The Simpsons Movie

[the max 0]

Welcome to the wonderful world of movie ratings!

 

Where now films have "Violence, Scary Themes and Smoking" under their ratings. God forbid anyone go to a film and see someone smoking on the screen.

[RepoMan 0]

I havn't watch any new episdoes since 2004, but I'm hoping they can pull something good out of their ass for the movie. I'm going to see it a full price theater.

[AntiLeaf33 0]

Welcome to the wonderful world of movie ratings!

 

Where now films have "Violence, Scary Themes and Smoking" under their ratings. God forbid anyone go to a film and see someone smoking on the screen.

 

I think it was Alien Vs. Predator a few years ago, that had slime listed under its rating

[AndrewTS 0]

Welcome to the wonderful world of movie ratings!

 

Where now films have "Violence, Scary Themes and Smoking" under their ratings. God forbid anyone go to a film and see someone smoking on the screen.

 

I think it was Alien Vs. Predator a few years ago, that had slime listed under its rating

 

 

Rated PG-13 for violence, language, horror images, slime and gore.

[devo 0]

How does gore get bottom billing in that list? I'm more confused about that than anything else.

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

*Flips through the Bible*

 

THIS BOOK DOESN'T HAVE ANY ANSWERS!

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I guess if theres a ghostbusters 3 it'd have to be rated r then lol..

 

 

[Downhome 0]

Here's a few reviews:

 

http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Crit...2133231,00.html

 

The Simpsons Movie

 

 

**** (Cert PG)

 

Peter Bradshaw

Tuesday July 24, 2007

The Guardian

 

The Simpsons Movie

Biting satire... The Simpsons Movie

 

 

What's the opposite of D'Oh? Y'Oh! Wh'oh! G'oh! The Simpsons are finally, triumphantly, here, after much whingeing and whispering that we've all got Simpsons fatigue and that the movie was only going to be a feature-length version of the TV show. To which I can only say "only?" It's only going to be superbly funny and well-written all the way through? With a creative IQ that easily outpaces 99% of everything else Hollywood churns out? And as for Simpsons fatigue, I was too busy laughing to notice any.

 

For 17 long years The Simpsons has not been turned into a film, and that single fact is often held up as proof that it is the very epitome of televisual perfection. The show has outlasted two American presidents and a pope. It predated the internet. While fractured, dysfunctional households in the real world had kids that watched TV in their rooms, The Simpsons rushed home to gather round the family set, without video or Sky+, like the nuclear families of old.

 

Over the years liberals have learned to clench their teeth and admit that it was News Corp's demon king Rupert Murdoch who sponsored the world's greatest TV programme. In the cinema South Park the Movie came and went and even The Flintstones was permitted a live-action movie airing, an extraordinary error of taste which is only attributable to an overspill of frustrated yearning for Springfield's First Family. The Toy Stories, Shrek, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo all grew to maturity in cinema's digital arena, and then the CGI family-comedy boom faded. And all the while, The Simpsons just kept going, a perpetual motion machine of intelligent comedy, though perhaps without the full bloom of its early greatness.

 

And now, at last, Matt Groening's brilliant creation has arrived in cinemas, dated only in the sense that we all know it began in 1990, but otherwise terrifically funny and contemporary. Though I admit: after this vast historical wait, there is a tiny bit of a letdown, only because The Simpsons Movie just can't offer the shock of the new which is such a part of the moviegoing experience. And one gag is recycled: Homer again attempts to soar over Springfield gorge, Evel Knievel-style, with the same anti-climatic results.

 

But we've been spoiled by so much quality. The gags are razor-sharp and lightning-swift; they keep coming, and the writing just puts everything else to shame, in the cinema just as on television. I watched the screen with my eyes darting all over the place, not wanting to miss a single sight-gag. And in fact there is something hallucinatory in seeing the characters at giant size, especially swooping through the landscape for the (modified) opening credits. When Lisa's yellow face fills the screen for the first time it's like some sort of acid trip.

 

The story is too silly and involved to summarise, but it involves Homer rescuing his family and saving Springfield from a grotesque conspiracy by President Arnold Schwarzenegger to despoil the environment - a president who declines to consult any briefing document: "I vos elected to lead, not read!"

 

It cheerfully alludes to Dr Strangelove, Spellbound, and The Truman Show, though Groening leaves unsolved the puzzle of whether his creation was in any way inspired by Homer Simpson, the dopey midwestern accountant in Nathanael West's Hollywood novel The Day of the Locust. Unfortunately there isn't much screen time for the show's greatest villain, nuclear plant supremo Montgomery Burns, though Burns has one outstanding line. Relishing a moment of power over his fellow Springfielders, he sneers: "So! For once the rich white man is in control!"

 

Police Chief Whiggum has what is probably the best single gag, munching doughnuts off the barrel of his gun, and almost blowing his head off when his mobile phone goes off: "Whew! That was a close one!"

 

Undoubtedly, reconfiguring The Simpsons as a feature film has meant scaling back the ensemble of minor characters and building up the conventional drama within the family itself; this has meant some sacrifices but it is brilliantly done, especially the agonising relationship between Marge and her daughter Lisa, who is embarking on a romance with a handsome young Irish boy. Marge looks on, all too aware of the excruciating disappointments that men can inflict on a young female heart. "I'm so angry!" sobs Lisa to her. "You're a woman," says Marge solemnly, "you can hold it in for ever."

 

Homer is a joy whenever he's on, especially when he conceives an inappropriate love for a pig. When they watch an erotic moment on TV, Homer turns wonderingly to the pig and says: "Maybe we should kiss to break the tension ..." Marge comes back just in time: "What's going on here?" A huge laugh.

 

So many movies promise what they could never deliver in a million years. The Simpsons movie gives you everything you could possibly want, and maybe it's a victim of its own gargantuan accomplishment. Eighty-five minutes is not long enough to do justice to 17 years of comedy genius. It's still great stuff. Like Homer with his nachos, I could gobble it up until nightfall.

 

· Peter Bradshaw is the Guardian's film critic

 

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle2118613.ece

 

From The Times

July 22, 2007

The Simpsons Movie – The Times review

 

Our correspondent finds the big-screen debut for Homer and clan both hilarious and horrifyingly poignant

Homer the hero in the big-screen Simpsons

 

 

****

 

[beware: spoilers]

 

Homer Simpson, the oafish paterfamilias of America’s favourite dysfunctional family, emerges from his big-screen debut a bona fide Hollywood action hero.

 

At the start of The Simpsons Movie Homer’s dreams of glory are limited to helping his new pet pig to walk upside down on the ceiling while singing “Spiderpig, Spiderpig” to the Spider-Man theme song.

 

But when the adopted swine gets him into bigger trouble than even this celebrated screw-up has ever experienced before, he falls under the influence of a chesty Native American woman he calls “Boob Lady” and undergoes an uncharacteristic epiphany that galvanizes him into action for the good of his by-now estranged clan.

 

By the time the witty final credits roll, Homer outshines even Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has been elected president and ordered great harm done to Homer’s home town.

 

The Hollywood action theme helps the hit cartoon series, after 18 seasons on television, to land its death-defying leap to the big screen with panache. The result is a postmodern parable about an environmental scare that is at the same time hilarious and horrifyingly poignant. But thanks to an unexpected glimpse of Bart’s genitalia, this is a postmodern parable with a “pickle shot”.

 

The film boasts the same sly cultural references and flashes of brilliance that have earned the television series a following that ranges from tots to comparative literature PhDs. Despite its clownishness and childish graphics, it still offers searing insights into the pathetic human condition.

 

When the residents of Springfield learn that they are confronting catastrophe, for instance, the panicked occupants of the bar and the next-door church pour out into the street and change places — the drinkers taking solace in religion and the religious finding comfort in drink.

 

But the movie will be equally satisfying to those who just find it funny that Homer wants to kiss his pet pig — or laugh at Marge pondering the (literally) weighty issue of the pig’s “leavings”, or excrement.

 

Early on The Simpsons team shows their nerve by making Homer wonder out loud why anyone would pay to buy a cinema ticket to watch what they could see on TV free — the underlying question of the whole big-screen adaptation. In Homer’s view, anyone who pays for cinema tickets to watch a TV show is a sucker. Jabbing his finger at the audience, he declares: “Particularly you!”

 

What you get for your money is the Simpsons on an epic scale. The familiar, if geographically indeterminate, territory of Springfield is suddenly transformed into a cross between The Truman Show and Escape from New York, with a Big Brother government conspiring to keep all its unruly residents in line until it can be bombed into a “new Grand Canyon” tourist attraction.

 

The middle section, set in Alaska, lags because of the absence of the familiar props of the Simpsons’ home town. I found myself longing for Homer and his tribe to return to wreak more havoc on their neighbours, particularly the long-suffering Flanders.

 

But the film ends with a tense second-by-second countdown that fully exploits the bathos of that schlump Homer becoming an action star able save the world, or at least his little part of it. The conventions of the “disaster flick” allow The Simpsons’ left-leaning creator, Matt Groening, to indulge his politics with wry warnings of environmental doom without boring us out of our mustard-yellow skin.

 

Lisa, Homer and Marge’s swotty daughter, has become an ardent environmentalist who makes an Al Gore-style presentation entitled “An Irritating Truth” to the local populace.

 

In the same spirit, this film could have been subtitled: “An Inconvenient Cartoon”.

 

http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view....8&s=Reviews

 

SIMPSONS MOVIE, THE

 

SYNOPSIS:

Springfield's lake is so polluted by dumped rubbish it needs help - but Homer (voice of Dan Castellaneta) is too selfish to care, and when he dumps his newly found pet pig's silo-size poo container into it, it reaches the 'tipping point' and Springfield becomes an environmental disaster zone. Marge (voice of Julie Kavner) is outraged by Homer's monumental blunder, and a vengeful mob descends on the Simpson household. In Washington, U.S. President Arnold Schwarzenegger (voice of Harry Shearer) send Environmental Protection Agency head Russ Cargill (voice of Albert Brooks) to clean up the town - which he does, in dramatic, draconian fashion. Homer has to find it in himself to save the town and reunite his family - if he can rise above his natural state of lazy stupidity.

 

Review by Louise Keller:

Clever, cutting and irrepressible, The Simpsons Movie hits the big screen with all the humour and panache we have come to expect from the series. Playing on the notion that two minds are greater than one, eleven screenwriters have huddled together to come up with a concept that is large enough, topical enough and sustainable enough to have audiences dropping their donuts in delight. Environmental issues magnified to Simpsonesque proportions are the focus of the story and the result is quirky, witty and filled with hilarious throwaways. The integrity of the characters remains intact and those distinctive voices are a reassuring reminder of good times past and present. And of course at the heart of it all is the unshakeable bond of the world's most lovable and dysfunctional family.

 

The first endearing thing about the movie is that it identifies the leap from tv series to movie and immediately includes us in the joke. Yes, here we are paying to see something that we could see free on television (we're all suckers!), and there is Bart busily writing 'I will not illegally download this movie' a hundred times on the school blackboard. Then we leap into the daily lives of the Simpsons. There's a funny sequence in which Bart goes skateboarding naked (to satisfy a dare from Homer), Lisa meets an Irish muso who shares her love of the environment, baby Maggie shows her smarts, Homer rescues and adopts a pig, and Marge hides their wedding video in her bee-hive of blue locks. Politics, religion and family relationships jostle jovially for screen time and President Schwarzenegger's philosophy of 'I lead, not read,' when presented with five options to determine the fate of environmentally compromised Springfield, results in its dome-isolation predicament.

 

Highlights include a family exodus to Alaska for a fresh start, an Innuit throat singing epiphany and a romantic interlude between Homer and Marge, when the bluebirds of happiness and Bambi help set the mood. It's jam-packed with inventive ideas and wonderfully obtuse, madcap moments.

Baby Maggie even utters her first word during the closing credits, which will no doubt have cash registers pinging furiously in anticipation.

Catering for all ages, The Simpsons Movie happily bridges the generation gap, using hilarity to counter life's woes.

 

Review by Andrew L. Urban:

Fans of The Simpsons (18 years a TV hit) will need no encouragement to spend longer time with this dysfunctional family, as it splinters after an outrageously stupid act by Homer (voice of Dan Castellaneta). The question is: can the makers sustain an episode for almost 90 minutes. The answer is: pretty much. All the trademarks are in place, with a variety of targets spoofed in seemingly undisciplined raids across, through and under the main storyline.

 

With the environment as its central story catalyst, The Simpsons Movie is like a magnet for issues and themes that resonate with US viewers - and with others in the West. There is nothing sacred, nothing too respected and nothing that can't be made the BUTT of a joke or two. Not even evangelical fits in church. The father-son relationship between Homer and Bart (Nancy Cartwright) gets a good going over, but there is also a new relationship to savour - the one between Homer and his new pet pig. (No animals were harmed ...)

 

There is lunacy, mayhem, chuckles and laughter as Springfield becomes a prison to contain its pollution, a surprise solution by the Environment Protection Agency. Pushing ideas to their limit, the writers have linked several story strands into a chain that holds audiences firmly connected to this familiar family from purgatory.

 

http://www.samoviemag.co.za/reviews/simpsons.html

 

The Simpsons Movie (2007)

 

Sure, watching The Simpsons Movie is like watching a longer-than-average episode of The Simpsons. And your problem is?

 

Review by : James O'Ehley

 

Eighteen years and 400 episodes later, is The Simpsons still as funny as it used to be?

 

No, of course not, but it's still pretty darn funny, funnier than most of the sitcoms doing the rounds nowadays. And the same goes for The Simpsons Movie. It hands down beats most of the so-called Hollywood “comedies” out there.

 

However, cynics would be right when they claim that plot-wise there isn't anything in The Simpsons Movie we haven't seen before in any of the countless episodes. Homer and Marge having marital difficulties and almost splitting up? Check. Lisa falling in love? Check. Bart angry at Homer for being such a deadbeat dad? Check. To be honest, The Simpsons Movie plays like a “greatest hits” of Simpsons plot conventions and ideas. But while a “greatest hits” compilation may not contain anything one hasn't heard before, it doesn't mean that one doesn't enjoy it and the same goes for The Simpsons Movie.

 

There are same great gags and physical humour to be found in The Simpsons Movie. One “hiding the genitals” sequence a la Austin Powers featuring a nude Bart on a skateboard has an unexpected payoff for instance. Along the way The Simpsons Movie gets in a few of its trade mark satiric barbs, but the movie isn't as politically subversive as some of the episodes can be.

 

The plot involves the Simpsons' town of Springfield being enclosed under a protective plastic dome by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) for being the most polluting town in the States after Homer dumps some pig excrement in the local lake. Like most good Simpsons episodes the movie realises that the real star of the series is Homer and not Bart. It might as well have been called The Homer Simpson Movie instead.

 

The Simpsons Movie is accessible to casual viewers of the show, but rewards long-time fans the most by answering questions such as “Just where exactly is Springfield located?”, a new opening credit sequence and jokes on the show's format. To ensure punters feel that they're getting value for their money the traditional 2-D animation is more detailed and richer than your average TV episode and mixes in some 3-D computer-generated sequences as well. There is a guest appearance by punk rock band Green Day too.

 

Voice talent is spot on as always even though it is a pity that they could coax “President” Arnold Schwarzenegger into doing his own voice. Another misstep is getting Albert Brooks to do another villain voice as he did as the memorable Hank Scorpio character in an episode once. The familiarity to long-time Simpsons fans is too jarring.

 

Ultimately, there are some laugh-out loud laughs and loads of chuckles to be had. That you won't cry from laughing as you did with some of the best Simpsons episodes of the early days of the series is to be expected. Still, it's worth forking out the price of an admission ticket . . . even if you can get to see it for free on TV.

 

(Note: it is worth sitting through all the title credits. Don't just rush out of the cinema.)

[Downhome 0]

On The Tonight Show they just had a short animated opening, with Homer doing Jay Leno's monologue. After a minute or two the animated Leno came out, told Homer to leave, and Homer said there was a mistake with the fruit basket in the back, and by mistake he said that it was full of fruit instead of cookies.

[Gary Floyd 0]

I saw it last night. It's pretty funny, and feels a lot like earlier Simpsons than the hit and miss of more recent seasons.

[Downhome 0]

It's sitting at 83% at RottenTomatoes right now with 53 reviews counted, 44 fresh, 9 rotten.

 

It looks like they've got a winner here.

 

I predict that it'll do $60+ million for the opening weekend, possibly quite a bit more.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

Just saw it tonight. It was GREAT. It actually had a plot and wasn't just gag shit throughout the whole movie.

 

Some stuff they showed that they couldn't show on tv was the best, such as

Homer flicking everyone off as he was going down the sink hole, Marge telling them to "throw the god damned bomb", Bart's nakedness, Otto taking a hit off a bong, etc.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I'll be catching this later tonight. I'm a Simpsons fanboy and to an extent, a defender of the series up until recent seasons. I haven't been this psyched for a movie since Batman Begins. Glad to hear it's getting solid reviews. Should be a great time.

[Guest panthermatt7]

I also saw it last night. The emotional depth of the plot rings very true with the glory years of the series, rather than the 'joke-after-pointless-joke we're trying to be too much like Family Guy' recent years. If it gives you any idea, I plan on seeing it in the theatre again this weekend. HIGHLY recommend.

[pochorenella 0]

Also caught the midnight showing, and it is a great and funny film. One question for the people who've also seen it already:

Do Kang and Kodos show up anywhere?

Unfortunately, I didn't sit through the whole list of credits so they might have and I missed them.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Damn you, Tuesday Movie Night group! I am totally itching to see this movie TONIGHT knowing it will probably be funny enough to see again on Tuesday with the group I usually go with on Tuesday, but I don't want to go by myself. I'll try and find someone else that wants to go tonight.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

Also caught the midnight showing, and it is a great and funny film. One question for the people who've also seen it already:

Do Kang and Kodos show up anywhere?

Unfortunately, I didn't sit through the whole list of credits so they might have and I missed them.

 

 

Nope. I thought they'd include more characters than they did, but no go. The only thing that happened throughout the credits was The Simpsons were sitting in movie theater chairs and Maggies 1st words were "sequel" and a Simpsons movie theater guy was cleaning the fake theater and complained that 4 years of film school got him that.

[Downhome 0]

I saw it.

 

I loved it.

 

It kicked ass.

 

It was funny, it had heart, and it was The Simpsons. What more could I ask for?

 

-I like men now!

 

-Bart's junk

 

-"Someone throw the god damn bomb!!!"

 

-"Sequel!"

 

I could go on and on. This is going to end up as one of my most rewatched movies of all time.

[vivalaultra 0]

I saw it earlier this afternoon. On top of all the funny sight gags and one-liners, I really enjoyed how touching the movie was. It actually made my girlfriend cry-

the scene where Marge taped over her and Homer's wedding video especially

. One of my favorite scenes was

when Bart and Homer sped across Springfield Gorge on the motorcycle and started to fall, only for Bart to use his slingshot to hold on, which recalled the episode from the first season where Homer tried to jump the Gorge on Bart's skateboards.

It also made me feel quite old when I looked around the theatre and noticed that I started watching 'The Simpsons' before a good 3/4 of the audience was born. Yeah, but seriously, it was one of the best movies I've seen this year. I went in expecting a decent waste of a couple of hours (as opposed to the show being a decent waste of a half-hour) and came away very pleased with the jokes, the plotline, and the wonderful animation.

[Nighthawk 0]

I thought it was great too, with my only disappointment being that I wanted more cursing. The "Sequel?" part especially, before she said it I was sitting there with my fingers crossed going "Please be 'fuck', please be 'fuck', please be 'fuck'." If it had been fuck, I'd have no qualms calling it the best movie ever.

[cbacon 0]

Eh, it was a bit better than i was expecting

 

More like an extended version of one of the better episodes from recent seasons.

[Guest Smues]

FUCKING AWESOME. I was actually expecting it to be fairly good with all the old writers back, but wow did it still manage to blow me away. Just great lines all the way through and a great plot. The louded reaction I've ever heard from a crowd was laughing/clapping after

Homer announced his plan to go to Alaska

, although that would seem obvious due to my location. The 2nd loudest reaction I've ever heard was after the line

Welcome to Alaska, here's $1,000!

The only disappointment of the movie was no going to or even referencing Homer Alaska. I mean come on how do you not go for the easy stuff there.

[LaParkaMarka 0]

I thought the movie was great as well. I wasn't expecting much going in, but it really was a fun movie. The scene where

they re-jump the gorge

was such a nice throwback.

 

Also, one of my favorite lines:

"Something seems odd about that 'Sop' sign"

[Scroby 0]

Also caught the midnight showing, and it is a great and funny film. One question for the people who've also seen it already:

Do Kang and Kodos show up anywhere?

Unfortunately, I didn't sit through the whole list of credits so they might have and I missed them.

 

 

Nope. I thought they'd include more characters than they did, but no go. The only thing that happened throughout the credits was The Simpsons were sitting in movie theater chairs and Maggies 1st words were "sequel" and a Simpsons movie theater guy was cleaning the fake theater and complained that 4 years of film school got him that.

 

Kang

is acutally listed in the credits.

 

I saw it tonight and loved it. The first few minutes I actually couldn't swollow any of my soda as I was laughing to hard.

[Copper Feel 0]

I thought it was quite a good movie on the whole, although why a cartoon would rely on visual jokes so heavily, I do not know.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

Did anyone else think Dr. Hibbert's voice was a little off?

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

So apparently it made 29.4 million on Friday. That's pretty damn good.

[Gary Floyd 0]

"Maybe we should kiss to break the tension"

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I've seen it twice. The total disregard for the secondary characters became more glaring during the second viewing. It was a lot better than I expected, but I don't know how you ignore so many characters. I understand it's not possible for everyone in the massive Simpsons universe to get ample lines, but how does Principal Skinner, one of the series' longest lasting characters, not get a single line?

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

Didn't like it much. A real mess. Some funny bits, but I agree, they had loads of random secondary characters shoved in and neglected those they already had.