SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT Reviewed by Jamie Peck
Rating: **1/2 (out of ****) Paramount / 1:22 / 1999 / R (non-stop profanity and crude humor, comic violence) Cast: Trey Parker; Matt Stone; Mary Kay Bergman; Isaac Hayes Director: Trey Parker Screenplay: Trey Parker; Matt Stone; Pam Brady
Take a good gander at the title of "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut." If you don't spot the naughty joke immediately, perhaps you're not in the movie's target audience. This double entendre fittingly serves a double purpose, barely tapping the randy humor yet to come and heralding exactly how this "Park" will differ from the version that's seen weekly on Comedy Central in television-sized, half-hour and censored format.
At least give credit to co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for being honest from the get-go. Their movie's definitely "Bigger," the colorful but crude construction paper-animation a nice change of pace on the silver screen from cutting-edge 'toons like "Tarzan." It's certainly "Longer," more than three times the length of an average episode. And it's undeniably "Uncut": Just look and listen as a barrage of bawdy behavior and imaginative profanity assault the senses of all in attendance at this ode to obscenity and eventually the first amendment and parental responsibility.
Hijinks as usual are in store for the South Park, Colorado gang of tubby Cartman, Jewish Kyle, lovesick Stan and cryptic Kenny (voiced by either Parker or Stone), only their misadventures here leave behind an especially timely message. As real-life theatres stronghold their policies regarding admittance into R-rated films following the entertainment industry's blame in the Columbine tragedy, Park's fearsome foursome sneak a peek at a not-for-kids flick called "A--es of Fire," starring filthy Canadian comics Terrance and Phillip. These sewer-mouthed pranksters leave an indelible impression on our protagonists, causing them to retreat back to the schoolyard with a shocking new vocabulary.
This is where "South" began to head south for this non-fan who's caught only bits and pieces of the boob-tube "Park." Being "Bigger" is a necessity. But the "Longer & Uncut" parts create a TV-to-movie transition that depreciates from roughly the 30-minute mark on, its anything-goes offensiveness factor zapping most of the series' crass charm. The novelty of cartoon kids swearing in proud, full glory (this film's main reason for existing?) gets old fast, long before Kenny gets, yes, killed and dispatched to hell, where he meets Satan and Saddam Hussein - portrayed, of course, as homosexual lovers in a gruesomely dysfunctional relationship, their bedroom ballistics pure overkill.
Kenny's death is "A--es of Fire"-related, literally and figuratively, causing mothers everywhere to band together and point fingers at our northern neighbors. We've seen this U.S-Canada skirmish before in "Canadian Bacon," but not with a series of never-ending musical numbers. That's right, "South Park" is a full-blown singalong, and it's worth noting that the crowning moment - Satan's lamenting power ballad "Up There" - contains nary a bad word, instead milking laughs by hilariously mocking the hero showstoppers oft found in Disney fare. Broadway, especially "Les Misérables," also gets roasted in the film's numerous production numbers, which grow as stale as a month-old box of Cheesy Poofs.
Sure, some of the excessive raunch flies, particularly an early Terrance and Phillip ditty that includes a Riverdance performed by leaky rears instead of tap shoes. But Parker and Stone almost always hit the mark with nasty jabs at pop culture and celebrity image - ridiculing everyone from the news media and Bill Gates (likely targets) to Conan O'Brien and Jar Jar Binks (not) - and thus end up concocting quite an uneven display of demented satire. "South Park" lovers won't be as picky or discriminating, probably embracing the whole "Bigger, Longer & Uncut" package. But I'll take smaller, shorter and bleeped any day.
© 1999 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit The Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/ "It presents as comedy things that are not amusing. If you think this movie is funny, that tells me things about you I don't want to know." -Roger Ebert on "Very Bad Things"
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