the appliance executive who works with Conner on a sponsorship and Tim Meadows (Mean Girls) as Harry, Conner's manager.
The disc has a 2.40:1 aspect ratio and a 1080p high definition resolution which makes the picture "pop" (pun intended). The hues are vibrant and every color is clearly defined. Of course, with such fantastic songs like "Donkey Roll", "Things in My Jeep", "Finest Girl" and "Equal Rights (Featuring P!nk)" the DTS-HD Master audio 5.1 has to be superior quality and luckily it is. The music is featured prominently in the film, is mixed well and really stands out over the dialogue. However, the dialogue is also mixed at a reasonable level so there isn't any need to constantly adjust the volume.
The Blu-ray also has 16 extras ranging from the Director and Co-writers commentary to a fairly funny gag reel and several music videos. There are also outtakes from the fake interviews shown throughout the film and a very tame "sex Tape". The deleted scenes don't add all that much to the overall story, but I think the new dance craze should be the Donkey Roll and the extras give everyone the opportunity to learn how to do just that.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping has some great cameos from celebrities in the music world and a cute smaller role played by longtime Sandberg friend Justin Timberlake. It obviously parodies a few of today's popstars and "boy bands" but does it in such a way that doesn't seem hurtful to those it is trying to mock (Justin Bieber, anyone?). It even takes aim at the paparazzi giant TMZ.
As parodies go, it has a decent story and some funny moments and I didn't walk away feeling as if the movie was overly "stupid". I could see it being a fun, "Hey let's everyone hang out at my house and watch a movie together" type of film which isn't a bad thing. Decent enough that it garnered some good returns when it hit theaters.
Grade: B
