Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Shout Factory) Blu-ray Review

“Taylor Swift was arrested for murder”

100 producers, 17 songs. That’s how Conner4Real’s latest album came to be, summing up modern pop music’s absurdity. And still, Popstar has plenty more in-industry zingers to deliver.

Conner (Andy Samberg) is a spoiled, immature idiot. Seeing him act out gives Popstar its center. From there, humor spreads to his circle, those cult-like members who lavish praise, lie (to him and themselves), and prop up an ego that doesn’t deserve to exist. Popstar doesn’t have fear. Given cameos from the likes of Michael Bolton (!), it’s clear everyone is on the same joke.

Popstar never stops being funny, but skirts enough reality to find an authentic base; that’s key. Teens, by the thousands, flock to arena to hear Conner sing, “Fuck Me like we Fucked Bin Laden.” No one in that audience seems to catch the lyrics; they don’t care. With Conner’s face plastered on teen magazines, it’s about looks and showmanship. Popstar exudes a certain joy in exposing the idiocy, and Popstar is voracious enough to take everything out as it goes.

Popstar seems to hate this type of obsession, and wants these ideas to penetrate

There’s a TMZ parody where the hosts laugh at celebrity misfortune. Paparazzi block Conner from leaving his home in a veterinary emergency so they can snap pics. That translates to an eager public, who even after not buying Conner’s latest album, still drag themselves to his shows. Maybe it’s to watch him fail, or maybe ticket buyers found themselves wrapped up in the publicity. Who knows? What matters is they still give this arrogant imbecile money because that’s how celebrity culture functions. And then, breaks from music or film and into politics.

Certainly, Popstar isn’t an important movie. It’s aiming low and succeeding, catching itself on the same bar as an Airplane, this while skewering musical documentaries. Samberg is consistently pure too.

For all the hilarious stupid though (including an especially awkward in-car autograph session), Popstar finds a way to have its voice. A lot of things mock what they love – Popstar seems to hate this type of obsession, and wants these ideas to penetrate, at least when it’s not discussing frog semen. In this movie, Conner’s publicity stunt knocks out power to the entire country. Bad press follows. He indirectly mauls Seal (yes, the singer). Yet, at the end, because the Style Boyz reunite, doing their dopey nostalgic dance, all is forgiven. People cheer. That’s the power of celebrity, and Popstar charges head first into this moronic, corporate-made religion.

Video

It’s interesting putting Popstar’s latest release into a Blu-ray player. Although the Steelbook case shows Shout Factory branding (the disc itself holds their logo too) this is the exact same Universal release from 2016. Shout disappears once the menus pop up.

In fairness, there’s minimal point in remastering a digital production from only a few years ago, short of moving to 4K. Popstar still looks fine. Other than spots of noise, clarity remains high. It’s nicely detailed with consistent sharpness.

Warm color dominates. Brightness maintains consistent intensity, spectacular during the stage show. That’s dazzling when in tandem with black levels.

Audio

Songs power the DTS-HD track, and yes, it’s the same mix as before. Strong LFE delivers beats, always firm.

Large crowds fill the five channel soundstage. Ambiance comfortably keeps things active when at clubs or parties. There’s a fun moment where a character throws an award, sound traveling into the right rear to catch the impact.

Extras

Yep, the same extras. Nothing new other than the packaging.

While the bonus menu presents an extensive list of options, they mostly fall into deleted/extended scenes. Why is a mystery since the deleted/extended scene section plays host to 23 cuts, approaching 45-minutes total. Added to them are four more elsewhere on the disc, not including cut bonuses from the CMZ segments. Further still, dropped interview bits and ten minutes of “bonus footage” (more deleted/extended) keep the same type of material coming.

That leaves a brief gag reel and the real gem still left – six complete music videos of Popstar’s songs, and each one is comedy gold. For anything of depth, the commentary with Andy Samberg and his co-writers/co-directors/co-stars Akiva Schaffer & Jomma Taccone comes last.

Full disclosure: This Blu-ray was provided to us for review. This has not affected the editorial process. For information on how we handle review material, please visit our about us page to learn more.

The 15 unaltered images below represent the Blu-ray. For an additional 20 Popstar screenshots, early access to all screens (plus the 100,000+ already in our library), 100 exclusive 4K UHD reviews, and more, support us on Patreon.