South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut
Chad'z rating: **1/2 (out of 4 = okay/average)
1999, R, 83 minutes [1 hour, 23 minutes]
[black comedy]
Starring the voices of: Trey Parker (Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, Mr. Garrison, Officer Barbrady, various others), Matt Stone (Kyle Brosloski, Kenny McCormick, Pip, Uncle Jimbo Marsh, various others), Mary Kay Bergman (Mrs. Brosloski, Ms. Cartman, Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. McCormick, Wendy Testaburger, various others), Isaac Hayes (Chef); written by Pam Brady, Trey Parker, Matt Stone; produced by Trey Parker, Matt Stone; directed by Trey Parker; based on the television series `South Park' created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Seen July 1, 1999 at 5:10 p.m. at the Crossgates Cinema 18 (Guilderland, NY), theater #17, by myself for free using my Hoyts season pass. [Theater rating: ****: excellent sound, picture and seats]
Us critics have complained for years about artistic expression being suppressed by the suits in Hollywood. How dare some corporate goon interfere in the creative process just to make a few more dollars? But in the case of `South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut,' there doesn't seem to be any signs of any higher powers meddling with two GenXers beloved creation, which probably would have helped since the result plays more like a big spit in the eye of authority than any kind of zinging satire. What else do you expect when you let kids loose in the candy shop?
Just to lay down a quick disclaimer here, `South Park' is an animated, adult-oriented comedy series on Comedy Central which consistently pushes the envelope of what is acceptable comedy for a mainstream audience. The jokes are raunchy, racist, disgusting and just plain cruel, but creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone aren't really out to offend any people or groups of people, just the powers that be. Watching it (and this film), you get the feeling that they are rebels at heart and instead of blowing up government buildings they redirect their hostility through their comedy about four children living and growing up in the seemingly ordinary, quiet town of South Park, Colorado.
In fact, this is how the film begins, with a cute little song and dance routine performed by our four little scamps: Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, Kyle Brosloski and Kenny McCormick (voiced by Parker and Stone among dozens of other characters). This opening routine works well to establish the fact that everything to do with `South Park' is a ripping, biting satire of some aspect of society or at least how we'd like to think of society as being. The four children are all in third grade and each has their own niche: Eric is the funny-talking, ill-tempered fat kid who everyone else makes fun of and just refers to as `Cartman;' Kyle is the Jewish kid whose mother (voiced by Bergman among other voices) feels the need to be the town watchdog on everything; Kenny is repressed son of white trash who is always tagging behind and can barely speak because his parka is pulled over his face (he always suffers a cruel death in each episode of the show); and Stan is the most normal of the group whose big characteristic is his nervousness around his crush, Wendy Testaburger (who he repeatedly vomits on).
Of course most of these characteristics we're supposed to know going into the movie since Parker and Stone want to waste no time in establishing an easy plot and getting to the verbal kicking in the groin of the establishment. This is accomplished when Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny manage to get into a movie featuring their favorite comedians, Terrance and Phillip (also regulars of the television series who have their own show within the show, which is 99 percent fart jokes and other lowbrow and low-blow jokes). The movie the four boys see is loaded with extreme vulgarity in which T&P sing songs about incest, bestiality and scatological topics (and this is putting it VERY mildly). As the two utter every possible profane term in the English language in a carefree, non-apologetic way, we're shown the expressions on the four boys' faces of delight and shock, which is probably what most people in the real audience will experience too.
By the time the first 20 minutes of the film have passed, more obscenities have been tossed around by the four than most three-hour Scorcese or Coppola flicks do in their entire running time. What's more, the film doesn't back down from there. It's just hit us with a sucker punch and then shows no mercy. Much like the show, the four boys throw around the vulgarity at each other as if the words were as common as `the' and `to.' How the film escaped an NC-17 rating just for its first act alone is a mystery.
Watching the film continue to unwind its story and press on with its dialogue you quickly become completely desensitized to the extreme blackness of the comedy going on (either that or you'll probably walk out as everyone else but the four boys do at the Terrance and Phillip movie). But this is where the film loses touch of what makes the television show work - the fact there are no limits. Because of FCC regulations (and, I assume, Comedy Central's own standards), the show has to come up with original ways to be offensive, shocking and funny without just using blatant vulgarity for vulgarity's sake. I mean, it's much funnier to hear the boys call each other names like `ass master' rather than `_____(fill in the blank with anything utilizing the `S' or `F' words among others).' Name-calling is a staple form of comedy, but it's also generic, primitive and quickly becomes stale.
The actual plot of the movie eventually kicks in when Mrs. Broslowski overhears the boys talking trash and organizes a massive group of concerned parents of South Park to blame Canada for warping their childrens' minds (because Terrance and Phillip are Canadians). There's even a full song-and-dance routine lead by Mrs. B and the fellow MAC (Mothers Against Canada) members to get the USA to declare war on our northern neighbor and execute Terrance and Phillip as war criminals.
Sound a little zany and extreme? Of course, but that's the whole point of `South Park' the series and this film. And ideally this is funny and often makes way for some good belly laughs, but there just isn't much more depth to the satire here than just silliness. For example, the film regularly includes send-ups of Disney animated children's film with its little musical ditties, but they become tiring and boring when we get one every five or ten minutes. Also, a subplot in which Saddam Hussein has become Satan's gay lover is milked to death by Parker and Stone who must think all Americans think of Saddam in the same vein as Hitler, but I think most of us just don't know enough about the guy to care. Portraying Satan as a big teddy bear underneath his facade of evil doesn't do much either, it's just lame.
There's a piece of dialogue spoken late `South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut' which states aloud the point Parker and Stone want to convey with their masturbatory masterpiece. In reference to Terrance and Phillip's R-rated film, a reporter covering a bloody war between the United States and Canada says something to the effect of, `It doesn't matter if it's loaded with violence, as long as there's no foul language the MPAA says it's safe for children.'
Ooh. Zing.
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