Amph The Simpsons

It was brilliant.

 

They jumped Springfield Gorge. YES

 

Just got back from seeing it. It was great. It was like watching something from the first 9 seasons with up to date pop culture and political references.

 

It's great.

 

$71,000,000 in the first weekend...

 

Everything until 10 PM was sold out on opening night.

 

I wonder what the second weekend will be...

 

Wow, I saw this on Monday. It's funny, as funny at least as the show is, and I did laugh out loud on two occasions; when everyone from the church ran to the bar and vice-versa was one, I can't remember the other.

The story was kind of lame. It was a really derivative "The Simpsons save the world"-type scenario (I know, it was just Springfield, but it was the exact same set-up) with a very, very thinly disguised eco-message. It was like watching a 93-minute piece of propaganda. I like my politics subtle, please, don't hit me in the face with a wet fish to get your message across.

On the other hand, every character got a great character moment, though there was too much Flanders and not enough Burns. Am I the only one who thinks that the eponymous family are actually the least interesting, least funny characters? Homer has his moments, and the slapstick on the roof was ingenious, even if it was spoiled by being put all over the trailers, but aside from that, I'd rather watch a film about Moe/Burns/Ralph/Willie/Frink than the Simpsons.

It's a shame that over the five years it's taken to make this film, the creators of the show couldn't come up with better material than the stuff they've been mass-producing for TV for nearly twenty years, but that is sadly the case. The Simpsons had a long way to go to try and win me over, because until recently the show was so good. Perhaps I'm being unfair. But there are smarter, funnier, less obtuse films out there, and though the Simpsons set the benchmark with the golden era of the show, it's one that they're struggling to match in this film.

**
Two and a half Stars

 

The film is funny as hell from beginning to end...and that's all that needs to be said.

 

The movie wasn't bad. I did laugh alot during it.

The Homer and Marge confliction was a nice ad considering it's been brewing for awhile. As for the rest of the movie it wasn't bad.

 

It's strange that they left out Burns so much. Every other character had like their 5 min of fame in this movie, but burns who was the first really big side character and who played a prominent role i the early season is almost gone nowadays. Maybe it's got to do with the "google" generation giving money away to aids research and eco-good things. Gates foundation and all that.
That government guy ain't very interesting to me. Or maybe I just don't understand your fear of commie-like bureaucratic middle-men!
Schwarzenegger was great though.

 

Yeah, I was disappointed that Burns didn't have as much screentime as others.

 

His scene during credits was good though. My only issue with the movie was Albert Brooks and the character of Russ Cargill. They really should have had Brooks playing Hank Scorpio. He would have been a lot funnier, other than I laughed my ass off. I also loved the scene where Martin beat the crap out of Jimbo, Kearny and Dolph. That was great.

 

It was full of wonderful character moments, ala Emperor Moe, Burns, and Martin, but whenever it returned to the titular family, it meandered far off course and became mostly very by-the-numbers and watered down.

 

Looks like the DVD will be out just in time for the holidays.

 

If that's all there's gonna be on this DVD, then I'm pretty sure we can expect some sort of special edition somewhere down the road.

 

What else would you expect to see? That's about the same amount of content they put on the TV DVDs.

 

Well, for one thing they said there would be hours of deleted scenes although that may be an exaggeration. Still, I'm pretty sure they can put more than five deleted scenes. And no trailers or TV spots? Finally, there's no writers commentary! Four people on the producers commentary were also part of the writing staff but I'm sure they could do a commentary with everyone except John Swartzwelder, who never does audio commentaries.

 

Personally Im not all that big on extras for either movies or TV sets. Ill watch the occassional behind the scenes documentary for movies or TV that really interest me, but otherwise I usually just skip that stuff, especially the deleted scenes. As Kevin Smith said on the Jay and Silent Bob deleted scenes, there's a reason that deleted scenes are deleted.

 

It depends on the film though. Sometimes the DVD commentary can be spectacular. Case in point: Anchorman.

 

If they just add in a writers commentary, I'll be satisfied.

 

There was one episode (sometime in Season 9 I think) where during the commentary they called him up on the phone and he talked with them for a few minutes. As for another commentary for the movie, it may or may not be necessary depending on how goot the other two are. But I do agree that a lack of trailers is annoying.

 

Oh, God. The new season has an episode with not only Grammar as Sideshow Bob, and Hyde Pierce as his brother, but John Mahoney as their dad. *Got* to see that, seeing that the last episode with Grammar & Pierce is one of my favorites.

 

One word: sweet. When will that episode air?