Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

Save for a few legitimately good gags with excellent payoffs, it plays too safe to the point where it ceases being a comedy about the event and instead starts feeling more like a commercial.

With the actual competition canceled, 'Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga' on Netflix is the next best thing.

The movie's obvious love for the bizarre excesses of Eurovision, and the fun it has with them, make you wish the filmmakers could have condensed all the messy plot padding and just harnessed the excitement of the show.

Like way too many modern comedies and a lot of Netflix movies, "Eurovision Song Contest" is just too long.

What does the Netflix version of a Will Ferrell comedy look like, with Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as goofy Nordic songfest contestants? It looks like 'Anchorman' or 'Talladega Nights' minus the laughs.

Ferrell and Rachel McAdams don silly costumes and belt out kitschy pop anthems, but the movie is workmanlike, mid-level Ferrell silliness.

And it's because of that energy and sense of humor in the face of structural anomalies that make critiquing a movie like EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA seems like a mute effort (...).