SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT
A film review by Christopher Null
Copyright 1999 Christopher Null
filmcritic.com
I'll say it up front: This is not your classic four-star review. `South Park' is definitely an acquired taste, but it's one I've picked up, despite the series' lackluster performance over this season.
SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, AND UNCUT certainly makes up for it, taking the comic adventures of four boys in the `redneck town' of South Park, Colorado to new highs, er, lows, in their feature debut.
And what a debut it is. George Carlin? Step aside. Andrew `Dice' Clay? Old news. Farrelly brothers? Puh-leeze. Lenny Bruce? Meet your replacement. Shocking, in-your-face, blatantly offensive, jaw-dropping, mind-boggling, floor-rolling, horribly crass humor has a new master, and SOUTH PARK is it.
Plot? Firmly tongue in cheek, the boys of South Park want to see an R-rated `Terrance and Philip' movie, but their parents won't let them. They sneak in, whereupon they pick up the nastiest foul mouths this side of the Bangkok red light district. When their parents discover the source of the crudeness, Kyle's mom launches a crusade against the crass cartoon, which culminates in Terrance and Philip's incarceration and a war between America and Canada (T&P's homeland). Meanwhile, appearances by everyone from Big Gay Al to Saddam Hussein to a George Clooney-voiced doctor to Brian Boitano (well, in reference, anyway) pay off the true fans.
The subtext: The boys are on the side of freedom of speech, while the parents don't seem to mind the violence that justifies solving the problem... Who woulda thought SOUTH PARK would have a theme!? And a good one, however blatant.
I'm not going to try and justify SOUTH PARK's four stars on any kind of artistic merit. But I will say I haven't laughed this hard in a couple of years, and some of the musical numbers will be impossible to forget.
While Mr. Hanky does not appear, much to my disappointment, SOUTH PARK is such a wild ride that it really can't be missed, especially if, like me, you have very bad taste.
RATING: ****
|------------------------------|
\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
\ *** Average, hits and misses \
\ ** Sub-par on many levels \
\ * Unquestionably awful \
|------------------------------|
MPAA Rating: R (barely)
Director: Trey Parker Producer: Trey Parker, Matt Stone Writer: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Pam Brady Starring: Mary Kay Bergman, George Clooney, Minnie Driver, Isaac Hayes, Eric Idle, Mike Judge, Trey Parker, Matt Stone
http://www.southparkmovie.com
Christopher Null - null@filmcritic.com - http://www.filmcritic.com Author - Network Administrator's Reference, 1999, ISBN 0-07-882588-1 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0078825881/filmcriticcom
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