When the trailers for this first started showing up I said “I would have to hear a LOT of good reviews before I’d see that.” Then I heard a lot of movie folks say they like it, and that there was at least one scene- the “Rock DJ” number- that needs to be seen in a real theater to be appreciated. So I went.
It’s not very good.
Vera Drew’s Letterboxd review explains perfectly why they went with a CGI chimp instead of a person: “How else are they going make the most unlikeable character in bio pic history someone you wanna watch for two hours?” He’s a jerk through 99 percent of the film, and his big transition to slightly less of a jerk starts with him blaming his problems on getting fame as a teenager. It’s also pretty funny that he spends most of the movie wanting to make his own music, but the big standout song is from a band he seems to hate, and the redemption song at the end of the movie is a version of “My Way.”
Lazy joke poster below.
